I wonder if hope is applicable any more in this modern world.
In an age where almost everything can be explained or reasoned by means of physics, biology, chemistry, technology, or good old cause-and-effect logic, is there any room in our psyche for the concept of “hope”? Clearly it still exists in our culture, but is it necessary? Is it healthy, or are we simply deluding ourselves into a fantasy world?
I’ve always thought of hope as, “emotional wishing”, and in many contexts, I think this description fits it pretty well. Hope is often viewed as the true wishes of the heart, the desires of the inner person for events to transpire in a particular way, to turn out in the favor of the hopeful or of their friends and family.
Wishes are, for the most part, irrational longings. They are what people want to happen regardless of the probability of it actually coming to pass. Despite all odds or impossibilities, wishes remain a staple part of many people’s lives, coming into play both as children and adults, simply changing in content as the individual moves through life. Some consider wishes to be free; they are the unfettered desires of the mind, free to float about, unchained from reality’s sensibilities and accountabilities.
I have always viewed wishes as being quite dangerous and often inappropriate. Large amounts of wishing often means that the individual is not tied closely with reality in their mind, or they are avoiding the arduous task of dealing with harsh and unpleasant events and situations. Using wishes in this manner is a self-delusion akin to drowning your sorrows in an alcohol-fuelled fog, only this one is completely self-brewed and bottled, labelled with fantasy, corked with irrationality, and leading up to one hell of a “morning after”, complete with a psychological walk of shame.
Wishing as a child for events is simply a matter of being young and ignorant of the inner workings of reality; wishing as an adult is a denial of the basic fundamentals of life, resulting in a moment of irrationality — a cowering of the mind behind its fantastical blanky. On the whole, wishing ends up being a fruitless waste of time and energy in most cases.
Hope would no doubt be described by people in a much different manner. There is an element to hope that wishing does not encompass; a sense of purpose, of assuredness, or guarantee. The hoper is often very committed to their vision of reality.
The religious would say that their hope for the spiritual rewards and gifts are backed by their tenants; their hopes are the true longings of an inspired and faith-filled heart, backed with a spiritual insurance policy and guarantee of deliverance. Years of study and teachings, exposure to the ideas of the faith, and stories of others who have benefited from their particular religion lend much “evidence” to their experience, often making doubt a thing to keep far away from the core of the belief.
Others view hope as a sort of emotional bridge between what you really desire to happen and the reality of the situation. In this manner, hope appears to be a wish backed by some rationality or evidence, but not fully, and the desire to merge the current reality with the proposed end result is filled in with emotion and desire in the form of hope. Perhaps Johnny has a job interview with Google. He know he has a decent chance of getting a job, but he’s not certain of it, so he hopes that the result will be a new position. There is nothing at all to suggest that he has the job in the bag, 100%, but it’s leaning in a certain direction. Hope, in this case, does the rest of the work.
So is hope harmful? I often wonder about this because, although wishing is purposely unbacked by evidence or rationality, there are certain moments in which hope plays a similar role. There are
great
swaths of
people who rely
upon their
own justifications for
their hopes, no matter
how self-deluded they are. There are great swaths of people who rely upon their own justifications for their hopes, no matter how self-deluded they are. Their hopes are rationalized out by their own logic, but that evidence is flawed to start with, so the resulting hope is likewise erroneous.
Thus, I usually try to shy away from making both wishes and hopes for my life. If I find myself utilizing one of these justifications for holding onto a vision of an alternate or futuristic reality, I chide myself, mostly because I can never be sure that my own rationalizations for feeling a particular way have a foundation in unbiased logic. I can say that I hope that my child is beautiful, but I have no evidence to support this thought. Of course, I have no evidence to the contrary, either, so my stakes are evened out in this particular case. But the point stands that I probably do not have a rational reason and I am better off in the long run if I mull over the odds as they really are and not as I wish them to be.
A great deal of people would no doubt argue against the idea that hope is no longer applicable, saying it gives emotional and mental coping power to those in difficult situations, allowing them to continue on in the face of adversity. While I agree that it does seem to have empowered the many inspirational folk to weather the storms of life, I wonder what delusions they have had to ascribe to in order to accept such hope into their minds to the point where it was a motivational factor? Which person is more likely to be wiser and better balanced after an experience, the one that states, “I always had hope that this would turn out OK” or the one that shakes their head and says, “Look, I didn’t have a hope in the world. Everything was against us, nothing was going right, and we buckled down and did what we could. The fact that we ended up here is nothing short of amazing.” Which person has learned a more valuable lesson in life?
I do not think that hope is completely and utterly useless. There are times in which we should allow ourselves to go, to dream the impossible dream, to envision the world that we would create if our minds would allow us. Like a daydream, these fuel creativity, passion, inspiration, and amusement. It is, however, difficult to recommend the path of hope as a regular implement when life instead calls for wisdom, rationale, and realistic coping skills. These tools end up giving the person a much firmer foundation upon which to weather the hurricanes and persevere through all the nasties that are thrown at them.
I wish for you, all of you, the best and most productive use of hope in your lives.
Author’s Note: This entry is the second round in a Blog-Off run by Courtney Slavin of Five Second Dance Party. Each week we have to write a blog entry centred around one word. This weeks’ word is, “hope”. To read the blog entries of others that are participating, head on over to The List. The proceeds of this Blog-Off go to support breast cancer research and prevention. Â And who doesn’t like breasts, really?
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