'The Future' is a Lie

Allowing ourselves to be pulled away from 'what is' strips us of our power and agency

5 minute read

The future of work. Welcome to the future! Your Future. Are you ready for the future? How many times have we heard governments and corporations bark out these anodyne phrases? What do they even mean in a real present spiritual sense? We’re here now. There is no such thing as future… or the past for that matter. These are mental constructs. And you don’t have to be a quantum physicist to believe this.

So why, then, are we constantly receiving this future-centric messaging? Notice, the past doesn’t get this much air time. You never read: ‘Get ready for the past.’ But in a sense past and future are the same. They’re non-existent states that we access through our imaginations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have a future-focused perspective - to be excited about life and ‘what comes next’ to a degree - rather than living in the past (‘the good old days’). But, at the end of the day there’s only the NOW!

However, corporations and governments are institutionally attuned to certainty. Why? Because certainty provides a level of control (for them, not you). And these are, after all systems of control. They control human behavior through policy and laws, among other levers. This includes human spending habits, which are governed by the economy and economic outlook (future again), cost of living (eg. goods, food, etc.). Companies and governments want you to think they own the future and that it’s there’s to give to you - you lowly future addict! So in essence, in the grand pecking order, they own you.

Your future in the context of, say, a pension plan means the pension provider is empowering you to take control of your future. Get ready for the future means embrace AI, data harvesting an all the digital systems these organizations can use to bump your status as a valued member of society and/or track you and nudge you to buy, stay in line and don’t question authority. Just sit back and allow them to decide what’s best for you.

Ok so that’s your dosage of cynicism and antidisestablishmentarianism (the longest word in the dictionary, as we were often told in high school). But Human Scalers is not about sitting around whining, complaining and being a victim. It’s about summoning our true strength so we can succeed - even as the current system and its often greedy and power-hungry institutions seek to undermine that autonomy and free will.

Everyday humans must claim the present moment and change their futures - not by focusing on this external concept of ‘future’ but by revivifying their imaginations. Each second or minute spent in the present moment day dreaming and enjoying that daydream for what it is - tapping into our inherent creativity and spirit of fun and appreciation for beauty - we are in fact creating the path to positive outcomes, brick by brick. But if we get too caught up in this idea that what is isn’t enough, we’re presently paving a road that leads right back to where it started (not having enough).

‘Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do.’

-Krishna in The bhagavad Gita

This is, frankly, classic Law of Attraction (feel what you want to manifest in the future and you’ll get it once you let go of it) minus the future lens. So instead of thinking and feeling something now because we’ll reap the reward in the future, we are embracing the reward as the present ‘good vibes.’ And with regard to what comes to us as a result (or the ‘manifestation’) so be it. We don’t let ourselves get turned around by it like the boyfriend in that ‘jealous girlfriend’ meme.

If you prefer ancient words of wisdom to digital pop culture, the Tao te Ching embodies this philosophy of not striving for some better future, in verse 13 (which I’ll quote fully so as not to perpetuate a Tik-Tok/X culture or half-truth):

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both fantoms that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.

So, the next time you see an ad telling you to worship at the altar of some purportedly better future state, you’ll quickly recognize it as a very slick trick. It’s just some company trying to pull us all out of the moment, because the moment is our power.

-SC