Imagination: A Manifesto (A Norton Short)

Dr. Ruha Benjamin makes a strong argument that our imaginations can helps to develop a country or world that centers people and nature. We imagine what it would take for everyone to thrive regardless of their starting point in life. We ask what our ancestors knew about learning and supporting nature to greatly reduce the negative impact from climate change. Given where the USA is today, we need to center people in order for all to rhrive. If we focus on ensuring everyone thrive, we no longer support a system of winners and losers. On my what if?

This book was assigned for your class and I was taking that Loyola University and I am so glad it was. This book is helpful and opening our minds to see that imagination can be used for good or for ill. We can imagine a future that is a utopia for all people are only for some, while being a hell on earth for the least of these. This book is a powerful reflection on what hope can help us to imagine, to stop nurturing punishment and to start feeding grace.

A brilliant book at exactly the right time, as our nation and our planet seem to have forgotten our humanity, our civility, or decency. Ruha Benjamin tells us -- no, she urges us; she beseeches us; she convinces us -- that we can reclaim our own power by using our collective imaginations to transform our world into the one in which we want to live.

A breathe of fresh air. This should be a must read for the entire planet. It's a work of enlightenment.

Throughout the book, Benjamin calls for a radical reimagining of society, advocating for an imagination grounded in solidarity and interdependence. She emphasizes the need to protect individual and collective imaginations from oppressive systems and to challenge the dominant narratives that limit our ability to envision a better future.Benjamin advocates for a radical reimagining of society, emphasizing the need to protect individual and collective imaginations from oppressive systems and challenge the dominant narratives that limit envisioning a better future. She calls for carving out spaces where love and imagination are understood and respected as powerful social forces, pushing beyond the constraints of what is politically possible. Benjamin encourages the readers to keep their critical antennae tuned to the nightmarish fantasies of those monopolizing resources and imagination.She also recommends fostering a radical imagination that inspires us to strive toward alleviating the injustice and suffering of the present. Benjamin underscores the importance of seriously aiming to change the rules to allow for more winners or even to imagine a social and economic system that doesn't immiserate the masses to enrich the few.In the sphere of education, she advocates for a curriculum that does not perpetuate marginalization or narrow worldviews. She appreciates models like Finland's education system, which outlawed formal exams before the age of eighteen, refused to segregate students by ability, and eliminated school selection. Benjamin promotes transition imaginaries that focus on restructuring the external world and transforming our identities, psyches, and spirits.Lastly, she urges us to rewrite the story of human evolution, highlighting our development as a species that has relied on prosocial actions and decisions for the collective good, challenging the social and ecological catastrophes we now face.My only issue with her book is that it doesn't push enough for systemic political change that is needed to combat and dismantle oppressive ideologies and structures that undermine working-class and poor people.

This is a brilliant look at the importance of the imagination necessary to make a better world. I love that it looks at art and tech and politics and not only shares the ways our world is failing us as a society but also the ways innovative people are working to improve it. I’ve enjoyed both the physical book (which is beautiful) & the audiobook (which is beautifully narrated). I’ve been recommending this book to all my friends.

This quote from author Arundhati Roy sums Imagination quite well: I believe “another world is not only possible, she is on her way. . . . On a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.”