Every so often, the world reaches a point where even the most committed defenders of “the way things are” have to admit that the way things are is looking way too much like the way things shouldn't be.
The world we now live in has reached that point, and then some.
Much of what confronts us daily as a species - anger, division, tribalism, greed, violence, abuse - is not only horrifying, it’s tired. Stale. Calcified. Like bread crusts baked in some previous millennium. History’s reheated leftovers, nourishing no one.
Make It New (Again)
But the past can also provide us with the perfect mantra for this moment.
Make it new.
“Make it new” was a fervent rallying cry that echoed through intellectual and artistic circles in the early to mid-20th century. For the modernists, it captured a deep hunger for innovation and a decisive break from traditions that no longer reflected lived reality.
These creatives and thinkers were navigating a period of profound upheaval. The foundations of society felt unstable. Old certainties were wobbling. The established order built over centuries was starting to look precarious.
Sound familiar?
Attuned to this cultural tremor, the “Make it new” pioneers sensed that fresh modes of expression were urgently required. They dismantled inherited structures and invented new ways of seeing, interpreting, and communicating the human condition, because the old ones simply couldn’t bear the weight of a changed world.
An Alternate Future
Today, we need an even deeper kind of newness.
Beyond poems, paintings, or philosophies. We need to make new our future.
There’s no time left for repeatedly banging our heads, or someone else’s, against the same walls and calling it a long-term plan for humanity’s evolution.
So what does an alternate future look like?
I call it Elevation.
The Four Life Lifters
Elevation is made possible by what I refer to as the Four Life Lifters: Joy, Creativity, Connection, and Purpose.
Think of them as emotional scaffolding. Without them, everything collapses into cynicism, burnout, and yelling at strangers online.
Joy
Joy has been terribly misunderstood. Somewhere along the line it got confused with being silly, shallow, or suspiciously happy. In truth, it’s one of our most reliable forms of resilience.
Joy is what keeps people human when things are hard. A joyless world doesn’t just become serious, it becomes cruel. And a joyless person is rarely a constructive thinker. They’re too busy being locked in grievance.
Creativity
Creativity isn’t reserved for people with notebooks, berets, or strong opinions about font choices.
Creativity is simply the ability to imagine alternatives.
And that ability is absolutely essential if we want a future that doesn’t look exactly like the mess we’ve already perfected. No creativity means no solutions, just louder arguments about whose fault it is.
Connection
Connection really shouldn’t be controversial, though we’ve somehow managed to make it so.
Humans are social creatures. We regulate our nervous systems through other people. When connection breaks down, empathy evaporates and fear rushes in to fill the gap.
A disconnected society becomes anxious, reactive, and easily manipulated.
Purpose
Purpose doesn’t require a manifesto or a podcast.
It simply answers one question: Why does what I do matter?
Without purpose, people default to status, accumulation, and comparison. With purpose, they contribute. They care. They think beyond themselves.
Entire cultures lift when purpose replaces pure self-interest.
The Encouraging Bit
Now here’s the encouraging part.
You don’t need to fix the whole world to make it new. That’s exhausting, and frankly above everyone’s pay grade.
Making it new starts much closer to home.
It starts with how you show up.
What you reward with your attention.
The tone you bring into rooms.
The conversations you choose to elevate instead of inflame.
Every time you choose humour over hatred, you’re making it new.
Every time you create instead of consume mindlessly, you’re making it new.
Every time you connect instead of retreating into rigid certainty, you’re making it new.
Every time you act with a positive purpose, not just out of habit, you’re making it new.
How the Future Actually Changes
This is what changes the world. Millions of small, lifted decisions made by conscious people who’ve decided the old way isn’t working anymore.
We are those people.
The future isn’t something that happens to us.
It’s something we intend and action into being.
Let’s make it new and see just how freaking fabulous an elevated future can be.
Happy elevation, Anthony
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