Hothouse Utopia

What is to be done when the future's already ablaze? With the international spread of right-wing "populism," widening inequalities, precarious forms of labor becoming normative, surveillance capitalism, and a worsening ecological crisis, the future is bleak. One issue in particular, the likelihood of catastrophic climate change, coupled with the lack of a global movement with the organization and vision to effectively challenge our suicidal social order, yields the crushing awareness that future generations will be trapped in prehistory, one in which humanity continues to be dominated by its own creations instead of shaping the historical process in line with reason. Expanding upon the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Lucien Goldmann, and others, Ryan Gunderson examines the modes of action and thought through which we react to the likelihood of a catastrophic future in ways that reproduce instead of challenge the status quo, and how we can, instead, productively sustain the search for a better world against all odds.