Image of the Future: An Optimistic Tragedy

The article raises the question of possible variations of attitude to the future, both in theoretical discourses and in the worldview of the contemporary. The problem of the future (humanity) is put in the context of the problem of crisis of the modern state of society, including the context of the crisis of modern capitalism. The author shows that modern capitalism, which has spread to the whole world, no longer has opportunities for extensive development and for taking its crisis phenomena outside its own system. In this regard, there is a way to solve the internal problems of this system on the principle of bringing them into the future. The article demonstrates two versions of understanding the future: the first one – a return to the past – represents either a retreat backwards in order to free up space/time for a subsequent intensive move forward, or a version of barbarization/archaization/primitivization of the present, conscious or not. The second version of the future’ image, with all its possible tragicism, is the image of the future as a future, another, different, something that has not yet happened. This version requires a new social theory that explains the process and allows to develop an action strategy.