The meat packing industry helped push for an executive order that allowed them to stay open, but resulted in the deaths of hundreds of workers. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: The Dems, the Dems have lost the 15 second rule […]
The Biden administration is getting their lawyers ready for two years of investigations if Republicans win big in the midterms. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: The Biden administration’s getting their lawyers ready for two years of investigations if Republicans win […]
A former Arby’s manager has admitted to urinating in the milk shake mix – as he’s being investigated for child pornography. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: A former Arby’s manager has admitted to urinating in milkshake mix. Wow. Is, it’s […]
The Republicans deserve the bulk of the blame for overturning Roe v. Wade, but they aren’t the only guilty parties here. For decades, the corporate media has played into their lies, failing to refute them and acting like the issue is a “difference of opinion.” Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses the role of the […]
A whistleblower has come forward with information about the negligence at Abbott that helped create the baby formula shortage. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: And they need to take some responsibility. It’s not his job. It’s their job. Yes, he […]
Republicans have made it clear that they aren’t stopping at overturning Roe, and they’ve been open about the fact that they are coming after other court decisions, including on the issue of birth control. This assault on our rights is not going to end until Republicans have absolute control over your entire body, and Ring […]
Baby formula remains in short supply in the United States, and the Biden administration is struggling to come up with an answer. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: Baby formula remains in short supply in the United States and the Biden […]
America’s Lawyer E05: The baby formula shortage is causing serious problems in America, and we’ll explain both the political and corporate failures that got us into this mess. Wall Street banks and hedge funds are buying up homes across America, pricing many Americans out of the market completely – we’ll bring you the details. And […]
Bernie Sanders wants to know why corporations that break the law are receiving billions of dollars worth of government contracts – and that’s a great question. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Starbucks is fighting unionization efforts at their stores, and the company appears willing to break the law to achieve their goal. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
An oligarch close to Putin says that we shouldn’t under-estimate the Russian leader’s desire to use nuclear weapons in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
A Capitol Rioter who dressed up as a caveman on January 6th has been sentenced to 8 months in jail for his behavior that day. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Trump and Biden want to fight each other again in the 2024 election, but the public would prefer to see ANYONE other than these two as the candidates. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is out with a new conspiracy theory, claiming the SCOTUS leak was done to hurt his efforts to overturn the election. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Billionaires have added a staggering $1.7 TRILLION dollars to their wealth since the pandemic began, while Americans are being crippled by rising prices. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
America’s Lawyer E04: Starbucks is working overtime to stop unions from forming at their stores, and a new report says they’ve broken the law 200 times with their union-busting efforts. We’ll bring you the details. An oligarch close to Putin says that the threat of him using nuclear weapons should be taken very seriously – […]
There’s never been a better time to be a white collar criminal in America, as prosecutions have hit a new low under the Biden Administration. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
As many as 27,000 Mainstreet Investors are at risk of losing part of their retirement or investment savings after GWG Declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last month. Mike Papantonio is joined by attorney Michael Bixby to discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: As many as 27,000 main […]
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis actually vetoed a bill that would have killed rooftop solar in the state of Florida. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Republicans in the Senate have drafted legislation to stop President Biden from forgiving student loan debts ahead of the midterms. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Activism, amongst other things, involves being willing to bring ideas to people on an unsolicited basis when they’re not necessarily asking for it? So, what happens when you bring the future to them?
Stuart Candy
At the latest edition of Revolutionizing Activism: The Power of Utopia, Stuart Candy (Berggruen Fellow at the University of Southern California and Director of Situation Lab), alongside best-selling author Cory Doctorow, and cultural studies scholar Terry Marshall (Intelligent Mischief) explored the generative capacity of utopia for activism. The dynamic trio discussed how utopia can be used to impact how we both envision and live in the present and future.
What do we mean by utopia?
Each of our panelists presented a unique and interconnected ideal of utopia. And all three of our panelists challenged the Oxford definition of utopia as “an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.”
Rather, they discussed utopia as an ideal that serves us better when it is active, rather than when it’s stabilized as the ideal of a “perfect place”. Cory Doctorow noted he believes in a “utopianism of hope, rather than a utopianism of optimism,” while Terry Marshall’s presentation honed in on black utopianism, which is founded on collective power, love, repair, and restoration.
So, how is an active utopia useful for activists? Well, here are three ways utopia can help strengthen the vision of your advocacy:
1. Worldbuilding
Terry Marshall notes as activists, we’re rightfully skilled at pointing out the problem, but sometimes forget to spend as much time on expressing the vision we truly want: “At Intelligent Mischief use world-building to help people map out their vision. World-building is a literary framing device used by writers to create a context for a system and includes defining history, laws, nature, geography, culture, myths, values, within which stories take place.” Why is this useful for activists? Marshall shares that activists can use world-building to create something from their utopia or world they want. “World-building creates new forms of devising social activism beyond current limitations.”
2. Bring the Future to the Present
Stuart Candy alongside collaborators Jeff Watson and Jake Dunagan has spent over a decade designing media from the future and bringing it to the present. These “gorilla futures overlap the space between strategic foresight – ways of systematically exploring possible futures, and tactical media– activism that is temporary opportunistic and engages in the critique of the dominant order.” What does this look like in practice? Candy highlighted numerous projects, including postcards from a future Chinatown in Honolulu to envision the future of the neighborhood. You can read more about gorilla futures here.
3. Climb the Hill
Cory Doctorow noted that sometimes it can be difficult to know where to even begin, so in typical writer fashion he shared a metaphor. “Hill-climbing analogizes the idea of [being] an ant, that only has front-facing eyes. So the ant can’t look up and needs to traverse the terrain around it to get to the highest possible ground that it can reach. The local maximum, most closely available to the ant is to locate the high ground that it can find. And rather than trying to map the terrain, which is not a thing the ant can do, instead, it can ask itself, which of these legs is on the highest ground and it can take one step in that direction. And then when it reaches the point towards new terrain it does it again. This is the heuristic of hope. We have to ask from the paths that I can see around me, which path takes me closest to the goal that I want?”
We hope you check out the discussion, and let us know what you think about the potential of utopia for advocacy.
And for further reading about utopia check out our book, The Art of Activism.
For more information about Revolutionizing Activism, click here.
The drama surrounding Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter was actually far more involved than most of us thought, and Republicans in Congress were preparing to strong-arm Twitter into selling to Musk, had the company not eventually caved. This maneuver is becoming increasingly common in Republican politics as they seek to punish corporations who do not […]
The Department of Homeland Security is about to start cracking down on what they consider to be misinformation, but this program could easily be abused to shut down dissent. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
You could call it “death by a thousand leaks,” as the Republican Party continues to suffer from leak after leak about everything ranging from involvement in Trump’s coup attempts, to leaked audio of House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy wanting to get Trump out of office. Trump’s world is crashing down around him with these leaks, […]
A new study has found that states that legalize marijuana have seen a dramatic drop in prescription drug abuse among their residents. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: Yeah. That’s a point I really had not thought about it when I […]
America’s Lawyer E03: The Biden Administration is creating a new office at the Department of Homeland Security to monitor misinformation, and the impacts of this program could shut down independent media outlets for good. We’ll bring you the details. Gas prices are still going through the roof – but so are the profits and executive […]
Court documents have revealed some of the most disgusting secrets that Johnson & Johnson has been hiding from the public for decades. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: Court documents have revealed some of the most disgusting secrets that Johnson and […]