Imaginary Power, Real Horizons: The Practicality of Utopianism

A mind-expanding exploration of the political force of the imagination.

When we imagine a different society organized by a different logic than capitalism, what we imagine is not (yet) in the world as a material reality. To what extent is a rival vision for life on Earth a prerequisite for living differently? After all, we cannot aim to create what we cannot imagine. When we imagine something, it is already present. Human imagination is a world-creating power.

Radical theorist Richard Gilman-Opalsky explores the function of imaginary power in contexts as diverse as revolts across the globe, Black radical music, the international history of May Day, the George Floyd Rebellion, and ideology in present-day China. He reminds us that people once denounced slavery abolitionists and radical suffragettes as utopian. So much is declared impossible until it starts to happen.

In these expansive and surprising essays, Gilman-Opalsky demonstrates that anti-utopian naysayers suffer from limited imaginations, poor understandings of history, or worse, are favorably disposed toward a deadly status quo. Imaginary Power, Real Horizons, on the other hand, considers the urgent theoretical and practical importance of our ability to dream up our successes in real struggles to abolish the terrors of capital.