Whenever I hear or see the word “hope”, I mentally preface it with the word “false”. Just like whenever I hear the word “believe” I mentally preface it with the word “make”. These two words are generally useless and occasionally dangerous.
Hope could be defined as the emotional state of desiring a positive or beneficial future (at least for the person doing the hoping — one person’s hope could be another person’s despair). It could also be defined as wishful thinking. Hope unfulfilled can become false hope which causes negative mental and emotional states.
You try despite risk of failure; hope doesn’t effect the outcome (unless hope substitutes for action in which the outcome is forfeit). You might ask why would you take action towards something you were not hopeful of achieving? My response would be why does it matter? Hope is a useless state at best and a damaging state at worst.
Camus suggested that a despairing situation without hope can be lived to the fullest, with satisfaction and even happiness. That what we do defines us more than how we might feel about the situation. Perhaps, in some ways. But even so, we shouldn’t be satisfied with such situations.
Drudgery is drudgery. We should not be satisfied with unsatisfying work. We must resolve such situations. Or at least try. It is the active pursuit in and of itself that is the most important thing. The outcome is meaningless. Hoping for an outcome is looking past what really matters.
There isn’t an actual problem yet a solution to a needless question is proposed. Life is meaningless and absurd; hope is a wasted disposition. Why is that a problem? Perhaps the more interesting question is why do we make it a problem? Metaphysical masturbation. We cannot let go and accept reality without an explanation.
The absence of hope is not despair. You can be “without hope” yet not be in a state of hopelessness. You can’t hope yourself out of a problem, action is required. Hope without action is useless; hope with action is pointless.
I choose action. And whatever the outcome is, so be it.
3 thoughts on “Regarding Emotional Projection onto an Imaginary Canvas”
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.
Or just be generally prepared and not feel one way or the other about it.
I can’t imagine being totally disinterested in how things turn out in a given situation. We all wish for things to turn out one way or another. Maybe “hope” isn’t the right word in that case but “expectations”. I suppose the best way to feel about things is to not be devastated when things don’t turn out the way you’d expected, wished for, hoped or planned. But there’s certainly nothing wrong with being happy or even jubilant when things go your way.