“To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ~ Buckminster Fuller
The lunch counter sit-ins of the U.S. civil rights movement were profoundly prefigurative. As mixed-race groups of people sat at lunch counters and demanded to be served, they were enacting the integration they wanted.
Critical Mass Bike Rides, like this one in Vancouver, BC also affirm that another world is possible.
Pranks, art interventions, tactical media, alternative festivals and temporary communities can also be effective ways to prefigure the world we want to live in.
An Example
The Oil Enforcement Agency was a 2006 theatrical action campaign in which environmental activists — complete with SWAT-team-like caps and badges, posed as agents of a government agency — one that didn’t exist, but should have. Agents ticketed SUVs, impounded fuel-inefficient vehicles at auto shows and generally modeled a future in which government took climate change seriously.
[caption id="attachment_4254" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Oil Enforcement Agency talks with Office Fred[/caption]