Hope (thelemmy.club)
 

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Maybe I'll use this tactic next time I run into climate doomerism

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  • [โ€“] 23 points 10 hours ago (11 children)

    Thatโ€™s not hope. If anything, itโ€™s spite. Hope is what we tell ourselves to convince ourselves some uncertainty might not be so bad.

    I hope the girl I like likes me back.

    I hope I donโ€™t oversleep in the morning and miss my interview.

    I hope this comment wonโ€™t be lost on the readers.

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  • [โ€“] 19 points 9 hours ago (9 children)

    To add to that, hope is the opposite of fear. Every "I hope" statement can be rephrased as an "I'm afraid" statement.

    I'm afraid she doesn't like me back.

    I'm afraid I'll oversleep.

    I'm afraid this comment will be lost on the readers.

    It's important to maintain the "I hope" mindset.

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  • [โ€“] -1 points 9 hours ago (8 children)

    I disagree with maintaining the โ€œI hopeโ€ mindset. Itโ€™s as dangerous as โ€œIโ€™m afraid,โ€ if not more so.

    Admittedly, my perception is based on my personal experiences, and I must add the obligatory YMMV.

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  • [โ€“] 12 points 9 hours ago* (3 children)

    I hope you're wrong.

    To give a real answer, "I hope" leads to action. "I'm afraid" leads to inaction. Action is required to progress. Inaction is required to regress.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 7 hours ago

    See, I think you have that backwards. "I'm afraid" is an active, albiet negative, emotion, and drives you to find a solution, whether that's running away or turning and facing your fear. "I hope" is entirely passive, you just want the universe to drop your desired outcome in your lap. I see hope as the killer of striving, of trying to make things better. A better positive view is to ask "what can I do to make my desired outcome more likely?" It's not quite as pithy as "I hope...", but it encourages action, rather tgan passivity. Obviously there are some things we don't have any control over, and for those, all we have is hope.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 hours ago

    I hope Iโ€™m wrong too.

    But for me, I learned that to hope is to not take responsibility, and thus my inaction. So now, I have to โ€œdoโ€ and not rely on โ€œhopeโ€. Because for me, there is no invisible hand to do things for me. There is only me. And if I do something, there is no need for hope.

    I hope that makes sense. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

    What's that whole thing, anxiety is fear of the future and regret is fear of the past. I think if you're able to do your best controlling those, you're doing well.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 9 hours ago

    I love this sentiment. And I agree wholeheartedly.

    I try to reverse those though: anxiety is the fear the past will repeat itself, and regret keeps me from making the same mistakes again.

    Itโ€™s twisted, but itโ€™s working.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 9 hours ago* (1 child)

    I've never regretted anything I've done. I only regret the things I didn't do, the thing I didn't say, the feelings I didn't express.

    My mistakes were required to grow and learn. They're part of me and don't define me; we're all better than our worst mistakes.

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  • [โ€“] 14 points 11 hours ago

    Wonderful. ๐Ÿ‘

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 child)
  • [โ€“] 1 point 9 hours ago

    Damn it Morte stop making me feel things.

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  • [โ€“] 0 points 10 hours ago* (2 children)

    Aha, so hope === delusion

    โˆด giving yourself hope === self-delusion

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    When hope is all you have, that's when you need it most. Hope is what makes you get up and do what you have to do to make it another day. Without hope, we'd give up. Never give up. Once you give up, you've lost, even if you regain the advantage.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    Yeah, I've heard evangelicals make the same type of arguments about "faith".

    I agree with Shelley's description of hope and despair as the torturers of the living:

    [...] Hope and despair,
    The torturers, slept; no mortal pain or fear 640
    Marred his repose; the influxes of sense,
    And his own being unalloyed by pain,
    Yet feebler and more feeble, calmly fed
    The stream of thought, till he lay breathing there
    At peace, and faintly smiling [...]

    https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Poetical_Works_of_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_(ed._Hutchinson,_1914)/Alastor;_or,_the_Spirit_of_Solitude

    Hope and despair are two sides of the same coin. Both are illusions, or delusions. We don't hope for the future to be better, we plan to make it better. Hope is ephemeral, and as useful as prayer for actually getting anything worthwhile done.

    Without hope, we'd give up.

    Why would you give up?
    Because you didn't get what you hoped for? That's childish. Try again, or admit to yourself that the goal isn't that important to you.
    Because getting what you wanted turned out to be more difficult than you hoped? Again, childish. Reassess whether your goal is worth the effort, then keep going or do something else.
    Because you despair that you won't get what you wanted? You have defeated yourself before you've even begun. Perhaps the world is better off with you doing nothing anyway.

    Chasing hope is like chasing fairy lights in a swamp - a good way to wind up lost and drowning. Hoping shifts the burden of improving your circumstances off of yourself and onto the world around you, and distracts you from doing something practical. The only reason that it's not generally considered superstitious is that it's so common, and yet superstition it is. Hope belongs in the same bin with your fears of black cats, spilled salt, and the number 13.

    Don't hope. Plan, then execute, then deal with the consequences, then plan again.

    Don't hope, don't despair. Get started.

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  • [+] -7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)