Fables by Futurists

ideas that spread in part because of their fuzziness and simplicity.

In other words, ideas work best when they echo parts of this social or political unconscious—shared but hidden views of hope and fear.

Most of us find it easier to digest ideas in the form of narratives,

The ideas that travel furthest are the ones that find companions, partner ideas with which they resonate.

As a migrant myself, I have always been fascinated by the migration of stories, and these jackal tales traveled almost as far as the Arabian Nights narratives, ending up in both Arabic and Persian versions, in which the jackals’ names have mutated into Kalila and Dimna. They also ended up in Hebrew and Latin and eventually, as The Fables of Bidpai,

Pioneers of ideas and pioneers of practice are complementary Imaginers have to find collaborators—doers, organisers, regularisers—if their ideas are to be more than imaginary. The collaborators’ job is to turn poetry into prose; theology and prophecy into ritual; compassion into organised generosity; mercy into justice. It involves testing and

Stories endure if they contain content that resonates, and not just truths; fantasies (like Cinderella) also have the capability to last.

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey.

Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. — Ancient proverb