I came across the phrase not long ago while reading Eric Cheyfitz’s book The Disinformation Age: The Collapse of Liberal Democracy in the United States. The title of the introduction—“The Limits of Capitalism’s Imagination”—struck me as not only a deeply evocative way of thinking about the times we live in but also as the core element of the questions a growing number of people are asking about the threats we face as a society and as a planet.The sense of urgency surrounding those limitations is profound when looked at through a generational lens. How else do we explain the fact that a 78-year-old self-described socialist beat his nearest Democratic competitor by a two-to-one margin among 18- to 44-year-old voters in Iowa and won more young New Hampshire primary voters than the rest of the field combined? Clearly change is occurring on a fundamental level. Our youngest cohort of voters is opting for a radical political departure because they have seen the future we have imagined for them, and have found it wanting. [more]

Bill McGarvey of McG Media is an award-winning culture columnist for America magazine. See his previous columns here.