On International Worldbuilding Day and The Crossroads of Two Millennia
Notes On Imagining The Future #20 by Fabrice Guerrier
I will not mince words here. We are living through the era where white supremacy is pushing itself to its furthest edges. The political spectrum -both liberal and conservative - has failed to grasp the urgency of our time. The Democratic establishment, despite its rhetoric, lacks the vision and will to address the world we now inhabit. The conservative movement, on the other hand, is actively working to erase Black, brown, queer, women, disabled, and diverse voices from history itself.
How do we rise from the ashes? How do we dream up new realities? I ask.
This is why I am launching 'International Worldbuilding Day' tomorrow, February 18th - to make a broad appeal to society that worldbuilding is a vital act of radical imagination, one that we have either lost or never fully realized. I am launching this day as a space where people can reclaim their radical imagination and conjure new possibilities.
This is what we need in the world today: more imagination. Especially collaborative worldbuilding to guide groups of people to imagine together more integrated, nuanced, complex and beautiful visions of our future—nothing less.
We are surrounded by destruction, erasure, and injustices that feel beyond our control. The rapid shifts brought by artificial intelligence, the epidemic of loneliness, climate change and its denialism, and the collapse of social trust are symptoms of a much deeper crisis.
I was living in Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, D.C., on January 6th, 2021, I witnessed firsthand the fragility of democracy and the violent desperation of those who could not fathom a world beyond domination. Many of them believed their nation was under siege, that an idealized version of the past needed to be restored, even as their communities had been battered by globalization taking their jobs away, the opioid epidemic killing their youth, and the rise of new cultural visions that clashed with their values. That day, as I went for a jog through the streets of D.C., I was confronted with a stark reality, crowds of people, all of them white Americans, proudly carrying Confederate flags. I stopped in my tracks when a massive truck, flying four of those flags, turned onto the street I was jogging on. Little did they know—or even care—that in that moment, I was reduced to a single, terrifying truth that my ancestor from not too long ago knew too well: the color of my skin alone could seal my fate.
Our world is undergoing a transformation of astronomical proportions. The systems we inherited—political, social, cultural, economic—are crumbling under their own weight. Amidst the destruction of these revolutionary times, we need something more—a renaissance of imagination and culture to inspire new visions we can collectively create and embrace. Today, this is nonexistent.
I now casually consider myself an ‘Imaginist’, a word I am claiming now to capture the unlimited depth of human potential.
Our society thrives on forcing us into narrow categories: Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Are you this or that? It is a false choice. The real battle is not between left and right, but between imagination and decay. How do we confront the dying parts of our society, ourselves, and the boundless collective grief for which we lack the language to transform?
We have been conditioned to believe in a physical world of limitations, a reality where we must conform to an outdated order that divides, categorizes, and flattens the integrated and indigenous self. I reject this. I reject being boxed into a political or social identity that insists on division and weaponizing our differences. I believe the future is within our grasp, if only we have the courage to imagine it. If only you have the courage to imagine it with others. That’s the foundation upon which seeds may be planted for a bountiful harvest. Yet we don’t have this.
Modernity’s greatest lie is that it is inclusive - it is not. It forces us into binary choices, into a perpetual dance of death, a system that thrives on opposition rather than integration. But what we are facing today I see it as a disease of the soul - a crisis of meaning, this crisis of imagination.
This crisis cannot be solved with incremental reforms or hollow slogans.
I am reminded here of Civil Rights Attorney and author of the New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander's words back in Fall 2016 when she stepped down from her tenure professorship:
“And I no longer believe we can “win” justice simply by filing lawsuits, flexing our political muscles or boosting voter turnout. Yes, we absolutely must do that work, but none of it — not even working for some form of political revolution — will ever be enough on its own. Without a moral or spiritual awakening, we will remain forever trapped in political games fueled by fear, greed and the hunger for power. American history teaches how these games predictably play out within our borders: Time and again, race gets used as the Trump Card, a reliable means of dividing, controlling and misleading the players so a few can win the game.”
I believe to confront this crisis it truly requires a bombastic explosion of imagination, a radical reshaping of how we see the world and ourselves.
My work of collaborative worldbuilding at Syllble Studios, my work as a painter, and as a writer is an attempt to create meaning that supersedes the limitations of this dying white modernity.
I personally do believe all humans are destined to engage with a certain kind of soul vision, one that encourages both spiritual, imaginative and physical and societal reinvention. I know to the bottom of my gut that the future does not belong to those who cling to outdated ideologies, but to those who dare to dream beyond them. This is what my artistic craft at Syllble is about and the act of collaboratively worldbuilding new realities and possibilities for our society and for our planet.
As someone who has identified with liberal and progressive politics, I see how it has become a machine that upholds the status quo, a moral performance rather than a vehicle for transformation. It insists on a white paternalistic framework, reinforcing a system that is no longer suited for the magnitude of change required to truly augment the human soul.
Everything is being reinvented in real-time, and yet we cling to old forms, terrified of stepping into the unknown that the America we want to imagine can be ours. I am reminded of Toni Morrison’s words in her letter to President Barack Obama endorsing him for president when he was just a senator, She says “Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb”
This territorialism of thought—the desperate attempts to hold onto fixed ideologies—prevents us from embracing the radical shifts that are already underway. Our ability to radically imagine is to exercise our political, social, educational, spiritual and creative agency. Our Erotic power as Poet Audrey Lorde speaks of. We need a new language, a new mode of being. We need to return to play, to imagination, to the energy of the child, to the caring love of the divine feminine, free from the suicidal weight of history, free from moral rigidity, free from the fear of our own potential.
This is what I aspire “International Worldbuilding Day” to be and expand this movement of working with writers, artists, experts and inspired people around the world to bring collaborative worldbuilding to the mainstream of reality, tell new stories we haven’t seen or read, to use the tools of science fiction and fantasy to dream of new worlds and new futures and help us cope with this rigid now postmodern era where magic ceases to exist.
I am launching this ‘International Worldbuilding day’ from now on every year on February 18th, on the anniversary of Syllble’s founding. I see this as an imaginative test and an invitation to step beyond the constraints of the mind, beyond intellect, into something deeper, something ancestral, something that connects us to all that has ever been and all that could still be.
It is about letting go into the imaginative unknown to reach our intuitive depth. A cosmic trust falls.
Because the world as we have known is ending. The question is—what will we build in its place? Join me in celebrating International Worldbuilding Day.
Read The Toolkit I Produced - 10 Challenges to Celebrate International Worldbuilding Day: A Toolkit for Dreamers, Doers and Imaginitists
In The News
I was interviewed on the Gateways to Awakening Podcast in conversation with host Yasmeen Turayhi. I further elaborate on all my ideas I mentioned above. I highly encourage you to take a listen! you won’t regret it.
I was a guest Lecturer for a class taught by Dr. Cassandra Vieten at Esalen Institute last December 2024 called “Imagination: Exploring Your Inner World for an Extraordinary Life”
My painting and drawing practice is emerging fast here in Los Angeles. It can be explored here: fabricejude.com
Why Basquiat is still relevant on Fabrice Jude painting Blog
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