Building the Future: Futurist Art and Social Justice | Philosophy

Futurism is a long-forgotten artistic movement that espoused destroying the past to build the future. It was art that focused on capturing the dynamic nature of the future and the speed and functionality devoid of romanticism. The futurists were like many modern-day social justice movements in their zeal to build a new world by breaking down the old one. Their movement and modern movements focus a lot on what they are against and less on what they are for. Much as modern protest movements focus on stopping bombing, attacks, war, discrimination, and so on, the Futurists wanted to see the end of classism and what they called museum cities among other things. But the future that the Futurists espoused was one that was devoid of the things that meet our emotional needs. Beauty, love, holidays, traditions, the decadence of the physical world, and many of the structures initially created by humanity help to fill our needs as humans. There is such a desire to throw out all of history to make room for youth and the future, but we need at least parts of the past. The problem with getting rid of so many things is that it leaves a void that is filled by business. It creates an obsessive desire to gather money and power to fulfill one's emotional needs- rather than reaching for religion, spirituality, relationships, love, or anything truly meaningful. As beautiful as it is to build new things, it is so important to re-negotiate our history rather than simply tossing it all out. In doing so, we will be able to create a new world that takes our needs into account.
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