I sense a bit of a fallacy in your argument but maybe you don’t — so, take this for what it’s worth.

I don’t think the person I will be — in terms of the mental state, emotional resilience, actual thoughts as well as the extent to which I’m swayed by such thoughts etc — in the future is the same as what my imagination tells me right now that I will be.

As in, upon changing (under the presumption that it’s a change for the “better” as defined by me uniquely) internally, I am much less likely, if not absolutely unable to be the same person with the exact same ideas / fears etc that I thought I was, prior to that change.

Conversely, prior to changing, I am severely limited in my capacity to understand how I’ll feel / be post that change and so, thoughts about it at present don’t tell me much about where I’ll be.

In many ways, I believe it’s a significant reason as to why folks are so unwilling to make changes — even for the better. Basically, because we cannot somehow “fit” the current way of (internal) life / thinking with how we’ll be, once the changes take place.

That’s not to take away from real suffering that people could experience due to sudden, drastic change in their personal circumstances but I get the sense that you’re talking of stuff that you believe is likely to happen on a more broad scale and not just affecting you personally.

I hate to do this (it generally pisses me off when other people have told me this) but I realized this sort of conundrum — a place my intellect cannot take me because it’s totally foreign and can only catch up once I’ve had the experience(s) — is rather common after I started meditating. I didn’t know how I’d change upon meditating regularly and so no amount of thinking about it, helped me “get there”.