Hope – the last evil

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Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of men.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

All evil leaked out when Pandora opened the box. She managed to close it, trapping hope inside. Hope – the last evil.

I hate hope.

I see hope as a state of mind filled with unbridled optimism; an expectation that irrespective of the events, the outcome would be good. I agree that a modicum of optimism is desirable, but the act of hoping has a darker side that a lot of us fail to see. I hate that hope.

Hope is like a drug, a cocktail of emotions that takes me to stupefying highs, gets me hooked and eventually leads me to inevitable slumps. Hope is the barest minimum that I can do; it is just one stop better than doing nothing. Hoping is wishful thinking; I can pray for an event to occur, yet actively do nothing about it. I can very well be stuck in a runt wishing for the world, but still, be unmotivated to do anything. Hope makes me lazy.

Hope is the same as fear. Rather fear is a consequence of hope. Fear is the expectation of everything negative, but we live with an inherent bias of a ‘positive’ hope. A hope for empty roads while driving to work can easily be a fear of jam-packed roads. Unfortunately, hope, like fear, is irrational, a sentimental investment into a probable future. The bigger we are invested in that hope, the worse the subsequent disappointment is.

Hope disillusions us from this unavoidable outcome. Just like a drug, when we start losing our hope, we crave more and more as living without hope seems quite impossible. We eventually shift from hoping for a future to living with the fear of losing that future. When our irrational hopes meet the unflappable reality, anger, despair, pity, and hatred are a few unintended consequences.

Hope is a liar. Hope tells me that everything would be okay. Does it really know?
I have lived 3 decades on this planet and one thing that I understand is that the future resides in uncertainty. Thinking everything would turn out to be good is hogwash.; it is self-delusion. 
I understand hope. It is natural. It is needed when everything is falling apart, and hope Is the only thread that keeps us hanging., thus we just indulge in that hope for too long. But hope runs out and then there is nothing but hopelessness.

That is the trouble with hope. It is hard to resist.

Doctor Who – The Eaters of Light

A little less hopeless

I hate hope, but I hate hopelessness more.

There lies the irony. The only counter to hopelessness is acceptance. A vehement nod to my current state acknowledging the things the way they are. Every time we ignore this state and expect something better to happen, we set ourselves for misery.

Someone loses their job; they can live in an imaginary world and ignore their present status; they would stay in denial. Someone’s partner left for another person; they can keep hoping they would come back. Sadly, that would further delay their healing, postponing and prolonging the pain. Someone’s parents died, they can hope they come back to life; they can fantasize that they were still alive, but is that really helping them survive?

The next natural question arises; is hope not necessary to do something good? Is hope not needed for progressing to any goal? Doesn’t hope provide motivation? I do not think so. I understand the need for having goals, and the need to reach it to achieve some level of satisfaction. But you do not need hope for that. You need a plan, something tangible that you have control. Having hope that your goal achieved is redundant if you have a plan. How a thing turns out is not in your control; expecting otherwise will just lead to sorrow. The consequence of the action is irrelevant.

Hopefulness is not enough

As much as I hate hope, I do not hate being hopeful. Hopefulness is needed. It reflects a general sense of confidence and optimism, make me upbeat and more rearing to act rationally and reasonably. The difference between hope and hopefulness is that the former is an act, and the latter is an attitude. Where the former ties me to an undetermined future, the latter intensifies the resolve to face the present.

But hopefulness alone is unbalanced. Life necessitates that I practice some level of negative visualization as well. Engaging in negative visualization is to ponder that unfortunate events would happen. It sounds pessimistic, but negative visualization is a way of experiencing voluntary discomfort thereby emboldening myself mentally resilient. Where hopefulness keeps me enthusiastic, negative visualization keeps me calm keeps me untroubled when bad things happen.

Negative visualization is not an expectation of adverse things to occur, rather be prepared that if any adversity strikes, I face it in a calm, rational and patient manner instead of panicking, being over emotional and wasting energy in worrying. Through negative visualization, I acknowledge that bad time will befall, and I am prepared for it. There is no fear or anticipation, just acceptance.

It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Hoping against hope

This essay is trite with contradictions. It is silly to hope for unrealistic things, yet not being hopeful is hopeless. I would infer reasonable hope is the path forward, but I counter by asking how to decide what is reasonable? Deceptive and false hopes are futile, reasonable hope has some advantages. Hoping against hope is in vain. Hope is amazing when it is limited. Hope is fantastic when it has direction. Hope is incredible when it is realistic. You let it go free, there is nothing eviler than hope.

What do you think? Write your thoughts down below, let us have a conversation.
This image was clicked in Lan Ha Bay in Vietnam on a cloudy March evening. Check out The price of broken promises where i talk about losing faith when words become lies; follow me on Instagram for more travel photographs.

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