That day, at the front door of my building, I was intercepted by an upset neighbor with the announcement that “The lift is not working again!” I noticed that my neighbor was nervously crumpling a piece of foil while listing everyone responsible for this unfortunate event. When we finally parted, he threw the wrapper in front of the door.
He cited “Everything is dirty anyway, even the cleaning lady doesn’t do her job properly” as the reason for not looking for the rubbish can.
Indeed, the environmental pollution I just witnessed will not lead to an ecological disaster, but it has worsened the situation by a very small percentage. When these small percentages add up, we get large-scale environmental consequences that could have been prevented if we had acted conscientiously.
What if the situation was reversed? Yes, instead of allowing ourselves to be irresponsible towards the environment with the excuse, “It’s just a small chocolate wrapper, no big deal”, we all start to save our environment with small but meaningful contributions.
This is precisely the idea behind protopia, a relatively new social concept that suggests gradually making significant changes in the world through small but important steps.
Monika Bielskyte, futurist and founder of the research platform Protopian Futures, explained in her presentation, available on the YouTube channel Google Design, what the term protopia means.
According to her, the term was coined by Kevin Kelly, a famous futurist and editor of Wired magazine. The word protopia comes from the word pronoia, which means the opposite of paranoia – instead of believing that the whole world is against us, pronoia, or protopia, assures us that the entire world is on our side.
Protopia could be characterized as a type of movement that is an alternative to the existing concepts of dystopia and utopia, offering an optimistic vision of the future.
While dystopia and utopia are hypothetical social extremes that are the subject of numerous science fiction creations, protopia is much closer to reality. Moreover, Bielskyte argues that many people already live according to the principles of protopia by making modest contributions toward a better future.
Instead of dreaming about unattainable utopia or fearing dystopia, protopia prompts us to envisage the future we wish to see by building it now.
As there is no bright future without a healthy environment, it is easy to see why the idea of protopia is associated with the concept of ecology.
The current state of the environment seems hopeless. People stop being environmentally motivated when they realize that the air and water are still worryingly polluted despite driving electric cars and using environmentally friendly detergents.
Protopia advocates claim that these small contributions to environmental protection will prevent the worst climate scenarios and that every tree planted, every solar panel installed, and every electric car produced leads to a greener future.
Instead of reading helplessly about plastic waste and forest fires, protopia prompts us to be creative and contribute in every possible way to protecting natural resources. This eliminates the feeling of helplessness and puts us in the role of active fighters against climate change who have taken the planet’s future into their own hands.
Of course, not everyone can install solar panels on their roofs or drive the latest electric SUV, but there are always recycling, cleaning public areas of rubbish, and many other solutions that we can easily and freely implement.
Although the media has not sufficiently covered this topic, the basic idea is that every contribution, even the smallest one, toward a better world is essential. Instead of praying for a miracle that will instantly remove all our troubles, let’s ask ourselves, “What can I do right now to create a better world?”
Milena Maglovski
