Session Three: Futures History of 2045

Essential Questions:

• What fictional events could occur from 2025 to 2045 to create a healthy democracy?

• What democratic practices will need to grow in the future?

• What institutions will need to change?

• What stories about power, citizenship or "who belongs" need to change?

Music: "Wake Up," John Legend, The Roots, Melanie Fiona , Common, Link to Site

Arcade Fire & David Bowie, Wake-Up, Link to Site

Gathering: "Something I like about democracy is..."

Video:  Naomi Klein, "A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair," The Leap &Intercept, 10/2/20 Link to video

Exercise: Civil Rights Timelime

Exercise: Creating a Futures History (see participant packet)

Closing: "Something I learned today was.."

Readings:

• Kate Aronoff, "With a Green New Deal, here's what the world could look like for the next generation," The Intercept, 12/5/18 Link to Site (Read Gina's story only)

• "Ideas for improving democracy in the US," Chatgpt  Link to Site

• "Bold and Realistic changes," Chatgpt

• David Andersson, "Vision of 2050 Part 3," Link to Site

Resources

• Iseult Gillespie, " What the earth in 2015 could look like," TED Talk, April 2025 Link to Site

Quote:

• To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.  Howard Zinn
  • A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, p. 270.