Writing in the ruins of post-war Europe, Dutch futurist Fred Polak argued that societies rise and fall based on the vitality of their images of the future. By that measure, he believed, Western civilization was headed for terminal decline.

In his 1953 masterwork The Image of the Future, Polak traced how magnetic visions of tomorrow, whether religious or revolutionary, had pulled history forward since the ancient Greeks. Without them, he warned, civilizations stagnate and collapse.

Who was Fred Polak, and how well does his sweeping and pessimistic diagnosis of the modern world stand the test of time?

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Hosts: Casper Skovgaard Petersen, August Leo Liljenberg, Tallulah Richards

Published by the ⁠⁠⁠Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies