i am plagued by concepts

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” -CS Lewis

this video made me realize games like solitaire, chess and go were, at some point, just some guy that was like "hey, what if we took these stones and limited ourselves to only move them like this?" and i find that amazing

Someone once said that fascism is the opposite of art, and I agree.

I'm reminded of Sir Terry's words (through Death) in Hogfather: "YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?"

One day, someone just pretended that the square root of minus 1 existed and went on with it, inventing an irreplaceable tool called imaginary numbers, a concept without which most mathematically based science wouldn't work.

Joke's on you - I'm a 22yr old maladaptive daydreamer, so I'm far too mentally ill to grow out of imagination.

"Professional youtuber zoe bee" has an immediate no-react to the cat jumping onto the couch. Didn't even miss a beat. Kept going. Nice

You know, I always wondered why Conservatives hated Bluey - I thought they wrongfully labelled it as woke and liberal. Watching this though, it makes sense that they'd hate a show that encourages creativity, joy, and imagination, things they are just hellbent in squashing to stay in power.

You might appriecate this anecdote. When I was in fourth grade, we were given the assignment to make boxes for Willy Wonka. It was a lesson in how to calculate volume in square boxes. But I couldn't give Willy Wonka square boxes, so I drew up pyramid boxes and cat boxes and all kinds of crazy designs. The teacher got really angry because I refused to follow the assignment. Looking back, I say if I was teaching my younger self, I would ask me how much candy could my crazy boxes hold. Either I'd get frustrated over the math and would agree to do square boxes, or maybe I was smart enough bck then to actually solve it. This moment still lives with me vividly.

I was told in college that being creative would land me in jail.. I’m an accountant so I guess that’s fair.

Back when I had friends most of them had little kids. The kids LOVED when I came over or was at a party because I was really good at playing all sorts of things. Barbie, army man, sometimes Barbie and army man together, telling stories, kitchen, food store, making games with sticks and rocks if that was all me and the kids could find. If whatever we decided to do needed rules each kid would get one rule so no one felt left out. Some games got really whacky and a little convoluted but they almost always left us laughing. My rule, as the grown-up, was that losing a game is okay, and if I was on the losing team I always modeled gracious defeat so the kids knew what that looked like. I also modeled gracious winning so they knew what that looked like too; no gloating , smack talk, or belittling. My friends were always surprised how I could seemingly do all this off the top of my head, and I would say, "you DON'T have all this stuff rattling around your head all time? You guys don't, like, make believe in your head at work or whatever?" I always assumed everyone made little games for themselves. How else do you get through the day? I would give myself these goofy challenges when I worked at a hotel. Stuff like, can I check a room taking only 15 steps total? Can I do an entire day without using the elevator (literally impossible)? It was really kind of shocking and paradigm shifting to learn that no, most adults seem to have this capability forced out of them. It made me really sad. It still makes me sad.

Oddly enough, there’s a lot of children’s media that frames the unimaginative nature of adults as a bad thing (take, for instance, The Little Prince), and I was so attuned to those messages growing up that I think I actually… scared myself into not losing my imagination? I play pretend regularly - with other people, with toys, with characters in my own head, with creative writing - and I recently realized that I want to tell kids that they CAN grow up and not lose their sense of whimsy. It might be difficult, but it’s possible, and I don’t want kids like me to be anxious about their “inevitable” imagination death.

I had an exact opposite teacher in my university. He introduced himself as a "tech philosopher". He leaned way too hard into imagining things. He did his bare minimum as a teacher but expected us to impress him with new ideas and high quality questions. No set textbooks; no lecture videos; expected us to read a bunch of research papers; insanely difficult yet creative exams.

My imagination got me through my childhood. I was undiagnosed Autistic, and an only child. I spent most of my time alone. I used to play in the garden with a sword I had made out of a hollow stick as a handle and a bamboo stick as a blade. I used to fight all manner of generic bad guys in words crafted in my head. As an adult, my imagination is still what make life bearable.

I've been playing pretend my entire adult life; I've been pretending I know what the hell I'm doing. In all seriousness, though, most of my imaginative play these days falls firmly into the category that we euphemistically term "adult". Interestingly, this has also been linked to mental and emotional well-being.

I'll never, ever say no to hearing Zoe dunk on PragerU. Looking forward to that video for sure

Great video! My tiny, rural, Appalachian community is working to upgrade our local elementary school's playground to be more inclusive for students and community members with mobility needs and sensory differences. All kids need to play and all kids need a chance to play TOGETHER. The playground is an extension of the classroom. Anybody reading this, I encourage you to look up any efforts to make inclusive playgrounds near you and donate money or time.

On one hand, my phone is full of notes and lists of ideas for stories, video games, D&D characters and campaigns, fantasy and sci-fi worldbuilding, etc. On the other hand, when my therapist asks me "What can you do to improve your situation?" or "What steps could you take to make things easier on yourself?" or even "What are you looking forward to?", I can't come up with anything. My mind goes blank. So much of my time and energy is dedicated to my family, providing for them and taking care of them. To the point where I have no social life to speak of. And I can't see any way for that to change for the better. At least, none that are realistic given the priorities and limitations I find myself working within. That's also why all those stories and ideas are limited to notes on my phone, rather than actual projects I'm dedicating time and energy to. I don't even play D&D, because I can't commit to having 3 hours of uninterrupted time on a regular basis.

I see schools like videogame metas: They teach what is considered "the meta" in current society, students learn and enforce said meta, and anyone going outside of it (even just for the sake of exploring a concept) get struck down. What were left with is a "tryhard", sweaty society that just can't seem to relax. Those who want a more casual, wholesome experience are dubbed "filthy" and bullied out of existence.

This year I got to take a class from a well known intellectual who studies Fascism. During office hours, I told him that my hometown had experienced a tragedy and was demonizing a marginalized group, just like his research suggested would happen. I asked him, what he thought were ways to counteract this. I got a response that was essentially, “that’s not my job. I just write about what happens” This video helped me realize why that was so deflating. The unwillingness to be intellectually imaginative flew in the face of everything that professor claims to stand for. Great video!

"Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow." - Game of Thrones

When something starts with an Ursula K le Guin quote, I already know it's good

I am so sad I missed talking about what I used to play as a kid! It’s so miserable not being able to play pretend normally. That’s a huge reason I write purely for fun. It helps reengage with my imagination.

i would also like to bring the idea of “nothing is original” into the discussion because it sucks and i hate it. i can only see that phrasing as something to shoot down creativity, just because we assemble things with shared parts doesn’t mean they aren’t special or unique.

I am an artist and a dreamer who has lost their imagination and the ability to visualize, likely due to CPTSD. I've been frustrated for years about not being creative enough, not being able to daydream anymore, not having dreams. I am desperate to uncover some sort of strand or path that I can follow up on that will help me recover or gain an imagination. For the first time in a long time, I've found something. This video has helped me see that I haven't been imagining enough. Haven't been exercising my ability to imagine or play and create play. I think that finding a DnD group could help me start. Thank you

I dont remember who or where, but someone once told me: "Artists are adults that didn't forget how to be children". I've thought about that a lot over the years I've spent studying art and I think it's so incredibly true: you cannot be an artist if you forget how to imagine and dream like a child. I think there's good reason so many artistic and imaginative people flock to "fandom spaces" like conventions and online groups. While their interests are deemed as cringe, geeky, lame, or even annoying in other spaces; their passions are celebrated and admired in fandoms. They're allowed to BE and IMAGINE to their hearts content without being shoved down for it. But even people who proudly display their passions often have doubts in the back of their heads that tell them "this isn't okay" because it's VERY hard to de-program a life-time of brainwashing. I've been in "the fandom space" for well over 10 years now, but always been too afriad to show fanart, write about self-inserts, or even go to conventions. I was terrified to admit I liked things "more than usual" because the fist few times I did my parents were GENUINELY worried for me. They thought it was a sign of insanity or something... So I hid it. It was only LAST MONTH that I had the courage to show some friends a self-insert character I'd made because I had been conditioned to believe my interests were unhealthy obsessions (and self-inserts specifically are often shat upon within fandom to this day). I think it comes down to a part of us being unable to truly shake off social conditioning. But my friends LOVED it. So I posted it. And, to my surprise, PEOPLE LOVED IT. So many people on my posts and others' posts have been incredibly supportive and kind; some even said they felt more comfortable sharing their own characters after seeing them. And the more I share of myself, the more I see the people around me do the same. And I only felt comfortable because I saw other people doing the same across social media and irl. Then I realized something: deep down, we ALL want to break from social conventions in some way. All we've needed was an excuse. In short: "Play" is, in my opinion, something we all DESPERATELY need to bring back into our society. We've been conditioned from birth to think of imagination and art as useless and bad... But I've seen and experienced how happy it makes people. It literally changed my life.

I find it extremely interesting that you brought up imagination being discouraged because it’s difficult to control. In a ton of video games some of the most powerful tools are extremely difficult to use effectively, but once you learn how and where to apply them, they become incredible tools. It’s almost like we inherently understand the value of harnessing these kinds of things, but society has conditioned us to reject it.

When I was in elementary school, they didn't allow us to write fiction. We had to write autobiographical stories from our own lives. I was a child who loved fantasy and wanted to write my daydreams down. But since this wasn't allowed, I'd spend English class doodling or crying in the corner.

I have thought long and hard about how I was able to keep my imagination intact into adulthood when I have seen sooo many people seemingly lose the ability to imagine something beyond what they see. By the 5th grade, no one was willing to "play imagination" with me anymore and I had a choice: be alone in my imagined worlds or play soccer and have friends. I chose to have friends, but I didnt give up my imagined worlds: I just only went there in my leisure time like it was my own personal TV show. In adulthood, I have had people try to diagnose me with Maladaptive day dreaming - but I don't day dream to cope, it is what I do for entertainment. And it makes me so sad that people have tried to pathologize my imagination. But it is also deeply sad to me when I lead discussion and it is clear that others can't even see the limits they are placing on themselves. I can imagine a better world. And if I can imagine it, I am convinced we can work towards it.

I am glad that imagination is not childish act anymore.

I probably have been insanely lucky, because my chosen University course, Applied Mathematics, didn't have the problem of "blindly listen to authority". A large portion of my classes consisted of learning why and how the theorems of the past have been invented and proven. It is still a guided tour that avoids most pitfalls on the way, but it always took creative thinking to solve problems presented.

i feel so vindicated by this. i remember being in elementary school, looking at the school system, and saying to myself "this is rubbish right? none of this is real we made it all up" i had the same issue with money and power and all of that. we made it up, its all in our heads. in middle school when i started developing more anxiety i said it to myself again. "this is stupid, why am i anxious if none of it is real anyway? what do expectations and goals matter if its in a fake system." not nearly as well articulated as i can put it now. but i felt crazy because i felt like i was the only one seeing things this way. i more or less grew out of the mindset. even if its fake it still matters to the people around me that i do well in the system so i might as well. thank you for making me feel less crazy.

I spent most of this video imagining what it would be like to pet that kitty!

I know there are other people completely obsessed with Fallout right now, but I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about how there was something really bright and creative and hopeful that happened in the 50s and that progress was ripped away from us and we can't stop thinking about getting back to that 50s continuous progress. Conservatives want to hold everything down and return to a draconian 50s themed world, but I think the creatives really want to launch into a better world BECAUSE of the progress we made in the 50s.

I personally have no problems with imagination, but what really sucks is that it could be pretty hard to share my imaginative worlds with someone. Everyone is so grounded, they talk about their plans to find a job, about politics, exams, about this one café they found. All of it is fine by itself, but please, talk to me about your plane of Interior some more! Tell me about moths that carry your summer nights into eternity! How are Swedish King and Lady Astra doing? Has the Green Heart returned to its place in the sky above the Misty Meadows yet? Please, let's talk more about the beautiful things you and I made up...

My teachers said to me: "You cant beat the system. Its supposed to work that way and some people have to get the short end of the stick; you are here to make sure that its not you." And I thought: "What if we burn every stick?"

When I was at work one time, two of my coworkers where talking about their kid and said kid's friend. They began raving about how the friend "Identifies as a velociraptor" and "The next generation is really going down the toilet!" before calling back to that myth of schools buying cat litter "for kid's who identified as cats/furries" when in reality it was in case they had to GO but couldn't leave the classroom (IE. lockdown, schools shooting, natural disaster, ect). But folks... The kids is are 8. EIGHT. YEARS. OLD. Their clearly underlying bigotry has lead them to demonize a kid playing pretend as some sort of omen of societies direction as a whole!

Yes, I would like to see a video about the Econ 101 class by PragerU.

The anecdote about Pixar University reminds me about this little story that happened in the NFL years ago (but became public recently) Andy Reid (currently the Kansas City Chiefs head coach but at the time was a Packers assistant coach) was approached by a janitor who told him that they had a great idea for a play. Reid gave them a card to draw the play, and was impressed enough that he kept it and eventually used it to score a touchdown.

The head designer of Magic: the Gathering has a weekly column, and this week's article was in memory of his recently passed father ("Like Father, Like Son" by Mark Rosewater, if you're interested). In it, he highlights important lessons around games that his father taught him, and the very first one is "Games serve the players, not vice versa." The anecdote goes that if his dad didn't like how a game they were playing actually worked, he'd change the rules to a way he did. Piaget's research reminds me of that.

I was always a very creative kid until was told in 8th grade by my English teacher that imagination is useless in the real world and that I'm "too imaginative". I've limited my imagination ever since... but this video is getting me to rethink that. Thanks.

Learning about this makes me thankful for my autistic brain, and its default mode of “what do you mean ‘because that’s the way we do it’? You need to explain to me why, and if you can’t, then I guess I’m not going to.”

Hearing Basquiat’s name after I drew a stippling/crosshatching project of him and Keith Haring in a blue ballpoint pen is validating for me in a very strong way because of how much my hand hurt after that.

I came from an abusive household that had me very socially isolated but, that never stopped me from imagining. I create stories to understand the world, if I didn't get it, I created a character after it. It's why my stories have a multitude of queer and poc characters with as many ideologies I can somewhat comprehend because, the world is vast and I want to know more and understand others and that's the best way I can. It helped me get through some of the toughest times in my life because at least I could imagine someone who was stronger, who saw the injustice in the world and could take it on, it gave me the strength to keep breathing because I want to share my stories, my creations with those around me because I want to give people who were like me, a person to look up to (because I never had one of those) and someone to be there for them, even if it's just a small character in their head that they can say "yes, that is me! I'm not alone." Imagination is important, stories are important, because they give hope even in the darkest times.

Doesn't it take dozens of repetitions to learn a skill by drills, but less than ten if a student is allowed to play? Thanks for this. Play and imagination are so important to mental health, emotional health, open mindedness,... No wonder the people on top don't want anyone to broaden their Overton window enough to question why they're on top.

to me fandom is a big part of online adult play, im part of many communities for ships and fandoms and so many of us are adults that have jobs, college, spouses, kids, and we connect online by playing with dolls basically lol, fandom writing, drawing, even just talking about characters and their relationships is like playing with dolls, putting them in situations and exploring who we are through it

The pragerU Econ 101 would be a perfect collab with Unlearning Economics!!

When I saw the survey question, I was thinking about how imaginative play can work different for autistic kids, and how questions about it often come up in assessments. When I spoke to my boyfriend, I mentioned I didn’t really enjoy make-believe games but it wasn’t seen as odd since dressing up dolls and arranging the furniture in the dollhouse kept me occupied all the same. He replied: “Oh, that’s not like me at all! I loved to play pretend. I’d line up my stuffed animals and pretend I was a game show host,” as though casting your toys as on-lookers while roleplaying your special interest was the most neurotypical thing.

I’m burned out with my current career and am exploring totally different fields, especially acting! It blows me away how fun it is, and I totally agree it’s extremely intimate to act a scene with someone else. In many ways, it’s going against everything I’ve been trained to do in my career that required too many years of formal school. First class felt so weird but also incredibly liberating.

This was a great essay, and I really love the practical elements you explored at the end about not only radical inclusion but the necessity and effects of play. It's easy, I think, for a lot of discussions around fascism to require really hunting for a silver lining because the conclusion is often "things can get a little better but we need a radical shift to really make improvements." But this video actually filled me with hope, knowing that the action required is all in me. There are absolutely systemic things that make engaging in imagination easier, but even with a system as broken as ours we can still force better. Also I have no idea how you kept your cool with your cat. They are so distracting and clearly love and trust you lots.

The vice principal in my elementary school banned imaginary games, alongside literally every activity that wasn't jump rope or handball. One of the teachers felt bad and tried to teach us to crochet (with tools she bought herself), but that was banned too. I still don't understand why. Why does an adult do that do kids? Did she convince herself this would help us in some way?

I'm teaching after-school visual arts programming in a really underserved district at the moment, and trying to focus our exploration of art media and experimentation. These kids do not have the luxury of open-ended creativity at school or home most of the time, and often initially struggle when I insist on projects without goals xy&z. But I get the chance to see them open up to the idea of drawing, a self-guided imaginative challenge with infinite possibilities, and give it their best shot. All I can do is hope they run with the tools I can provide, and continue to cultivate that internal curiosity and joy in the face of a school district that's probably going bankrupt by the time my students hit middle school.

case in point, to whoever needs to hear this .. don't call people, and especially young people, cringe (so long as what they're doing isn't harming or harassing anyone, obviously), or shame them otherwise. i feel like a lot of people go online to express themselves, their quirks and playfulness, when this type of thing is shut down in their rl environment. getting shut down online too, is just plain cruel.

Zoe Bee is back!

This video came at a perfect time as I've been exploring the Solarpunk aesthetic, the degrowth movement, and similar "new"/"returning" ideologies looking to push the boundaries of imagination beyond "capitalist realism". I'm very grateful for creators like you, Zoe, for using your platform to inspire meaningful change

Zoe's voice is so warm, fuzzy and calming - hearing her talking about such weighty things lends it more gravitas, like I need to pay attention so I don't let her down.

In a good math class, students ARE supposed to question and learn why the equations work.

Omgggg I’ve been hyped for this one since the community post!!

Imagination has a role to play in _spreadsheet design_ even. It's an application that starts right there in the depths of routine mundanity, but it can go up from there. Heck, so can how to apply to jam on toast. I wouldn't want us to keep it to the most mundane and practical things - that's just handicapping it and ourselves another way - but I wouldn't want us to forget about the "domestic" uses or the low-volume settings of it either. Play and create everywhere and all the time!

This was great and I needed to hear it now. Been too rigid and intolerant with myself lately. I've never thought about how using my imagination as a kid has shaped who I am by helping me work through my personal ethics.

Disclose, Divest - we will not stop, we will not rest 🍉🍉.

I felt the line about not questioning if an equation is the only way to solve an issue. It is so indicative of how i felt and still feel about school. Regardless of how any problem is tackled, in math, it is preached that there is always the "right" solution. Deviating from it is considered bad and you should not do that. And now thinking about it, i think that that is why math is considered the "worst" for most ex-students and current students. Unmotivated and overworked teachers will not care since the sheet says so. Since they are unimaginative, forced by a system to make them unimaginative and being the Vanguard of the most rigid part of schooling. I wish school would get a major reform. i wish that future generations never have to worry about their creativity questioned again.

Biology student here: As someone who is taking a scientific degree, I find that (at least in my field), a large degree of imagination is required when it comes to investigating, though obviously tempered in reality: we constantly need to make hypothesis that fit the data, and later verify those hypothesis.

One thing that I think is important on the note of play being important: it's important that the kids get to play in THEIR way. I didn't have a lot of time to explore things the way I wanted to in middle and high school. And looking back with this new perspective, I neglected homework desperate to seek out that way of playing and it severely impacted my grades. I had ways of being creative in art and music classes, but just wasn't interested in those avenues of expression.

"The human imagination stubbornly refuses to die. And the moment any significant number of people simultaneously shake off the shackles that have been placed on that collective imagination, even our most deeply inculcated assumptions about what is and is not politically possible have been known to crumble overnight." - David Graeber

I can't avoid the consideration that the lack of good play has influenced the mental health crisis. Thanks for what you do. You're awesome.

Thank you so much for this video Zoe, because what you describe here as "The Fascist Unimaginative" is what I used to describe years ago as "The Concrete Mind." And your name is a much better description because, unfortunately, the word "Concrete" implies that the reactionary or "Fascist" mind is entirely fixed and rigid. When on the contrary, (as you suggest when you talk about them portraying children as killers, etc,) the mental gymnastics in which they engage to try and maintain the status quo are literally beyond belief! The mental equivalent of a juggler riding a unicycle along a bungee rope and performing spectacular stunts to keep all of the water in the glass which she is carrying; all while insisting that the ground on which she's riding is perfectly stable and the slightest upset will doom us all! So indeed, as you explain here Zoe, the issue is never a lack of imagination, but rather, its criminal misuse. Because as a direct result of being motivated entirely by existential fear, Fascists and other reactionaries devote all of their incredible imaginary feats to maintaining a rigid and suffocating status quo, insisting that "There Is No Alternative." But a status quo which is inevitably doomed to collapse, because someone, somewhere will always imagine a better, freer and happier world. 🌺

Having interests like game design, playing and DM'ing tabletop games, art, and writing keep my imagination almost constantly active and I'm really thankful for it. I never wanna lose that creative, imaginitive spark as I age, I wanna be 60 and still roleplaying conversations between my OCs in the shower

Free Palestine 🍉🍉🍉 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

The reason schools don’t value creativity is because the American school system was created to churn out good, obedient, loyal factory workers who can read and follow instructions and perform specific functions flawlessly for extended periods. Asking “well what if I do this instead?” Is dangerous in a factory while dealing with machines. They don’t care about the creativity of factory workers. You aren’t there to create, you’re there to produce. They want people who think the same, and don’t question the status quo. The ones who are meant to be making decisions went to different schools with other rich kids who will be handed the world and power. If you went to public schools, your creativity and independent thought not only put them at risk of a lawsuit (you getting hurt on a machine that can end you in moments, or change your life going forward), or threaten the power structure (unions, or questioning why things are done as they are, or worse, coming up with other options). The people at the top don’t want us thinking. Is thinking is dangerous because eventually we’ll wonder “what happens if we use another power structure?” As that removes the unearned money and power from the top.

As a marine, childhood education feels like bootcamp. A moderated hell where instructors are gods, regardless of suitability. Sucks to shuttle children into a system where fewer and fewer teachers are competent stewards

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." -Adam Savage ETA: This talk of imagination and fascism reminds me a lot of the Mage: The Ascension RPG and I'm all for it.

its so dystopian that incogni has to exist, but I am glad it does since we do need it.

when bosses say they want innovation, what they mean is, "give me the same things, just make it look different."

"Giving fake interviews in the shower[...]" Why are you in my shower Zoe???

Shoutout to the thing that would follow the car at night swinging (jumping, skating, moving) from street light to street light. Hope ur doing well Hoppey.

If there’s one things fascism hates, it’s the childlike imagination of a better more egalitarian world that holds onto hope during even its darkest hours.

I remember back in high school I was in the disciplinarian's office for, among other things, my habit of talking to myself. I use it as a problem solving tool, but apparently no one else did that? Weird. Anyway, fast-forward to last November and I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo and not only reached the 50,000 word goal by the end of month, but I'm still working on the novel I started and thinking to myself "Man, I really want to flesh out this world I've built." I'm 32 and it's so nice to get back to working my imagination.

I compensate for societal pressure to be grounded by having a rich inner life. Imagining scenarios to music, envisioning things I want to see made into games. The problem with that is that now its hard to even talk about it in public or with friends, let alone make sinething with it.

This was so beautiful 💛 Thank you so much for this!

the first time I really encountered a discouragement of imagination was in elementary school. our art teacher was out of class for the day and the sub told us to do some art in a very specific way, but when she saw a students drawing, she tore into him. the drawing was what you would expect from a child, but she was furious. she threw it in the trash. everyone in the class was appalled. none of us had seen anything like this before, and our usual art teacher would be furious if someone did this. a few students grabbed the principal and told her what had happened, begging her to at the very least scold the sub, but nothing happened. luckily, when we got back from art class, our teacher let us write about what happened, how it made us feel, and it was a really sweet and touching moment where she let us really reflect on it. she told us she would bring our reports to the principal, but I don't think she did and I don't blame her. i think she just wanted us to understand that we should still tell an adult when something makes us upset, even if they brush it off. i really loved that teacher. she encouraged us to stand up for our classmate, and everyone was so nice to that kid for the day and it's really wholesome looking back

This is an INCREDIBLE video. Sometimes when I finish, or am in the middle of a video essay I feel confused about the main point and driving thesis of the video, and it just feels like a bunch of points or concepts stitched together. This is starkly different. Not only were the ideas clear and easy to follow, but there was no boring repetition and every new sentence led the argument further, until the end I felt so invigorated and convinced to engage my imagination and use it to inspire change that I felt the need to write this comment and let you know. Your ability with analysis and communication through an essay is very apparent, and the youtube community is better for it. Thank you💕

I'm autistic and I feel like people try to shut down my imagination everywhere because I'm like maybe can this system can be shifted and changed to be simplified.

CAT!

Praxis is no doubt play. I LOVE cleaning windows and in doing so I think about it differently, constantly. All play has value, feel like praxis was a great word for it

This is the kind of stance a Dustbringer would have that I could get behind. Though "Playtime Advocate" is much less cool than "Dustbringer"

I especially hate this in science education. Once you're doing real science, creativity is one of the most important things you need. But high school maths and science is just following the rules, which is only half of what you need to actually do science.

"The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of men change also; and as the government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it. That which may be thought right and found convenient in one age, may be thought wrong and found inconvenient in another. In such cases, Who is to decide, the living, or the dead?" - Thomas Paine

My poetry teacher made my class read Spring and All by William Carlos Williams, and ever since, I've been brutally aware of my struggles with stretching my imagination further. It has also made me brutally aware of how literal and practical I used to be. These days, it pains me to realize how unimaginative some of my peers are. In one of our class discussions about spring and all, some students argued that imagination is overrated and unnecessary. Those students, I've now come to realize that those people are also the most infuriating, fun killing, most unfunny, repetitive, predictable, un-self aware, least empathetic, people I know. I'm honestly infuriated that we live in a world where people can get to a state where they just become unimaginative, frustrating messes.

I have noticed in my own life that there seems to be a lot of overlap between imagination and fear, to the extent that I sometimes think of my anxiety as undirected imagination. I can sometimes disrupt an anxiety spiral by telling myself, "Okay, that was an interesting story. What's a different one?" Because of that, when you connected fascism to a failure of imagination, I immediately thought about how useful fear is in manipulation. There is so much fear in the world, in the news, and in the media that, it seems to me, is used to manipulate people. Learning to exercise our imaginations may be one way of pushing back against that. I saved a lot of the books you referenced. Thanks for citing your sources.

1st of all, good to see you're good, my favorite teacher. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance was hired by DC comics to write the then new version of Doom Patrol back in 2016. In an interview he talked about how he wanted to add to the lore of these weird super heroes and this is what he said, "We wanted to create a new type of comic for readers going through a transformation of their own. Anyone who wants something more, something different is a dangerous human and dangerous humans create things." I thought of this quote after watching your video. Be well and stay safe out there.

As someone who is a gamer, and a hobbyist writer, I am constantly imagining and conceptualizing better game systems and stories for media I engage in. Ways I would have done things verses how the dev's/writers would have. It's not always a good V. bad thing; it's just a "I would have done it this way... would it have been better?". Most of the time, I come to the conclusion that, for the show or game I'm playing, no, it wouldn't be better because it would change overall theme the scene was going for. But hey, if I really like an idea that the show gave me, I can adapt and use it in my story.

Thank you for this video. I've been looking for the words to articulate these ideas for the longest time now.

Great video! Loved the little orange companion you had throughout the video!

what's pretty cool is that I got the notif for this vid and then got the new one by Ted-Ed which is abt why people followed him in WW2

jean luc picard said "to say you have no choice is a failure of imagination." and thats what it leads to, isnt it. and my parents say "it is what it is and you cant do anything about it." and it fits because my parents are the most unimaginative doomerboomer sadfolks i can think of. neither my father nor my mother have even one single hobby. yet I AM THE ONE who got diagnosed with chronic depression. so i hereby thank captain jean luc picard for being a better influence on me than my parents ever were

That was an awaited video, great that it is now complete and up to the public, I know it will be wonderfull

Always grateful for your work (and play)!

This video makes me reflect on my daily daydreams of the things I wish to create. Ooh, to create a short film! An animation! A video game! I've literally never made anything in my life, though, and the things I would have to know to do this are enormous and paralyze me with fear. So I don't create. My story remains in my head, replaying barely visible puppets shaped like other things I've seen (because my imagination is so dire it can't even make up how characters appear in my head). My imagination was stunted at some point, atrophied like my muscles (I'm also overweight and get no exercise, but that's beside the point). And I have no clue what to do to build it. And even if my imagination is big and strong as a friggin' sequoia tree, it won't matter, because I'm poor, and it takes VERY expensive things to realize these dreams. Dreams. At what point do dreams cross over into delusion? I almost feel at points like this story is a pipe dream, hindering me from living my life. I am 30 years old and I've done nothing in my life. Absolutely nothing. I have no hobbies. No skills. All I have is my mind, and scraps of imagination, and a whole heaping pile of useless influences. I would like to propose a more universal term for the fascist imaginary - *"Malignant imagination".* When imagination, like a cancer, grows out of control and consumes the host, encouraging hopelessly impossible dreams that can swiftly turn to dark, even evil directions depending on where that imagination decides to spread itself into. Excellent video as ever, Zoe, it's going straight in my "best video essays" playlist.