Do we still know how to dream collectively
Politique & Société
I don’t think people have stopped dreaming collectively.
Everywhere I go, I meet people who want a different world. I meet young people fighting for climate justice, citizens defending democracy, artists continuing to create despite shrinking budgets, and communities trying to build solidarity in increasingly fragmented societies.
The question is not whether collective dreams still exist.
The question is why our political reality seems so incapable of realising them.
Many people are losing trust in political institutions not because they have become irrational or cynical, but because they are paying attention. They see governments speaking about freedom, democracy and human rights while inequality continues to grow, while authoritarian forces gain strength, and while economic and technological power becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
And they see something else.
They see children in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan growing up amidst war, displacement and destruction. They see Western governments expressing concern while continuing to supply weapons, provide political cover, or look away. Whether one agrees on every aspect of these conflicts or not, the contradiction is impossible to ignore. It raises a fundamental question: who is actually allowed to dream about the future, and whose future is considered expendable?
As a theatre maker, I am concerned by the fact that culture is being weakened at precisely the moment it is needed most. Funding is being cut, political pressure is increasing, and public spaces for critical debate are shrinking. This is not only a cultural problem. It is a democratic problem.
Theatre cannot solve these crises. But it remains one of the few places where strangers come together, encounter different realities, challenge each other, and imagine futures that do not yet exist.
Perhaps the real question is not whether we can still dream collectively.
Perhaps it is why our societies have become so reluctant to create the conditions that would allow those dreams to become reality.