Hope is the mental capacity to imagine a better world. Without it, there is “no alternative”, no reason for action. Hope is the opposite of despair.

Hope is two things: wanting a certain outcome and believing it’s possible. Hope can be delusional if its object is impossible, but in no way are all objects of hope universally out of reach. As for hope being brought by despair… well this is plain silly as the definition of despair is literally hopelessness. In that sense I’d argue that hope is actually brought by perceived uncertainty, which sounds pretty boring although it has the merit of being reasonable.

I saw this quote floating around on Mastodon:

“People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spider’s webs. It’s not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go.”

That is to say, hope is not something you fight to protect and shelter. Hope is the fight itself

Baby dont hurt me

🎶🎶🎶

What is hope?

Baby don’t delude me

Don’t delude me

No more

Hope is the delusion that things will get better without our input.

Hope is the drug which numbs us in the face of unflinching reality.

Hope is that which wonders why the planet is burning after they put so much energy into believing it’ll be ok.

Hope is the reason we’re always late.

Philosophy aside, there has been no greater producer of disappointment in my life than hope. It has always left me complacent when I should’ve acted, it has always left me blind when I should have been looking for solutions.

We don’t need hope, we need courage! We need courage to face reality as it is! We need courage to accept reality as it is. And we need courage to change reality into what it could be!