The idea of the future has a long history.

But in recent decades, some people have said that the future is over, that we don't actually

have a future to offer generations that come after us.

You had the sex pistols famously say in the 1970s, no future.

You had Franco Barardi, an Italian thinker, write a book more than a decade ago, saying,

after the future.

People don't see a brighter tomorrow, and that has political implications.

So what does it mean when there is not a brighter tomorrow on offer?

What happens socially, culturally, economically? How do people's behaviours change? And what kinds of

political projects become more appealing? Is a world without a prospective sense of the future, a brighter tomorrow,

fertile ground for the left or for the right, for socialism or for barbarism? Talking about all of that

with me today is Jonathan White. He's the author of this book, in the long run, The Future as a Political Idea.

Jonathan White, welcome to Downstream.

Thanks for having me.

Very happy to have you on.

It's a bit of a strange one, I think, today,

because we're talking about your book, in the long run.

The future as a political idea.

And I think lots of people think,

what?

The future is a political idea.

What's that all about?

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