Hope and wishing is functional, as is religion. Just as religion, when well founded and handled in moderation using man’s ability to reason you find a tool that people can use. You may say to yourself, but this is merely psychological, and not functional, and thus Hoping is still benign.

I would argue that it matters not how “psychological” you would like to call something, if it has an effect on behavior than it is indeed real, because we can measure behavior and thus changes in such. It matters not if it is a positive or negative effect.

To find the answer to that would take a very large study sample in modern scientific thinking, but most philosophers would agree to such a degree that hope generally instills a positive change in emotion and thus behavior that it can be logically assumed for the purpose of argument. That is to say that it is widely assumed that hope promotes a positive change in a person, and this is universally accepted as having such a property.

I would digress for you for a moment, and I say this at the end here, because it would put an end to much of your argument, by saying that hope is not so much “emotional wishing” as it is “physio-emotional believing”. That is to say it creates a biological effect on a person, measured by either a change in brain chemistry or actual behavior which alters the state of one’s reality. Myassertion is based on the assumption that people are only truly “hoping” when they strongly want a specific desired outcome enough to work for it, or believe it will occur and are working towards it. And I say this because if you tell me you are “hoping” that you will get an ‘A’ on your term paper, then you have done or are doing something to make the ‘A’ happen, and not turning in a blank piece of paper. (Note this does not mean you are applying yourself with the entirety of your potential.

Your work is not risk free, and I think it is great you articulated your impression so well.

If we all had the same idea or belief system the world would not be as interesting as it is. I love to learn different opinions, and the whys and wherefores of folks’ choices.

I think the real problem with dreams is that we get so stuck on our dreams happening the way we want, we pout when it doesn’t work like that, rather than finding joy in what we have. But I haven’t done any scientific research or anything. *grin*

At any rate, I’ll try to clarify and reword a few points from the above. I think hope, wishes, and dreams all have their rightful place. I do not, however, think that they hold as much importance as most people tend to give them. There’s two reasons why I think so:

1. Disappointment — Live is never what you expect it to be. Even when you have tons of evidence and information that something will happen in a particular way, it never ends up being how you envisioned. There are tons of twists and turns and changes that you never expect even in your craziest dreams. Those that hope and wish too much end up with tons of disappointment all the time when life does what it does best — throwing whole boxes of wrenches in the gears. I used to hope in high school that I would go to college, do excellent, graduate with a kickass job, meet the girl of my dreams while I was there, get married, 2.5 kids, etc, etc. None of that came to pass how I hoped and dreamed it would. Most of it, not even close.

So, I learned that life is, at best, a matter of expecting the unexpected. Doing so doesn’t allow for much serious hoping and wishing. Therefore, I try to curtail such activities when it concerns real, serious stuff. Does that mean that I don’t wish or hope from time to time? No, of course I do. I also sit on my ass and watch crappy TV on occasion, too. I think both activities have about the same merit, however.

2. People who Hope and Wish and Dream instead of Living — There are far too many people who fail to live in the current moment and instead choose to render fantasy landscapes in their minds of how their lives will be one day in the future. While I can somewhat understand why they might do this, especially if their life really sucks, it still ends up deluding them and preventing them from accurately and responsibly taking care of the issues at hand. Essentially, living the life they have now instead of waiting for what “might be” which, as I said above, almost never happens. Time and time again you hear of someone in denial about their relative dying from cancer, or about their children being completely hellions and needing help, or someone’s alcohol problem. Denial is hoping for what isn’t and failing to accept or acknowledge what is. While denial is sometimes a coping mechanism, it is also sometimes a means for avoiding the heartache of dealing with the situation.

I only wish for everyone to realize both the joys and sorrows of the Here and Now, because so many fail to do so and only in retrospect do they realize their mistake, rendering it too late to do so. Hope, Wish, and Dream if you must for your own entertainment and “magic”, but please don’t use it as a means to escape and avoid.

There were more, but these three quotes stick out. They just made me sad that your life is so structured in the rational that you do not even allow yourself the simple pleasure of wishes and hope. Rational thought is good but it can only take you so far.

I think everyone needs a little magic in their lives and wishes and dreams help provide that.