Backlight: Time Rebels

Featuring philosopher Roman Krznaric

The tyranny of time, of the present, blurs our vision of what is genuinely important: the major problems of the future. According to Roman Krznaric we need to take a panoramic view to be able to combat the climate crisis. He also feels that young people should be given a say in political decisions being take now.

‘How will the children of the future remember us?’ This question was Australian-British philosopher and political scientist Roman Krznaric’s point of departure in writing his latest book, The Good Ancestor. In this book, he argues that future generations should be given a say in contemporary political decisions. This hardly happens at all in our current era of pathologically short-term thinking, according to Krznaric. But how does one become a good ancestor? VPRO Tegenlicht met with Krznaric.

In his recently published book The Good Ancestor, Roman Krznaric calls on us to be better ancestors. So that our children’s children will remember us as agents for change. However, we are currently still too focused on short-term thinking which Krznaric – who also happens to be married to economist Kate Raworth, famous for her work on ‘doughnut economics’ – feels we should abandon. According to him, we are usurping the future and future generations should be given a say in today’s political decisions.