I am reading Rhiannon Firth’s Disaster Anarchy. It is a study of community reactions to disasters like Hurricane Sandy and Covid.
This quotation comes from the Conclusion.
However, as the state withdraws, spaces are created for experimenting with new values, economic models, forms of life, etc. Utopias help us to transgress hegemonic ‘common sense, pointing towards what is desired and valued rather than what is commonplace.
I have argued elsewhere that prefiguration is a form of utopia, because it produces utopian affects such as hope which can help us believe that another world is possible?
What this suggests is that people gain agency when there is an explicit failure. Otherwise, people exist in some form of freezing frogs situation. Instead of failing to notice that they are being boiled to death, they do not notice the slow loss or withdrawal of support systems and services as they are defunded or pared back. The reality shrinks and the lack of a rupture means no new space is apparent.
Breaking action
I am not a fan of icebreakers in workshops but there is often a need to unfoot people so they can even perceive the new opportunity for change.
Disruptions can make new spaces for hope perceivable.
The inconvenience and failure now is the gateway to hope and future action. The negative emotions felt now can be focussed into positive actions in the future.
This is in some ways an empathy exercise but towards the present self by the future self. Things can be better and it is those future hopes that pulls yourself forward.