A Society Without Imagination: A Lament

Abstract

This paper explores the loss of imagination in contemporary society as a consequence of the modern tendency to associate the ‘real’ with the material and quantitative. With reference to the development of Realism by Marx and Freud and its current role as the foundation of modern capitalism, the author draws on the work of Carl Jung, Brazilian theologian Ruben Alves, and cultural theorist Mark Fisher to expose this development and reassert the vital role of the imagination. The subjugation of imagination to Realism is regarded as especially tragic because Realism as an ideology underscores and sponsors a social structure in which the world is divided between those who have power and those upon whom power is exercised. The loss of a proper recognition of the place of the arts in socio-political re-imagination and hope for change is exposed and lamented. Imagination is viewed as not altogether lost, being particularly vested in children and the creative arts, but rather suppressed. In conclusion, despite the way that contemporary social reality presents as permanent and incontrovertible, the paper makes a fervent plea for the recovery of space in which the human soul can reassert its needs and longings into the world.