Humans have an average cranial capacity of 1350 cubic centimeters. But neuroscientists believe our prefrontal cortex contains most of the magic that separates us from other intelligent mammals. This is the part of the brain where creative imagination takes place. It’s where humans can imagine things they’ve never seen in real life. They can mash up prior perceptions and images into new objects or even complex worlds.
While this is a universal human trait, social factors always affect how specific individuals emphasize this or that inherent capability. And my experience living among and studying America’s upper-middle-class elite is clear: they fetishize their imaginative prowess to a historically unique extreme.
Humans’ most real imaginative power is to imagine themselves in some future social state. The more privileged a person, the more likely they can spend more clock time engaged in such imaginative exercises and then take future-leaning action (that wouldn’t be a priority for someone struggling to keep their job and pay mortgage arrears).
Class privilege creates the conditions of possibility for radical imaginations, dark and light, monomaniacal and community-centric. Most of the imaginative energy in the elite in the United States is focused on entertainment, including media commentary. But, the rise of viral conspiracy theories shows how specific nefarious elites are ready to concoct thousands of Scientology-like delusions and spread them to attain power over chunks of the populace.
Imagination is a powerful human strength. Using it wisely has never been so critical as now, when nearly 7% of the country has the social privilege to focus heavily on its imaginings.
The logo for the Social Awareness Institute captures our unique human power, its romance, and its risk of solipsism. Like the ancient religious rituals of old, we should use the power of social imagination with great care. However, America’s elite and its obsession with ‘innovation’ worship social change: a) quick and b) profitable and c) capturable in a business entity. Is this really where we want to locate our best social imagineering? I suspect not.
I’m curious, what do you think about all this? Let me know – admin @ socialwarenessinstitute.org. I respond to ALL e-mails.