2022 and Beyond: A Manifesto for the New Year

The future is still ours to envision. No one can take that away. We have an obligation to think past next week and next month and next year, and envision the future that will be lived by the many generations who will come after us. This is a hopeful, and hopefully not naive view, given that we are looking down the barrel of a climate disaster and the social unrest that will come along with it.

Many forces may stand in the way of my optimism. The blockers include the short-sighted opportunists who would boost personal income or corporate profits at everyone else’s expense. We won’t talk politics here, except for this: Joe Manchin’s effort to stop the Biden climate initiative is an example of this kind of short-sighted obstruction. I hope, soon, that Manchin, and other obstructionists like him, will fade into insignificance as more activists rise. More on that in a moment.

FutureX, and the movement it represents, has been dedicated to making conversations and media about what will matter to the next generation and the generations after them. It’s been a process of experimentation. We have succeeded at some things and failed at others. These things work like that and we’re still finding our way.

If you are looking toward the future, and if you are a maker, a creator, an artist, a reader, a writer, or a podcast producer, then the media you make and the conversations you start must engage people who are younger than you are. They are inheriting a world with problems. Some are mad about…