New Books Network Matthew Benjamin Cole, "Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century" (U of Michigan Press, 2025)
Sep 13, 2025
Matthew Benjamin Cole, a political theorist at Binghamton University, explores the influential role of dystopian narratives in shaping political thought. He discusses how fears of dystopia permeate today's political landscape, urging listeners to consider individual and collective actions that can forge a better future. Cole contrasts Orwell's bleak visions with contemporary concerns about technology and authoritarianism, stressing the importance of active democratic engagement to counter political indifference. His insights connect historical imaginations with current dilemmas, fostering a critical view of our societal narratives.
01:48:38
Cover Art Choice Story
- Cole describes commissioning Cleon Peterson for his cover to avoid generic AI or template art and to reflect power and submission themes.
- Peterson's image, originally for The New Yorker, visualizes the mind becoming a cityscape central to the book's themes.
Dystopia As Political Imaginary
- Dystopia functions beyond genre as a political imaginary shaping how societies imagine futures and threats.
- It links literary warnings to non-fiction political arguments that perform the same cautionary role.
Pessimism That Spurs Resistance
- Dystopian pessimism can be realistic, not fatalistic; well-reasoned pessimism clarifies stakes and guides resistance.
- Authors like Orwell and Mumford combined bleak probability estimates with commitment to continue trying for better futures.
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Intro
00:00 • 4min
Dystopian Reflections: The Evolution of Political Thought
03:36 • 28min
Exploring Political Imagination and Its Influences
31:11 • 4min
The Evolution of Dystopian Imagination
34:43 • 21min
Dystopian Visions and Political Imagination
55:24 • 7min
Dystopia, Democracy, and Techno-Authoritarianism
01:02:28 • 19min
The Convergence of Indifference and Authoritarianism in Politics
01:21:48 • 5min
Echo Chambers and Democratic Discourse
01:27:17 • 15min
Navigating Dystopia: Questions for a Better Future
01:41:55 • 6min
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Fear the Future
Dystopia and Political Imagination in the 20th Century
Matthew Benjamin Cole
Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century demonstrates the centrality of dystopian thinking to twentieth century political thought, showing the pervasiveness of dystopian images, themes, and anxieties.
Offering a novel reading of major themes and thinkers, Fear the Future explores visions of the future from literary figures such as Yevgeny Zamyatin, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell; political theorists such as Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault; and mid-century social scientists such as Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, David Reisman, C. Wright Mills, and Jacques Ellul.
It offers a comparative analysis of distinct intellectual and literary traditions, including modern utopianism and anti-utopianism, mid-century social science, Frankfurt School critical theory, and continental political philosophy.
With detailed case studies of key thinkers from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century, the book synthesizes secondary literature and research from a range of disciplinary areas, including in political theory, intellectual history, literary studies, and utopian studies.
This wide-ranging reconstruction shows that while dystopian thinking has illustrated the dangers of domination and dehumanization, it has also illuminated new possibilities for freedom.
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Kathy reflects on her upbringing at Hailsham, a boarding school for clones, and her relationships with her friends Ruth and Tommy.
As the narrative unfolds, it reveals the grim reality of the clones' existence: they are raised to donate their organs until they 'complete' (die).
The book explores themes of identity, humanity, and the moral implications of scientific advancements, raising questions about the treatment of the vulnerable and the nature of human existence.
Are we already living in some kind of fascist or technocratic dystopia? How do we avert the AI dystopia? These are the types of things that you'll see thrown about in op-eds and analysis pieces all over the net and the press. Dystopia is doing some kind of work in our political vocabulary that goes beyond a reference to those iconic dystopian novels or their sort of contemporary successors. … Sometimes politics seems to be so absorbed in the train of fantasy and the imaginary that it becomes worrying. But like it or not, or like specific expressions of the political imagination or not, the political arena is an arena of the imagination. Habermas once said that people don't fight for abstractions, but they do battle with images.
– Matthew Benjamin Cole, NBN interview 2025
After centuries of contemplating utopias, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers began to warn of dystopian futures. Yet these fears extended beyond the canonical texts of dystopian fiction into post-war discourses on totalitarianism, mass society, and technology, as well as subsequent political theories of freedom and domination. Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century (U of Michigan Press, 2025) demonstrates the centrality of dystopian thinking to twentieth century political thought, showing the pervasiveness of dystopian images, themes, and anxieties. Offering a novel reading of major themes and thinkers, Fear the Future explores visions of the future from literary figures such as Yevgeny Zamyatin, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell; political theorists such as Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault; and mid-century social scientists such as Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, David Reisman, C. Wright Mills, and Jacques Ellul. It offers a comparative analysis of distinct intellectual and literary traditions, including modern utopianism and anti-utopianism, mid-century social science, Frankfurt School critical theory, and continental political philosophy. With detailed case studies of key thinkers from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century, the book synthesizes secondary literature and research from a range of disciplinary areas, including in political theory, intellectual history, literary studies, and utopian studies. This wide-ranging reconstruction shows that while dystopian thinking has illustrated the dangers of domination and dehumanization, it has also illuminated new possibilities for freedom.
Professor Cole published his book with the University of Michigan Press as Open Access: find the detailed insights and arguments that Matthew discusses in our interview here as an online publication with downloadable options.
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