An Antidote to Hopelessness

If you’re worried about the world (yes, in the broadest sense possible), come here. Let’s talk.

If you’ve been living on planet Earth last week, the news about Trump′s government inauguration reached you somehow. You probably also felt distressed by the long list of setbacks in various social, political, and cultural fields that the world’s most powerful country adopted on day one. A closer look—or even just through the flood of shares—might have revealed that, among the supporters in the front row, there was a "gragillionaire boys' club" (a term I borrowed from Rebecca Shaw in this brilliant article), made up of the heads of the world’s largest tech companies. These are the same people who, until recently, demonstrated having progressive values—at least when it came to individual freedoms.

It’s possible—perhaps even likely—that this week brought a strong sense of hopelessness. Even more, if you belong to any of the groups attacked by this government: trans people, immigrants (particularly undocumented ones), women, or those in the Global South who are fully aware of what being part of the Global South entails. In a globalized world, what happens there echoes here (here = Brazil, where I live) and everywhere. It affects us all.

So let me start by saying this: I see you. This is for you, and I hope it helps in some way.

Since I started working with futures, the question, "So, what’s going to happen? What will the future be like?" has followed me in conversations with friends and acquaintances. Like all professionals in this field, I feel compelled to admit I don’t know. It’s a bit disappointing, I know. We like to know where we’re headed, what awaits us, and the odds of our bets paying off.

Based on everything we analyze—signals and trends, forces and drivers, risk reports, and environmental analysis exercises, I can say the obvious:? that the context is uncertain. The current turbulence is likely to continue for years to come. Facing what unsettles us requires immense courage. According to the Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum, one of the world’s top risk barometers, misinformation and polarization remain among the top risks for the next two years, along with escalating geopolitical tensions, more frequent extreme weather events, and cybersecurity risks. (The report is free and can be accessed here.)

But it doesn’t have to be this way. When we’re overwhelmed by alarming data about the state of the world and the sheer scale of the forces shaping it (or the size of certain bank accounts), the present moment can seem like the only possible reality, and the future feels like an inevitable continuation of what we see today. But an inevitable future implies that everything is already decided no matter what we do. And that’s not true.

Here’s something I found liberating: just as countless actions led to what’s happening today, countless other actions can lead to entirely different paths. The uncertainty of the future can feel daunting when we’re desperate to know what it holds, and there’s no oracle available. But it’s also freeing when we realize that the future can be built. Possibilities exist.

In his book The Spirit of Hope, philosopher Byung-Chul Han reminds us that a society afraid of the future is a society that can be easily controlled. A society brave enough to dream and act opens itself to the possibilities of the unknown. Hope is an active state of mind. Unlike optimism, which passively waits for the future to be better and risks nothing, hope is alive. Hope is courageous.

“The hope for a radically better world has revolutionary potential. It frees us from an exhausted future and inspires creative and effective action.” Byung-Chul Han

My invitation to you is this: let’s collectively reclaim our imagination of what our future can be—not the cringe-worthy metaverse version from Zuck or Musk’s uninhabitable Mars colony, but our own. A future where we truly belong, with room to spare. A future we can build together—a world we want to live in. May our imagination, above all else, be free.

If you’re unsure where to start, the following exercises are a compilation I’ve created, drawing from countless other futures exercises. Feel free to do them alone, with friends, with a group, with your neighbors, family, or school—however you’d like. They work for thinking about broad themes as well as your own life. They’re not meant to be a complete futures process, just tools to help you imagine possibilities.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

First Exercise: Looking Back to Look Forward

Step away from the present for a moment. Start by listing changes that have taken place in the world over the past few decades (20, 30, or 50 years—you decide). It helps if you focus on a specific field, like communication. For example, how did people communicate in the year 2000? What was the social life of young people like? How did people get their news? Did these changes happen steadily, or were there different phases? Did some things progress while others stayed the same? What are the consequences of these changes today? Consider shifts across different social, political, economic, and cultural areas. Change is always multifaceted.

You’ll notice that many things have changed while others haven’t much at all. Change doesn’t happen at the same pace or in the same way across the board. And if so many things have changed over the years—whatever period you chose—it’s a reminder that countless other things can still be different moving forward.

Second Exercise: Now That You’ve Looked Back, Let’s Look Forward

“Dream a little before you think,” said Toni Morrison.

Let’s follow her advice. Imagine a future scenario of transformation. What does that mean? A transformation scenario considers a radical shift where the elements of the present are completely reimagined. Why this scenario? Because it’s an antidote to hopelessness.

Here are some guiding questions to help you. Grab a piece of paper and write, draw, or—if you’re more hands-on—borrow some Legos from a younger relative to build your ideas.

• What year are you in? (If you need a prompt, use 2035.)
• Where are you, and who are you with? What does your environment look like?
• How does the topic you chose to function in the future?
• What values shape this context?
• How do you feel?
• What is your role in this scenario?
• How did we get here? What happened between 2025 and now to create this reality?
• What changed between 2025 and the year you’re imagining?

If you can, share your scenario with me—I’d love to see it!

Third Exercise: Returning to the Present

Are there places today that are already moving toward the future you imagined? Look for news and information about your topic to see if there are small, bright spots where people work in that direction. It could be a study group, a school with an innovative program, a city with new legislation, or a team testing a new management model—any sign that shows it’s possible to do things differently.

You could do this step before creating your scenario, but I’ve suggested it afterward to let you dream first without influencing your imagination. Feel free to adapt. :) These signs—what we call signals—are hints of possible futures in the present. They’re a fantastic source of inspiration for actions we can take today. Collecting signals of positive change is also a great way to cultivate hope.

Here’s a striking example. With the hours of ban of TikTok in the U.S. last week, many Americans migrated to another app, Red Note, where they encountered Chinese users and content that hadn’t reached them before. They were stunned to discover a China vastly different from their preconceived notions: “Wait, there’s a country where young people don’t have to go into debt to attend university? Seriously, they can afford their own homes? And they have access to healthcare?” (If you’re curious, just search for “Americans discovering China.”)

It’s easy to judge this group—“Oh, Americans are so self-centered!”—but let’s be honest, most of us don’t know much about many other countries either. All it took was a single contact with something different to open up a world of possibilities for them. I’m not defending China; I’ve never been there. But we can agree that it’s different from the universal truth they thought they knew. It sparked new possibilities.

How many possibilities are you not seeing? Opening yourself to the unfamiliar connects you with new ideas and challenges truths you once thought unquestionable. It’s addictive.

Fourth Exercise: What Can I Do?

Now that you’ve traveled to the past and envisioned a transformative future, and returned to the present, tell me: how did we get there?

At the Dubai Future Forum last year, Jay Ogilvy said, “It’s easier to imagine a dystopian future because all we have to do is continue what’s already happening and make it worse. Imagining utopia is harder because it requires solving the problems we currently have to get there.”

In your imagined future, you might have glimpsed some solutions—things we collectively got correct, values we revived, actions we reconsidered. Could you initiate any of those steps?

I’ll finish this text by reminding you that creating desirable futures is a collective exercise. Many things that once seemed impossible have come to pass. Many new possibilities can emerge as well.

You are not alone.

Warm regards from S?o Paulo,?

Priscila

P.S. This text was originally written in Portuguese without AI and then translated to English using AI. I am testing the best ways to post here, so feedback is welcome!