Imagination, as for me, is the most important and efficient way to become powerful and to make a change in the world. If women hadn’t had imagination, they wouldn’t be able to vote or even go to school nowadays. If slaves hadn’t had imagination, they would still be prisoners of the western world. As a matter of fact, imagination has the power to set people free. In a society where powerful leaders decide everything, it is important for the regular, common people to keep expressing themselves and their imagination to create change in the world.
In the twentieth century a lot of changes like this happened. As shortly mentioned before, one example is how women became more independent and how they got the same rights as men in certain ways just because one day women thought it was time for change and did everything to achieve the rights they imagined. They strengthened themselves with the imagination and the dreams they had to eventually have enough strength to achieve their goals. Another example of an important change is the fact that structures of society started to change, this also because of the imagination the common people had. It was the start of a democracy. In the past nobody would have imagined a society where there was more to politics than just ministers and presidents but because of the imaginative people suddenly – after a lot of difficulties of course – every single person had the right to express his or her opinion about the political system through the right to vote. All of this means that actually anything is possible if the right person has the right dreams or ambitions.
On the other hand, too much imagination can be very dangerous as well. This if the wrong person has the wrong ambitions and imagination. In today’s society we have plenty of examples but also in the past this often happened. Think about Hitler who imagined a one-toned society and did everything to have things the way he wanted to. He and his imagination have caused millions of deaths and a lot of suffer. The power of imagination is definitely underestimated. Another dangerous thing about this is that nobody can control one’s imagination. Nowadays almost everything is controlled by a higher power, think about laws in general. However what one has inside his or her mind is something no one can control. Imagination is something completely personal and no laws exist for this matter. If thoughts would be controlled, a lot of suffer would not have taken place. The problem is that thoughts can’t be controlled and if they did none of us would be free. But then would this be better? Who knows in the future, it is possible to control someone’s mind. Again here if the right person would have the right imagination, literally anything is possible. In today’s society there is also a well-known example of how dangerous imagination can be. Donald Trump for example, he had a crazy idea of becoming president of the United States without any good reason behind it. And look, he used his imagination and convinced people to share his ideas of “America first”. Now he even has some more absurd ideas and nobody is there to control them because once again nobody is capable of controlling someone else’s brain. One example is: Trump doesn’t like Mexicans so he wants to build a wall to keep them away. The thing about this is that with his imagination he also affects other people and influences other people’s lives and puts them in danger. The worst thing about it all is that he really has the power to turn his ideas into reality and nobody can stop him. This again shows how imagination can lead to power and how this combination (of imagination and power) can lead to danger.
Of course there are not only negative things about being imaginative. As mentioned before it can lead to freedom on a political base but it can also lead to freedom on a much more personal base. If we – the common people – always had to do what’s expected from us we would have no meaning of life. It is our imagination which makes us who we are and what our opinions are. Imagination can make us stronger and make us part of something bigger than ourselves. Think about religions. No one has ever seen proof (except from circumstantial) of a god up there who’s watching us but yet so many people believe in it. How is this possible? Well, it’s our imagination and our need to create something in our mind that we would like to see in reality.
While some people think that imagination makes us take the wrong tracks in life, I believe that without imagination there is no life. Our imagination gives life a meaning and gives us some kind of goal we want to achieve. In our imagination anything is possible and that’s the strongest power on earth. Not guns, not violence or any type of crime. Only we, ourselves and our mind.