Humans may be the only creatures conscious of having a future, but all
too often we would rather not think about it. Likewise, our societies,
unable to deal with radical uncertainty, do not make policies with a
view to the long term. Instead, we suffer from a sense of powerlessness,
collective irrationality, and perennial political discontent.
In The Future and Its Enemies, Spanish philosopher Daniel Innerarity
makes a plea for a new social contract that would commit us to moral and
political responsibility with respect to future generations. He urges us
to become advocates for the future in the face of enemies who, oblivious
to the costs of modernization, press for endless and unproductive
acceleration. His accessible book proposes a new way of confronting the
unknown--one grounded in the calculation of risk. Declaring the
classical right-left divide to be redundant, Innerarity presents his
hopes for a renewed democracy and a politics that would find convincing
ways to mediate between the priorities of the present, the heritage of
the past, and the challenges that lie ahead.