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A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair, Animated futuristic film, Avi Lewis, COVID-19 pandemic, Molly Crabapple, Naomi Klein, Opal Tometi, Social and Economic Repair, social upheaval, The Intercept, The Leap
If you have ever achieved a goal or a dream, you know that the first step to success was in visualizing or verbalizing what you had hoped to achieve. To imagine a desirable future outcome is key to its realization. The animated short film A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair dares to imagine a better world in which no one is sacrificed; a world in which everyone is essential.
About a month into the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Naomi Klein and her husband Avi Lewis, co-founders of The Leap, together with award-winning artist Molly Crabapple and Opal Tometi, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, started a conversation about the role of futurism when so much is at stake. They concurred that to defeat Trump was not enough to fend off naked authoritarianism in the White House. Many other intersecting crises, they noted, are bearing down on America and the world: climate collapse, surging white supremacy, or widespread famine.
In shaping their “Message from the Future,” they could not ignore our burning cities and forests, as well as the global pandemic. Moreover, they could not imagine achieving a safe and humane future without escalating and winning street battles and general strikes. Their call to repair a deep brokenness provided a framework for encompassing the interlocking crises in our social, economic, political, informational, and ecological spheres.
The protagonists of their futuristic animated film are rank-and-file organizers and activists. Disparate movements get on board: organized labor, Black liberation, climate, disabled, feminist, Indigenous, migrant, worker cooperatives, and more. Covid-19 acts as a catalyst for moving humanity forward. As Naomi Klein notes in her article of October 1, 2020, on the premier of the film: “In forcing all of us to confront the porousness of our own bodies in relationship to the vast web of other bodies that sustain us and the people we love—caregivers, farmers, supermarket clerks, street cleaners, and more—the coronavirus instantly exploded the cherished, market-manufactured myth of the individual as self-made island.”
I invite you to watch the animated short film (duration 8:57 minutes) A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair produced by The Intercept in partnership with The Leap.
Three Worlds One Vision 
Nice one…. Stark reminder on the power of nature …good, bad, and ugly !
A poignant reminder of our purpose in life !
…
On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 at 07:12, Three Worlds One Vision wrote:
> Rosaliene Bacchus posted: ” If you have ever achieved a goal or a dream, > you know that the first step to success was in visualizing or verbalizing > what you had hoped to achieve. To imagine a desirable future outcome is key > to its realization. The animated short film A Message from ” >
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Kamtan, Mother Nature does, indeed, have an amazing restorative power! The problem is that we humans get in her way with our continual efforts to bend and reshape her according to our will.
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Thank you so much for this marvellous video, Rosaliene. I really enjoyed watching the artist Molly Crabapple at work – so much so that I was well into the film before I noticed the way she holds her brush 🙂
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Derrick, I’m so glad that you’ve enjoyed this video 🙂 Thanks for drawing my attention to the way Crabapple holds her brush. She appears to use different fingers for controlling the brush strokes. What dexterity!
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May God help!!!!
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Laleh, as I see it, our arrogance of acting like the gods has brought the human species to the brink of self-destruction.
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I’m with you, so true.💕
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The problems in the USA are enormous. Ditto for much of the world, many parts of which (Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc) are in far worse shape than the States. I am anything but optimistic about mankind’s future.
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Neil, our enormous problems are all of our own making. This means that it’s in our power to turn our situation around. During the years I raised my two sons alone, my only goal was to earn enough to provide for our needs. I did not think in terms of being optimistic. I knew only that I could not fail in achieving that goal. Our lives depended upon my ability to keep up the daily struggle of showing up for work, of getting up again after each failure. If we are to survive as a species here on Planet Earth, we’ve got to show up, do the work, keep up the good fight. To give up would mean to go out blazing in the fiery nights of chaos. Remember my friend, we the People of Earth are legion. The Masters of Chaos and their proud vassals are but a minority.
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This is beautiful! I sent it all over the place.
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Kim, thanks so much for sharing the video and its “message from the future.” It makes clear that the future is in our hands–the hands of we the essential workers of America and across the world.
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This video was quite something, Rosaliene. I found myself needing to put away the sharp objects on my desk when the world darkened even further in 2023.
I’m glad there was some light before the end.
I suppose this is one possible vision, though it will be a while before the proposed solutions found in the video will easily sit within the kind of world vision I might find more acceptable and more likely. All revolutions promise much, but we shouldn’t forget the guillotines that emerged during the French Revolution.
Thanks for leading me to this vision. I will be thinking about it a good deal.
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Dr. Stein, this is indeed just “one possible vision” for a better future worth our consideration. In her article on the premier of the film, Naomi Klein warned: “This preview of worse times to come is not based on any accelerationist longings on our part but rather on clear-eyed readings of climate models, market bubbles, and who has the guns. Many future shocks are already locked in.” Violence may have transformed over time–from the guillotines to lynchings and drone assassinations–but violence is still very much a part of the day-to-day lives of we the working class and those who live on the margins of our economic growth.
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Thank you, Rosaliene. Point taken.
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I truly hope that the people of the earth are victorious over the masters of chaos (and I love this terminology) Rosaliene – chaos just gets so much airtime these days that it can sometimes be difficult to believe
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Kate, the Masters of Chaos–I cannot take credit for this terminology–have been so blinded by their arrogance and greed that they are unable to perceive their own folly. They get so much airtime because they control the media and the narrative. This futuristic short film is just one way of changing that narrative.
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Needs to be more of it. The dominance of media is out of control and now the media drive governments – it is insane.
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Thank you for sharing!!.. I believe that today’s technology, and the mindset of the younger generation, has uncovered many myths, etc that have been established over the years due to closed minded ideologies and greed that many used to justify their actions… what one is seeing today is change and the old closed minded ideologies trying to prevent it… this virus thing has just added another element they will have to deal with as the old ways won’t work anymore…
The “normal” has become history and a new normal is slowly taking its place… “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.” ( John F. Kennedy)… 🙂
Hope all is well in your part of the universe and until we meet again..
May flowers always line your path
and sunshine light your way,
May songbirds serenade your
every step along the way,
May a rainbow run beside you
in a sky that’s always blue,
And may happiness fill your heart
each day your whole life through.
(Irish Saying)
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Dutch 🙂 I agree that “the old ways won’t work anymore.” But the minority who have benefited from our current system don’t want to let go.
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Change has been taking place since the birth of the universe ans will continue… they will have to change to some degree in time or go the way of the dinosaur… 🙂
“Life is a process of becoming… a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” (Anais Nin)
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I couldn’t have put it better myself! I have actually read that a lot of Black people in the US are either emigrating or planning to emigrate. My friend just got her TEFL qualification and she said that the majority of her classmates were Black. They are rather intimidated by the process of moving overseas though, especially since a lot of them have a spouse and kids. This is like a message that even if Biden wins, they don’t expect things to get better, considering his and Harris’s past. It sounds like they want a better life for their kids growing up in a more just country
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Winteroseca, thanks for adding your comments. We are living in difficult and uncertain times. As parents, we do what we can to provide a better life for our children.
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You’re welcome!
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Chi Miigwetch for sharing such a powerful vision of what could and should be, Rosaliene. It’s a perfect message for the students my colleague and I are working with, and really, for everyone. 💜
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Carol, I’m glad that this futuristic vision has also resonated with you ❤
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What a fabulous film, Rosaliene. Darkness to light? Yes, that’s what we need. thanks for sharing this with us. Love it.
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So glad that you love it, Cath!
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I really like this short film which can give us some food for thought.
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Amelia, I’m so glad that you like the film. It’s a reminder that we the people have alternatives. The future is in our hands.
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Cyril, thanks for sharing my post. Much appreciated 🙂
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That was fantastic, Rosaliene. It reminded me of the ad AOC did for the Green New Deal. This vision of repair and rebuilding is so close to my heart. I will hold it going forward today and for as long as I can until it become a reality. Thanks for sharing. xox
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My pleasure, Pam 🙂 This vision is also close to my heart. We have got a lot of work ahead of us. If we the people are unable to bridge our divide, our work of repair will be much harder.
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We can do this, Ros!! ❤️❤️❤️
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Yes, we can, Pam! More on this in my next post on November 8.
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Haha – awesome!! 😎👏🙌
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It’s sad, we are responsible for what has become of this nation and us.
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True, Pallavi, we are all responsible. We are all suffering the consequences. We must now all work towards repair.
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Thanks for the nomination 🙂
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Thanks for some thoughts to ponder on!!!!
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My pleasure, Don 🙂
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Thank you for this hopeful vision. It reminded me of Brad’s post about slow money. https://writingtofreedom.com/2020/10/20/slow-food-humanism-and-nurture-capitalism/
I very much enjoyed watching the painting. It’s good to be specific about what we want and hope for. I went back to try to understand better how the totalitarian rulers were gotten rid of – the power of the people – but I know there’s hope for that to happen. I know that envisioning the specific results as if they are real is powerful. Excellent post!
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Thanks, JoAnna! I also thought of your journey of imaging the kind of healthy relationship who wanted in your life as described in your latest book. Being specific with our goals and dreams is an important step in the process. I’ll be addressing the work already underway in my next post. Thanks for sharing the link about the Slow Money Movement, another example of change in motion.
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I like how these powerful idea creators used their minds to imagine a new, just world. Thank you for sharing it, the art and words were beautiful.
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Rebecca, glad you liked the video and its message of hope 🙂
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Thumbs up! 🙂
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This is a good time to hit the reset button but will we take the opportunity? Time is running out.
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I agree, Sean. We’re all in this together. We all have to do our part.
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Pam, thanks for sharing my post. Much appreciated 🙂
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