Think the Unthinkable

Let me put forward a claim: The greatest coup of capitalism was that the "there is no alternative" doctrine shifted from a political battle cry to a commonly accepted fact. And by now we've reached a point where one particular way of living is treated as practically the only one. Unimaginable, a world in which growth is not the all-determining metric. But even the greatest optimists among us now recognize that the climate crisis, political upheavals and instabilities will change our lives.

The only question is: How will we change along with them?

Change: The question is not whether, but how

Even if every conceivable technological means is deployed to maintain our Western, resource-intensive way of life, realistically no amount of air filtration attempts and lithium batteries will spare us from having to make at least certain behavioral changes. Or to put it another way: it is not enough to merely make changes to the system. Calls for a change of the system are being voiced (even if the extent of that change is highly contested). The demand for systemic innovation — meaning sustainable transformation of our way of life — is growing louder.

Imagining a future that is simultaneously radically different and desirable does not come easily to us. At the same time, such a vision of the future is an important instrument of political agency. How can we break out of the cycle of band-aid politics, lack of imagination, and political deprivation?

As people living in Switzerland, we are often unaware that it is ultimately just one subjective perspective that shapes our collective understanding of time, space, and truth — because it has prevailed over other worldviews (Pupul Bisht 2017). That this "prevailing" required the exercise of soft power and even outright violence is frequently left out of the picture.

This particular mode of perception then translates into unspoken social norms or mental models. A mental model organizes our experiences and the events of the world into a framework and assigns meaning to them (Kania et al. 2018).

For a genuine transformation of our way of life, it is simply not enough to merely redistribute resources differently, propose new policies, or incentivize behavioral change. What is needed are changed relationships between actors and the resulting power dynamics. And to bring that about, in turn, requires a shift in the mental models that shape our thinking and action — for it is these models that define the frames of reference by which we determine what is right and wrong.

What we consider possible is no accident

Many of these mental models have been conveyed to us subconsciously through stories, films, or cultural narratives. Some of them, however, were taught to us quite deliberately in order to establish a social order. Whether it is assumptions about supposed gender differences or economic beliefs that have long been debunked — such as trickle-down economics, the notion that everyone is better off when the wealthiest become even wealthier. Concepts like "hard work pays off" or "you are the architect of your own fortune" systematically obscure structural conditions and individualize blame within a social fabric. But because of "there is no alternative," a way of living together outside of capitalist logic seems impossible.

The good news is that these mental models can change. MeToo is an example of successful change and illustrates how significant this kind of transformation can be. While numerous gender equality policies existed before MeToo, they frequently targeted a mere redistribution of resources — such as support programs for women in leadership positions. Many of these programs tried to better prepare women for a man's world, rather than fundamentally changing the dynamics of the working world itself. MeToo, by contrast, ensured that sexual discrimination in the workplace (and beyond) became significantly less tolerated, thereby creating better conditions for many women.

Yet even changed mental models do not solve the whole problem: even if sexual harassment of the secretary is no longer considered acceptable behavior, women* in Switzerland still perform more care work than their partners. Nevertheless, this shift in the mental model not only creates real added value for women*, but also influences public discourse around downstream policies.

There are no solutions — but there are alternatives

Systemic innovation therefore requires not only intelligent corrections to the existing system, but also changes in the fundamental premises of the system. When we think about the great problems of our time, it is tempting to simply hope that clever engineers will save us with new technologies, or that those established mainstream parties will rein in the neo-fascist currents that their own failures helped bring about in the first place. But in doing so, we preserve to some extent the very conditions that produced the contemporary problems.

Only when the conditions that generate the problem change can the problem itself change. Questioning our prevailing mental models is therefore not merely an imaginative achievement, but also an important principle for collective agency and a precondition for genuine sustainable transformation.

There will likely be no simple (technological) solution to our problems — but if we become aware of how many alternative forms of living together exist, we can find our way toward a sustainable future.

This text appeared in the zine «Thinking the Unthinkable – Zukunft braucht neues Denken».