"Call a person a "futurist," and everybody crowds around to hear a tale of doom – and maybe what we can do to avoid it. Call a person a "hippie," and everybody runs for cover.
I think the difference really is in the language each uses. When someone talks about thinking seven generations, or 20 generations, or 100 generations into the future with our decisions about energy consumption and food consumption, that person is a hippie, and therefore crazy. When someone talks about running out of food and oil in 300 years, and describes what the world will look like if we don't start doing x, y, and z, that person is a futurist, and therefore a visionary." - The Alchemical Nursery
