Living or Not Living Possible Lives: Reflection on Hope and Structural Change

• The concept of "the possible" has become constrained by neoliberal logic, reducing imaginative capacity to what is statistically probable rather than what is genuinely transformative.
• Current societal structures—marked by housing crises, systemic racism, and global conflicts—have fostered a profound sense of exhaustion and historical pessimism.
• "The possible" serves as a speculative tool for visualizing alternative social systems, yet it is often co-opted as an individualistic strategy of "self-improvement" that keeps people in a state of continuous, unsatisfied waiting.

The Crisis of Possibility

• Contemporary existence is defined by a tension between real-world violence and the limited, socially "factible" horizons allowed by existing power structures.
• The pervasive idea that "everything is possible" is a capitalist trope that erases non-conforming subjectivities that do not align with dominant narratives of economic growth.
• The distinction between the "possible" and the "probable" has collapsed, leaving individuals stuck in a loop of unfulfilled promises and the pressure to remain productive.

Reclaiming Speculative Practice

• Drawing on theorists such as Remedios Zafra, Franco "Bifo" Berardi, and Marina Garcés, the essay argues that the current mode of living is unsustainable and detached.
• True possibility requires breaking free from the "everything is possible" myth and the constraints of what is deemed socially viable.
• Instead of being a passive hope, "the possible" should function as a collective practice of resistance that challenges the status quo and seeks to re-integrate the present with the capacity for structural change.
• The author references María Tinaut's work on farewell letters as a catalyst for questioning the paralysis that prevents individuals from pursuing the lives they once envisioned.