Imaginary Power, Real Horizons

Political theorist and philosopher Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s ‘Imaginary Power, Real Horizons’ is a tribute to the imagination and to its necessity for liberatory struggle. “‘Impractical’ is the name given to anyone who imagines something radically other than what exists,” he writes. However, many things–such as the abolition of slavery–were dismissed as impractical before they came to be. In a warm, plainspoken manner, these essays chart the affect of creativity and utopianism through topics as varied as the cyclical nature of popular movements; the international history of May Day; the experience of teaching Marxism in contemporary China; and the revolutionary origins of Free Jazz. The human imagination is a real, world-creating power, and those who would declare otherwise have poor understandings of history. ‘Imaginary Power, Real Horizons is a call to action to those who would dare to dream of a society organized by a different logic than capitalism.