As a philosophical problem, it comes down to a better way to engage with the passage of time; and I think we're getting close to one, because the imaginative loss of the future is becoming acute. The most effective political actors on the planet now are people who want to blow themselves up. These are people who really don't want to get out of the bed in the morning and face another unpredictable day.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Sterling links political instability to a loss of future vision, suggesting extreme actors thrive when people fear the future.
- In plain terms
- Extreme leaders succeed because people are afraid of the future and stop planning.
- What can you take from it?
- Fear of an unpredictable future can empower destructive political actors.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does fear shape politics?
- What restores faith in the future?
Another view
The claim generalizes complex political dynamics into psychological fear.
More from Bruce Sterling
Obsolescence and death, the reign of the archaic, the abandoned, and the corny: Really, if you saw Windows 3.0 on the sidewalk outside the building, would you …
Permalink to quote #1 Tomorrow composts today.
Permalink to quote #3 A lack of a workable means of cultural consumption has killed off the Internet boom and lost AOL Time Warner $54 billion dollars in just one quarter. It's a bi…
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
But you have one thing that may save you, and that is your youth. This is your great strength. It is also why I hate and fear you. Hear me out. It has been sai…
Stephen ColbertStephen Colbert quote #5 Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.
Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter quote #17 Nothing irritates us [Fascists] so much as to be taken for pillars of order. Nothing so exasperates us as the people who come to us through fear of Communism. …
Alessandro PavoliniAlessandro Pavolini quote #1