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Introduction:

For a better understanding of the concept of Open Future, we will take a closer look at the 5 absences, which together with the 5 cruelties make the foundation of the concept of Open Future. 
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Open Future is positive thinking, understanding that the future is in our hands; we can make of it what we want. The people who united in Bolivia forcing the government to not privatize the water supplies understood the concept of open future, the anti-apartheid movement understood it, rising up against a system that seemed to be a given, and creating something new and different. 
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The Five Absences are: 
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1. Open Future builds on absence of alienation 
We live in a globalized world where important political decisions are taken far away from the people the decisions affect. People are taught to rely on authorities and politicians to decide and implement the policies and guidelines for how to behave. Many people work for a wage without having influence on the work they do. Many factory workers have no relation to the product they produce and in many cases they can&rsquo;t even afford to buy it. Small farmers are affected by global markets far away never knowing what is going on but feeling the hardship of an unfair global competition between big agri-businesses and small local farmers. Young men and women are sent to war believing they will be heroes. They find themselves killing innocent civilians and they come back as broken human beings. Many millions of people live as refugees without ever being part of the conflict that has displaced them. Often they do not know the underlying conflicts and they do not get the possibility to create a new life with meaning where they have arrived. In much of the world consumerism are introduced to people as the road to happiness. Along with consumerism the physical and mental health of people have been challenged with high rates of illnesses like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and depression.&nbsp; 
Taking control of own life and learning how to prevent alienation from life and reality is a must if we want to keep the future open. 
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2. We build on practice, which must be on, be with and be orientated to something other than itself. We might call this the absence of emptiness 
In an individualized capitalist society, where the life of people is mostly centered on themselves or their family, we can find many people feeling lonely and depressed. The lack of meaning in life leads to emptiness and fragile or disordered relations to other people. If we live a rich and meaningful life, in the sense of including many more people in it, creating togetherness in many aspects of life, collectively creating something important for our surroundings, we feel fulfilled. If people work, without setting goals and making plans the work becomes random, and they do not achieve much. They overlook important matters which are necessary to develop in order to change a situation or they think they can or should manage alone. If you only work for personal wealth like getting more and more money, 2 homes, 2 cars and other material things, you soon reach the point that nothing can satisfy you. Striving only for personal wealth is an empty life where happiness only exists as a myth. 
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3. We build on the material world, on nature and on a transformational model of political and social activity, which means that we never begin from scratch. This again means that we build upon what nature, including mankind, has already generated. We call this that we build on change. We might call this the absence of negation of transformation. 
If we want to progress in life we should use what already exists in nature, use the knowledge and technologies that are already there. We do not start from scratch and waste precious time. We build on change to develop further and develop new ideas to improve the production. We use old and new technologies to advance our work and our ability to bring needed change to our communities and the world at large. We do not do the same things over and over but we build on our experience to form new and better ideas as a never ending process. We need to be in the mood of learning new things all the time. 
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4. We build on the idea that matter can develop to new matter, actually the idea of emerging, on the idea that things can develop, actually this is the changing power of all matter, and we build on the idea of things, matter, events having their own perspective, their own holistic meaning and finally that it or they can lack morality or possess their own falsity or own truth. We might call this the absence of stagnation. 
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5. We build on the idea of a eudemonistic society, having each and every one of us being well, each of us enjoying well being and of us living well, this all consisting of the full realization of our human potential or according to Aristotle having each of us with rational activity exhibiting excellence. 
We might call this striving for a eudemonic society. 
We might also call it the absence of sloppy social minds and practices. 
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