Mr. Peters, why are you writing this book right now?

Robert Peters: Because we live in a time when, as a society, we are permanently stuck in crisis and alarm mode. Pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, climate change, technological disruption – much of it overlaps.

My book is an attempt to show: this powerlessness is not a law of nature. It arises wherever we lose sight of how much we can achieve even under seemingly adverse conditions. We are increasingly losing faith in being able to reach a good tomorrow from our present-day world. And that is precisely where we must start if democracy and future-building are to work.

In your book, you speak of “Problem First.” What do you mean by that?

Robert Peters: We often treat problems like disturbances that should disappear as quickly as possible. That is humanly understandable but strategically wrong. Problems are the fuel for innovation. They show us where change is needed. If we learn to use problems productively, frustration becomes creative energy.

You write that we can only confront permanent crises with “radical imagination.” What does that mean concretely?

Robert Peters: Dauerkrisen lassen sich nicht mit Routinen aus der Vergangenheit bewältigen. Wir denken Zukunft meist linear und oft negativ. Das lähmt unsere Handlungsfähigkeit.

Radical imagination means having the courage to concretely envision a good future – beyond crisis rhetoric and short-term crisis management. Imagination becomes radical when it transcends existing boundaries of thought and makes not only risks but also possibilities visible.

For these new visions of the future to be heard, they must be connectable: they need language, images, and narratives that provide orientation without denying complexity. And they need spaces in which politics, business, and society can negotiate together about the future — not just about problems. Only in this way can what we urgently need come about: trust in our collective capacity to shape the world.

To develop these radical imaginative capacities, we should …

• ask ourselves the question: “What does a Germany look like in which I personally would like to live in ten or fifteen years?”
• on this basis, enter together into a process of negotiation about what kind of Germany we want to build together
• and create spaces specifically for these questions — spaces in which such fundamental questions can be raised and discussed at all.

Closing words: I hope that everyone in our society regains faith in their own and in our shared power to shape things as democrats.