Future pasts: about a form of thought in modern society

In: Sustainability Science

Abstract

The construction of future pasts is a form of thinking about the present situation that plays a significant role in modern societies. We observe it in literature, in politics and in every day life. In constructing future pasts, we unburden the present situation from ambiguities that are always inherent in the present constellation as long as this constellation hasn't gone past. In other words: future pasts eliminate alternatives in the present, closing the present to other options.