The Road to After Capitalism: Opportunity in Chaos

Few would deny that we are in a period of chaos. Perhaps fewer would believe that this is actually an excellent time to be working on the long-term future. I’d like to make the case that now is a great time to be building the road to After Capitalism. To be clear, that “building” right now is mostly building interest. We are not yet at the point of executing plans. First we need to figure out where we want to go. And if there is one thing that most readers of this blog would probably agree on, “we want something else!”

Two principles to keep in mind:

1. Don’t stay “down” in down time: This is so hard! Jobs are lost, projects are cut, work stagnates. It is easy and understandable to fall into a funk. A period of mourning makes perfect sense, but then we have to get back to it. An opportunity is that there is now time to work on those future-oriented projects that have been on the back-burner when everything is running normally.
2. Not all things are affected equally in chaos: It can be tempting to see chaos as all-encompassing in the sense of “this changes everything … forever.” But keep in mind we just lived through a global pandemic! The “changes everything” thinking was dominant then—people will never travel, never go back to the office, never go outside, etc. But a few years later the pandemic is no longer front-and-center on our minds.  

Let’s look loser at #1, Don’t stay “down” in down time. For After Capitalism enthusiasts, our major job here is spreading discussion about the images. One way to pull people out of the funk is to have a different conversation than one stuck on the current chaos. Can we engage people in conversations about where we want to go? Are there actions we can take in our own lives that get us in motion toward After Capitalism? Can we compost, grow our own food, volunteer for a neighborhood organization, join a movement, support a start-up?

For #2,  Not all things are affecting equally in chaos. Here we need to be strategic and opportunistic as we think about what we might do. I did a project on the internationalization of higher education that finished right before the pandemic started. We identified  a set of 14 issues that were spread across the Three Horizons. I did an analysis of how each of the 14 had been affected by the pandemic a year or so later:

• 4 issues were accelerated, (e.g., virtual education)
• 4 issues stayed on the same
• 6 issues slowed down

So, as we look for where to invest our energy, are there some areas that might be accelerating while others are on hold? I’m not saying we “only” be opportunistic and jump on the accelerating ones, but certainly think about that. If we are more of the patient, longer-term type, we might relish the opportunity to work on an area that is slowing down … as we get ready for next wave of action.

In sum, there is lots for we futurists to do in times of chaos. Don’t be discouraged, be strategic, opportunistic and play the long game that we were born to play! – Andy Hines