Hope Got a Bad Rap
So, maybe it's time to reframe it.
Hope as defined in the Oxford Languages Dictionary is “A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”
As defined in the current Doomer Languages Dictionary it is, “A wasted, misinformed, and stupid belief in things getting better.”
People in all walks of life are accused by those “in the know” as being addicted to “hopium.” While this may have been cute and clever at one time, it’s now just a dismissive and derogatory epithet directed at anyone who doesn’t believe what you believe.
It is, along with any reference to the Titanic, time to set it aside and start to walk the path of kindness, compassion and courage.
People who have accepted the dire nature of the predicament that we are in have, in my opinion, a responsibility to help those who have not yet realized what is happening.
Our job is to be there when people need us not to shut them out by attacking them and how they are living their lives.
There is no difference between a person like your favorite Fox News host telling thier audience what to believe and who to hate and a doomer telling people what to believe and who to hate.
The result of that approach is to alienate the listener and do nothing to change the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
I would no more be swayed by the argument that pedophiles with flamethrowers burning babies in underground tunnels were responsible for the fires in Southern California than a person who has not yet accepted our plight will be swayed by the argument that the planet is irreperably damaged and things are going to be exponentially worse in the near future.
I don’t believe that hope is misplaced in people who have an interest in that hope being realized.
People who have children don’t want their children to suffer and that’s not wrong.
People who are trying to make things work in their lives, who have bills to pay, and food to buy are not wrong for hoping that their situation will improve, even if it’s just a marginal improvement.
Are people who hope for a better future wrong?
I hope not.
Are people who believe we can do better wrong?
I hope not.
Are people who hope that the massive amount of suffering we’re experiencing can be somehow lessened?
I hope not.
Has my experience shown that their hopes will not bear fruit?
Yes, but that doesn’t give me the right to attack them, and it doesn’t give me the right to denigrate them, or marginalize them, or dismiss them.
What it does do is give me a responsibility to guide them when needed, to catch them when they fall, to be there for them, and to help in any way that I can when everything they hope for is gone.
What I hope for is to have the strength and courage to be the person that I think I am.
I hope that you never give up on HOPE Michael. I find solace in the idea that people like you will always be there, even in humanities darkest hours.
Reality is a responsibility we share. When reality is hard we have an obligation to make that reality as understandable and honest as possible.