This is a long but very worth reading essay on the real world, via Michael Ende's The Neverending Story

    (archived link)

... All empires fall. It is up to us to imagine their alternatives. To live as though the future we are dreaming is already named. To be unafraid to answer its call in the dark, and come into a new world of our making. "And joy filled him from head to foot," writes Ende, when Bastian has finally realized his greatest wish is love. ...