Why Imagination Is the Most Radical Act You Can Do Today!

Creativity and imagination aren’t just “nice to have.” They’re essential for survival.

Not just for writers and artists. But for teachers. Parents. Students. Activists. Workers. Dreamers. In fact, somehow, for all of us.

It wasn’t only power that changed the world.

It was imagination.

I’ve recently started going through my previous study material, and what I saw is Plato’s theory notes.

Here’s a thought I’ve been carrying with me lately like a stone in my pocket.

Today, let’s talk about why imagination matters, especially now, and why we must protect it, practice it, and pass it on.

When the Map Ends, Imagination Begins

My life, or I suppose to say in general, Life, doesn’t always follow a plan. Sometimes, it tears the plan into pieces. And all of us know this from our experiences.

You failed the exams, and you lost your job, may your relationship broke. The world throws you into the deep end. At that moment, logic helps you process, but it’s imagination that gets you to act. To build again.

I think of Gandhi often not just as a political leader, but as a wildly creative thinker. His Salt March? It wasn’t just civil disobedience, it was poetic disruption. Its symbolism, simplicity, and story to shift the world. That’s strategy, yes, but it’s also imagination at work.

Even in our everyday lives, creativity is the tool we pick up when structure fails us.

When I left my job in the media house, I had no blueprint. What I had was a blank notebook, a belief in writing, and one question that kept whispering to me:

“What else is possible?”

If you’re stuck, ask yourself that.

You might surprise yourself.

You Were Never Meant to Live in Shadows

Back in university, one of the first stories I fell in love with was Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Prisoners are chained in a dark cave, watching shadows on a wall, believing that to be reality. One escapes and sees the real world light, colour, and truth. But when he returns to free the others, they resist.

Because truth requires imagination. And light can be blinding when you’ve only known dark.

We’re still living in that cave, aren’t we?

Scrolling shadows on screens. Repeating routines that don’t fit. Accepting systems that don’t serve.

Imagination is what walks us out of the cave.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.” — Albert Einstein

Without imagination, there would be no literature. No music. No architecture. No justice movements.

Not only that, there will be no daydreams. No escape. No hope.

You don’t have to paint murals or write novels to live creatively. You just have to believe the world can be more than what it is.

Even arranging your bookshelf your own way is a statement: “I see the world differently, and I want to live like that.”

Hope Is a Political Act, And It Begins in the Mind

During the darkest chapters in history, wars, genocides, pandemics, and oppressions, people have kept singing. Writing. Dreaming. Resisting.

For instance, the book written by Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. The story of hope in Nazi holocaust concentration camps.

Why?

Because to hope is to imagine something better.

When people marched in the Civil Rights Movement, when revolutionaries fought colonisation, when activists today demand equity, they’re not just reacting.

They’re envisioning a future that doesn’t exist yet.

Imagination, in that way, is political. It’s what keeps movements alive. It’s what makes resilience possible.

When I’ve gone through personal losses, it was never data that kept me grounded. It was the vision — hazy, but persistent, that maybe things could change. That the story wasn’t over yet.

Hope isn’t naive. It’s an act of will. And imagination is its first spark.

The Smallest Creative Act Is a Declaration of Self

In political theory, we often speak of alienation, that feeling of being disconnected from the world or even yourself.

That’s why self-expression is so important. It’s not selfish. It’s self-remembering.

When you write a poem, rearrange your room, make a dish your grandmother used to cook, these are not “extra” things. These are declarations:

“This is who I am. This is how I see.”

Even refusing to speak like everyone else, or choosing a different rhythm for your life — those are acts of creativity.

“Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde

When we create, we leave a fingerprint on the world. A trace of who we were and who we dared to be.

So make something. Anything. And let it be a mirror.

The Future Belongs to the Imaginative

If the past belonged to the rule-followers, the future belongs to the question-askers.

Today’s world needs more than problem solvers. It needs to be reimagined.

From climate change to education reform, from tech innovation to mental health advocacy, the ones leading aren’t always the loudest. But they’re always the most imaginative.

Think of the Constitution. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The internet revolution around the world.

Historical social movements that change the way we live.

All were born because someone asked, What if we didn’t do it this way?

Creativity is powerful.

And it’s how you, dear reader, will shape what comes next.