Political Construction of the Image of the Future

In the article, the image of the future is examined as a symbolic form for political communication and is associated with the constructive activities of the authorities to represent the future. Therefore, the image appears in a conceptual form, being the bearer of meaning. The main semantic context is culture, and the language of political culture creates a form of understanding, while the main linguistic means is text. In terms of producing texts and meaningful messages, culture is constructive. The authors interpret the image of the future as such a text. Construction is based on a modeling method where the cultural model serves as a program. So, a text message about the future constructs the reality of the future and we "read" this text in the language of images. In political culture, the text of the future shows its projective character, and the future appears to the imagination as a universally valid goal. When juxtaposing times in the semiotic way, the first place is taken by the present, where all images are signified. The image of the future is given only in the categories of apperception; this is an indubitable construct, idealized and close to the imaginary world. Since the future exists in the modus of probability and in the casus of opportunity, it is, in fact, virtual. In the present, the future is encoded in language. If the "writer" of the text is usually a futurologist, a social scientist, or a political visionary, then the "reader" is the "collective personality". This is how the image of the future, representing the mental trend of the present (connected with the past), is formed. Actually, people believe in the "code", "knowledge", which is transmitted through political communication. The main model of a politically controlled future is the "chaos - cosmos" mythology, according to which a new world is being proclaimed. The medieval foresight of the future was based on the idea of predestination. In the modern period, with its value of the "new", the idea of determinism dominated, which is paid special attention to in the article. In view of this, the concepts "new" and "future" are distinguished. It is concluded that political power used the symbolism of the "new" to shift the emphasis from the problems of the present to a prosperous future and thus drew its foundation from it (Zygmunt Bauman). Both Mikhail Bakhtin and Zygmunt Bauman came to the same conclusion: control over the future legitimizes power in the present. But the nature of capitalism and the class character in the distribution of its symbolic awards led to the materialization of two projects of the future: "Soviet" and "informational". Two modes of penetration of the future into the present arose: the purchase of its material attributes and the preparation of special political optics for its identification. In the era of postmodernity, under the conditions of the deconstruction of the image of the future, the symbolic activity of the authorities in modeling the future almost came to naught.

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