Love, Care, and Our Civic Imagination by Philip McKenzie
“ Imagination is foundational, and it is in short supply. Strictly as a working term, imagination is still frowned upon in conventional business and policy circles. So-called serious people prefer more serious words. Selecting terms like innovation and disruption over imagination. The language of innovation and disruption emerges from the technology/Silicon Valley operating system. It is a system so dominant we scarcely notice it. Despite our overuse of the word, what passes for innovation nowadays couldn’t be further from it. Most innovation is satisfied tinkering on the edge of industrial age ideas, systems, and technology. There is a concerted effort to use technology to further entrenchment and exploit people and the planet. But pure imagination, the seemingly limitless manner we can make leaps from one condition of being and understanding to another, remains elusive. This is especially true if imagination is to be used to solve big intractable problems or to operate outside of the market dynamics. Without the capacity to imagine a different future, it is difficult to see how to create it”