Hope No More?
What is this feeling and why must I have it?
Here’s a question:
Is hope useful?
We use it all the time in activism circles so that implies we think it must be. We say, whether it’s about climate, peace, justice, “a better world” and so on:
Well, I still have hope.
I am hopeful!
And we convince others:
Have hope!
Don’t give up hope!
There’s been writing here on this Substack about the importance of hope, of maintaining hope and I myself have said all of the above and even now, as I write this, I still! feel! hope!
But…I am starting to wonder. What is this feeling and why must I have it?
So let’s do a deep dive on hope.
Hope is defined as “to want something to happen or be true” with a few variations on that theme via https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope)
It is tied to feelings of expectation and desire.
I am especially intrigued by the association of hope with DESIRE.
Hope WANTS. Hope YEARNS.
Hope is rather DESPERATE for results.
Hope is urgently seeking fulfilment!
Hope is leaning hard towards a future arrival!
Hope is looking down the road with deep expectation, with high anticipation, for…whatever it is that hope is so urgently seeking.
When I look at hope this way, I have to wonder…
Is hope ever satisfied?
Doesn’t hope seem like a never ending ache for a future that never comes, because the future, being the future, is always the future and is never right here, right now?
Indeed, sometimes I experience hope as incredibly painful because hope, while so urgently felt, is never, ever actualized.
Hope, by its very definition, never realizes itself. It is always in suspended animation. Waiting. Just waiting. Wanting. Desperate. Yearning. Never allowed to falter…
Huh. Why do I want this again?
Is this yearning meant to guide my steps never ending towards something on the horizon?
Is hope meant to be a motivational force, a constant push so I do not falter? So I do not pause, I do not rest, until whatever hope wants, hope gets?
Hope is starting to sound very demanding! Very controlling! Bossy, even!
Hope is starting to have some very high expectations on my time and energy!
I wonder why we think we need this degree of motivation.
Why must hopeful yearning be presumed as the root of action? Do we think without yearning and desire we will not act?
The assumption that hope is necessary and positive to action is so pervasive, so dominant, I can hardly ask these questions, they feel so terribly taboo: but…let’s keep going…
Why is hope presumed necessary?
Is it really a positive influence?
What are the risks of all this constant craving?
Is this feeling hurting more than it helps?
Is it necessary all of the time?
Why are we always looking forward with hope rather than acknowledging some other feeling that might be existing presently? (What might hope be hiding? Is it displacing grief? Anger? Does it overstep opportunities for joy?)
Doesn’t hope, so obsessed with the future, erase the possibilities right here in the present?
Why is hope cultivated over other emotions? Why is it so often encouraged, and given precedence?
It feels sacrilegious to say “stop hoping” and with hope such a strong habit within me I’m not sure I could stop it even if I wanted to.
Which in turn makes me wonder if hope, being so habituated, has elements of control, of manipulation.
Yearning for something without satisfaction…desperately seeking…always in the grip of desire…keeping hope alive because…
Why? Why “hope”?
I am right back where I started, wondering:
Is hope useful?
Hoping and hoping and hoping and hoping and still hoping…and even if something comes it’s not enough, it’s not enough, more hope is needed, keep hoping! Keep hoping! More! More!
Hope is starting to sound like a type of energetic consumption. It just loops endlessly.
It can exhaust me.
Maybe hope, meant to inspire, might be an energy drain?
So much desperation is embedded in the expectations of hope!
Where is peace? Where is rest? (Allowable only in some hoped for future?)
Why must hope dominate?
Why does hope dominate?
While we are investing so much of ourselves in hope…what other aspects of ourselves might we be missing?
What new paradigm might be found there, hidden by the overwhelm of hope?
Perhaps when we are pushing for hope as a motivator, what we actually want is something else, like… resiliency?
Resiliency is defined as “the ability to recover from and adjust to misfortune or change.”
Unlike hope, resiliency is a practical skill that can be cultivated right now. It is tangible and able to be obtained in the real world of the present moment.
And yet hope gets most (if not all) of the spotlight and the dominant message in much of the activist communication is to be constantly pressured into a state of endless desire and unachievable yearning: to keep HOPING.
Isn’t there too much emphasis on hope?!
So perhaps I won’t say “stop hoping.”
But perhaps I will say, maybe stop hoping some of the time.
Maybe hope needs to lessen its grip a little so there is room for something(s) else (like resiliency) to blossom.
Maybe we can take a break from holding so hard onto hope every once in a while.
Maybe we should honour and acknowledge how tiring the endless yearning of hope can be and try something else on. Maybe we should allow others to try this, too.
Maybe we can make room for some other emotions. Some other motivations.
What would happen if we did?
Weekly News Digest - “The Blowhole”
Here’s a companion piece called “Love is stronger than hope” that stumbled into my inbox at precisely the right moment.
And a piece from Anthropocene about the carbon cost of our digital habits. Plus some advice from David Suzuki about minimizing that cost.
Some good news regarding “constructive taking” from Ecojustice.
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