Several great excerpts - the conclusion of the essay looking at the state of entertainment, morality, dangers of risky/edgy/dark entertainment without substance of humanity/purpose and how we can utilize phantasia without continually feeding fear and danger around every corner is solid.
Also dives into conspiracy theories and imagination:
But once we take account of the imaginative layer of mind (the filtering and modelling we do between the raw data and the reasoned conclusions or beliefs), we see that the world itself really is different for the atheist as opposed to the Christian; the Republican as opposed to the Democrat; the rationalist versus the QAnon devotee.
Update (3/27/2021):
If we had less imagination, we would feel more secure.’ Yes, there are real threats and enemies out there, but not as many as our active imagination produces. Alas, we can’t stop fantasticating if it’s the root of human cognition, and we wouldn’t want to give it up if we could. But can we turn that awesome power of imagination toward humanising ourselves and others?
You can learn a great deal about someone by spending time in their home – not deducing facts like Sherlock Holmes, but absorbing subtle understandings of character, taste, temperament and life history.
You gotta be careful with the imagination. It matters how it’s wielded. There’s a lot of opportunity for critique, but hope too.
Really worthwhile read.
Several great excerpts - the conclusion of the essay looking at the state of entertainment, morality, dangers of risky/edgy/dark entertainment without substance of humanity/purpose and how we can utilize phantasia without continually feeding fear and danger around every corner is solid.
Also dives into conspiracy theories and imagination: