why do we need hope
While there is no shortage of hope in this world, in reality, there is a huge economy that operates by selling hope and dreams, and makes a lot of money; there are reasons to be skeptical about hope. Why do we need hope? I mean, we all know that while that song about hope, that nice motivational lecture you last attended, that movie you saw, that news report you saw where justice was finally served, are factors in feeling good about a low shelf life. Then before you know it, darkness descends again. Things happen to people who don’t do anything wrong. Psychopaths become enemies and friends become psychopaths. Another irony of life is that this pattern exists. When things are going well, and you really start to believe that things are as pretty as they seem, they suddenly change their color scheme to the exact opposite. As we continue to read about the battle between evil and good, good and evil, nothing prepares us for the evil present in the good, and the evils committed by rights. The only remaining result, and it is actually more faithful than any of these factors, is cynicism. At least the doubt is permanent.
Hope, on the other hand, is like drugs. It gives you a temporary high, but then reality hits and you have to face the consequences. One of my dear friends once said that hope is the weapon of fools. There are times when I almost agree. Look at this world! Every day, things seem to get worse. Crimes against innocents, crimes in the streets and on the internet. You can’t trust anyone, you can’t depend on anyone. The people you meet show sides you’d rather not see. All this not only weakens the case for gods and goods, but also for hope. Forgive me for playing devil’s advocate, but happiness, trust, virtue, goodness, and God all disappear when you need them most. The pain and hate at least remain. You can never predict or claim that if you are fair to people, they will be fair to you. That if you do good, you will get good in return. But I can bet that if you do something bad, you will receive something bad. if you kick someone, you can trust him to retaliate. But if you hug someone, you can’t trust him to hug you back.
It’s not a comforting thought, but then there’s that little element of conformity, and that, at least, is something that hope doesn’t have. Cynics say that hope is a pretty good way to pass the time between two tragedies. Your life may not really be beautiful, but at least it will seem beautiful. That cynic is me. He makes you wonder, why do we need hope? So that the film industry can make a lot of money? So that motivational speakers and religious leaders don’t have to go looking for new jobs? I mean, if life isn’t going to be fair, why bother with hope and stuff like that? Why don’t you join the bandwagon and become as indestructible a destroyer as you can? People will not dare to hurt you, because they know that you will respond to a slap, with a sword. No one will mess with you, and if that doesn’t happen, you can live life your way. I mean, so it can be clear, or blue, or orange. After all, when every human being starts to carry a gun in his coat, the only way to make sure he’s safe is to bring a tank and an army. So that every time someone shoots at you, you erase their existence from this planet.
BINGO!! Exactly. Aren’t these wobbly weapons the very people whose threat we try to hope against? I mean, if things go wrong, if there’s a tsunami, you don’t complain much. It’s when your friends let you down. It’s when people you don’t even know come and hurt you for no reason. That’s when the crime happens. It’s when bombs fall from the sky like bird droppings. It’s when an indestructible destroyer wannabe comes along with a toy tank and pushes you away, scaring you into thinking it’s a real tank, which you expect. So, you question hope. So you question justice. So you kill hope and convince yourself that the world is not going to be fair. So, you know that you can also be unfair. So, you become one of those very people you were trying to frustrate. You become exactly what you fought against.
It is ironic that although hope seems inconsequential in this battle called life, it seems that it is the death of hope that starts this battle in the first place. Why do we need hope? To validate fairness? No. Justice is not just a sweet concept created by the human mind. It is the fulcrum of this planet. It is the conclusion of the experiment called life. Life is not fair because you pray every day for God to watch you and everything. Life is fair, because in this world nothing is created or destroyed. What goes around comes around. Matter and antimatter exist together. When you vacuum the space, you will get emptiness. Not everything will end. When you abandon your ideals, something in you dies. It won’t come to life when you really need yourself. No human being can sleep well with a guilty conscience. If you hurt someone, it will take away your sleep, or worse, it will numb that part of your mind that tells you what you’re doing is wrong. Which means you’ve partially committed suicide! Which is pretty silly.
We do not need to wait to validate justice. Justice is probably too deep for us to comprehend, because we think that every time someone punches us in the face, they will immediately recoil and fall into the ditch. We don’t see that his hand hurts as much as our chin, and somewhere in his mind, something right just disappeared. So, thinking that hopes are wasted, and we can slap, we become the same and start slapping people. There are others who cry and complain and basically become the ultimate destroyers of hope. They’re the kind that tell you, “whatever you want, you won’t get. Whatever you fear and hate will eventually become your destiny.”
We don’t need hope to live our lives for us. To fight our battles or to make things right. We need hope to keep the ship sailing through the storm to its past. We need it to keep going until life comes full circle, because it will. We need hope, because we have no choice. Do not give up. It is more precious than you could know. And giving it up will make things worse than you imagined, for all you know.
