Iranscope Blog بلاگ ايرانسکوپ : Futurist Outlook and not Future'ism

دوشنبه، مهر ۲۸، ۱۳۹۳

Futurist Outlook and not Future'ism

Futurist Outlook and not Future'ism
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/822-futurist-outlook-english.htm

آینده نگری و نه آینده گرایی
http://www.ghandchi.com/822-futurist-outlook.htm

In the last half century, there have been extensive discussions about the development of Modern Futurism. (1)

Despite all these discussions there is an erroneous understanding about futurism as a "Future'ism." Seven years ago in a paper in Persian entitled "What is Futurism?", I discussed that "Some people think to be a futurist means to choose a specific future as a vision, and to move towards it from an analytic angle and to participate in forming it from a practical standpoint. If this was the meaning of being a futurist, then all socialists and communists of the last 200 years should be considered futurists." (2)

Unfortunately in English language the word "futurist" can imply the above erroneous understanding which was criticized in the paper "what is Futurism?"

Fortunately in Persian language, the futurists have accepted the term "ayandehnegar" which means having a "future-oriented outlook" and thus avoided the term "ayandehgaraa" meaning "future'ism." The word "ayandehnegar" clearly shows that we have future in view in our outlook and definitely it does not mean that we have a certain future in mind to which to feel a belonging to strive to reach.

In fact, the issue is not just a difference of language and it constitutes the essential difference of Utopianism and Modern Futurism. This is also why Futurism should be sought in an analytical, visionary and participatory approach towards issues in various topics and not be limited to technical subjects of future studies (3).

Hoping for a democratic and secular futurist republic in Iran,