- Hope is the most useless concept in the English language!
- Without Hope people will perish!
Which of the two above ideas is true? Is Hope a useless idea or is Hope essential for human progress and prosperity? In my blog this week, I would like to explore each of these ideas and then you can make up your mind which point of view you choose to accept.
Hope as Useless Concept:
If you believe in Hope, you have to believe in God or a higher power because Hope nullifies any effort on your part to change anything. For instance, I say “I Hope to win the lottery.” This is nothing short of wishing for a miracle or wishing that a higher power will take favor on me and overcome the billion to one odds against my ticket winning. Or I might say “I Hope my children will grow up and be happy and prosperous.” What power can make this happen except an all-powerful entity that many call God? If I am hoping for my children to be happy it appears that I can do nothing more to make this happen than to sit on a rock and repeat “Hope, Hope, Hope, over and over again.
When did Hope ever change anything. Change takes effort both mentally and physically. Hope relies on something ephemeral that will happen to spontaneously make things better. “I Hope I will do well on the test tomorrow.” As Yoda said about the word “Try”, “There is no try, there is either DO or DO NOT.” Hoping will never get you good grades. Study, practice, and more study are the only things that have ever led to good grades. Do you get to Carnegie Hall by Hoping? The trope that Carnegie Hall puts on their refrigerator magnets and tote bags reads “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.” It does not say “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Hope, Hope, Hope.”
Perhaps Hope is an idea supported by those who want to keep the masses quiet and lazy. Karl Marx said that “Religion is the opiate of the Masses.” I have often said that today “Sports is the opiate of the masses.” Hope is simply another opiate. We can keep hoping that Donald Trump will not be elected. We can keep hoping that the Israeli Palestinian problem will be resolved. We can keep hoping that our lives will be healthy. We can hope all day long and nothing is going to happen unless we get off our butts and fight to change things.
Generative AI defines Effort as follows:
“Effort is the physical or mental activity needed to achieve something. It can also refer to the use of energy to get something done, or the exertion of strength or mental power.”
Effort means doing something. Either you use your brain, or you use your muscles, but you do something that leads to a desired outcome. Hope does not imply any such effort. Here are three AI definitions of Hope:
“As a noun, hope is a feeling that something good will happen or be true. It can also mean a desire accompanied by expectation, or the thing that one has a hope for.”
“As a verb, hope means ‘to expect with confidence’ or ‘to cherish a desire with anticipation’.”
“In the Bible, hope is a confident expectation of what God has promised. It is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future, with moral certainty.”
So, Hope comes down to an expectation or feeling. An expectation or feeling that without any effort on your part, God, or something else is going to provide you with some desired outcome. To win that lottery, all you need to do is Hope long and hard enough and you will be rewarded with tons of cash. I only Hope you do not spend it all in one place.
To sum up, those who Hope for what they want are living in a fool’s paradise of dreams and wishes. I would expect that the same people who put all their faith in Hope also believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I have already mentioned a belief in a benevolent God that begs credibility and reality.
Hope as Essential for Happiness and Progress:
How could we ever make progress without dreams and wishes? Who would ever have the motivation to try anything or to make any effort if they were not fueled by Hope. By a belief that their efforts would and could achieve a desired effect. The Bible says that “Without Hope, the people will perish.” Can you imagine a life without Hope? It would be a sad cruel world if people could not at least believe that tomorrow may be better than today. That tomorrow could bring an end to the wars and violence that plague our world.
All good things must have Hope behind them. I married my present wife with the Hope that I could do a better job on this marriage than I did on the first. I started college after being a terrible student in high school with the Hope that I would have the focus and discipline at 25 years of age that I did not have when I was fourteen years old.
There are many pragmatic concepts that we can use as rules or guides for our lives. Some of them make good sense. Some do not. Hope does not lend itself well to pragmatism. Hope is of the soul and spirit and not of the brain and intellect. Great minds may say that Hope is for fools, but many of our “great minds” tend to be bigger fools because they ignore the emotional needs of people. Hope is food for the spirit and soul just as ideas and theories are food for the mind. People need both a heart and a brain to live. Without Hope, there is no heart.
I am sure that you are familiar with the popular author Robert Fulghum. I think his first book was “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” This was a book of short essays written with some great insights and a very imaginative sense of humor. One of the quotes from this book that pertained to the concept of Hope was this bit of wisdom:
“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That Hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
To sum up, Hope comes from the heart. Without Hope we are not human beings. With no hope we are little more than automatons. Robots will probably never be able to hope. They are quite logical. A robot can waste no effort on Hope. Can you imagine Commander Spock from the original Star Trek series exclaiming, “Gee, I Hope we can get back to the ship in one piece.” Spock would never have issued such a plea, but Bones or Dr. McCoy would be quite comfortable with the sentiment. Kirk on the other hand would be too busy dashing about to worry about Hope either for better or worse.
Conclusions:
What do you think friends? Do we strike Hope from our vocabulary and set off for a brave new world with logic and knowledge or do we take a moment each day for a prayer of Hope. What if a prayer blended both points of view? In case you do want such a prayer, here is a Buddhist prayer that I think would help your soul and spirit without stepping too hard on your faith in logic and knowledge. — Sorrow & Hope: Prayer to Kuan Yin, Mar 31, 2018, Dharma Insights, News
Aging Capriciously 
Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:38:49
Hmm, I never thought that hope required God’s intervention, and I don’t think I’ll start now! I’ll go with the cherishing a dream in anticipation defn in your first part. But my vote is with your second approach. Hope can be thought of as keeping (or trying to keep) a positive outlook, knowing that’s not the way things may turn out. I agree, hope comes from the heart. But I can’t quite see why it requires a prayer. 😊
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:44:08
Thanks Jane for your insights. I thought a prayer of Hope was a useful idea when all seems dismal and hopeless. Something to help us focus on the possibilities that are still out there. The war in Gaza and Trumps looming election may have many of us feeling rather bleak about the “state of the world.” I really liked this Buddhist prayer.
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:53:51
Jane, By the way, the “God” of whom I speak could be a doctor, teacher, engineer, parent, priest, pope or just some ether that is out there. Just as long as anyone nebulously “hopes” in something they are in a very ethereal sense looking for some “divine” intervention that comes from elsewhere. IMHO John
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:59:28
That’s a very interesting interpretation of the word “God”, John! 😊
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 21:02:56
I have a very liberal idea of God Jane. God is all knowing and all powerful. If he/she were possible it does not seem possible that any “all knowing” entity could have created the world we live in. Of course, the religious claim that God gave us “Free Will” and that caused all of our problems. The issue I see is where are all the “free will” thinkers? It looks like “God” only gave it to a select few and he/she forgot all the Trump supporters. A little humor there I hope. Have a Happy New Year Jane.
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 21:08:24
LOL. Our philosophy group is reading the history of western philosophy. We’ve just got past several centuries of fine minds spending all their time – decades – trying to prove that God exists. Talk about a waste of good brain power. Surely God would think so, too! 😏 Happy New Year, John!
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 21:19:50
Jane, The first book that I read after joining the military in 1964 was Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy. I made a goal then to read directly from the works of all the famous philosophers in the world both Western and Eastern. Reading their actual works was very enlightening. Summaries do have their place though and are a great prelude to reading and understanding the actual works of some of the more obtuse philosophers. I loved Kant, Ellul, Wittgenstein, Hegel, Lao Tzu, Russell and Schopenhauer and of course Plato. John
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 21:37:21
You’d probably enjoy our philosophy group. We’ve “done” him before, but Kant is our next chapter. He’s pretty darned indecipherable!
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 23:49:17
I am sure that I would love your group. How did you find one like that? I can’t think of too many people who love to read philosophy, much less discuss its nuances. John
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Dec 30, 2023 @ 07:30:48
No, we can’t think of anyone else we know either, including our spouses! There are 9 of us now; we’re all retired profs and former colleagues. We’re an eclectic group: we include a historian whose specialty is the history of science, a poet who ran our creative writing program, a chemist, a geometry specialist, a social worker, an ethicist, 2 university librarians with PhDs in philosophy, and me, a former computer scientist. We end up laughing a lot as we try to parse through what we’ve read!
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Dec 30, 2023 @ 09:08:01
Sounds like a wonderful group Jane. I am envious. Hope your group stays together for a long time. My Happy New Year to all. John
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:42:39
I think ‘hope’ without ‘effort’ is fairly useless and pointless. Without putting in the work how can we expect that sitting back on our butts ‘hoping’ things will work out will do the job? We need to put in the effort – study and work hard to pass that exam; campaign for the politician talking sense so the ‘idiot’ doesn’t get voted in; eat sensibly, exercise to care for our health – rather than just hope things will go well.
An exception I can think of is when we’re incapable of putting in any effort – maybe ill in hospital – but rather than give up all hope we place that hope in others eg. Doctors, nurses. When all hope is lost we do indeed perish! Hope is what keeps us going.
I ‘hope’ you have a good and healthy 2024 John 😊
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 18:58:04
I sure agree about the state of the world. It IS a nice prayer, and if it helps give you hope, so much the better. All the books I’ve been reading lately remind me that nothing has changed at all throughout the millennia wrt mankind; those in charge start wars to keep their power and/or land (or oil), and it never stops for long. I’m beginning to think that we’d have been a kinder and more collaborative species if we’d evolved from the bonobos instead of the chimps! Bonobos have a far less violent society!!
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Dec 29, 2023 @ 21:09:42
I agree with you 100 percent Jane. The more I read the more I realize that little has really changed in respect to human nature. I think people are what their leadership make them for the most part. There are many exceptions but you can go back hundreds if not thousands of years and find instances of greed and fear and barbarism that would fit nicely in with our current world. John
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Jan 03, 2024 @ 13:46:58
My Friend Socorro wrote the following comment but did not find a way to publish it. I am publishing her comment on hope below.
“Hope is a wish, anticipation, and yearning. While thinking is first, the doing is the next step. I hope for a better world and can’t get discouraged. What I appreciate about you and Karen is your contributions to a better world. Here is one example.
You start with people. Your home is holiday hospitality. You consider your guests for the menu and purchased accordingly. The preparation and presentation will be exquisite. What will be anticipated most is the conversation.
The other recent examples are the music she plays and you are there helping. Your writing is influential read by many worldwide as you age capriciously. You teach young scholars and she joins fellow musicians. Your travels bring people to exchange ideas and experiences. You care for your bodies with exercise discipline. Actually, discipline is a word to describe both of you.
I conclude that hope is love. Thank you for your hope to make a better world.”
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