The curse called hope

[putz]

I'm sure you're all familiar with the tale of Pandora's box, but just to be on the safe side:

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Pandora's Box

Once, long ago, Mankind lived in perfect happiness.  There was no hatred or war, no famine or pestilence, no ignorance or slavery. But sadly, this perfection was not to last. Zeus, angry at Prometheus for stealing fire from him, decided it was high time to piss in Mankind's collective Cheerios. Rather than just blasting everyone with lightning, Zeus came up with a better plan. Namely, trick Mankind into sticking it to themselves.

Zeus called all the gods together and had them place the most horrible things they had into a wonderfully ornate box made by Hephaestus. The gods then presented this box to a woman named Pandora, and forbade her ever to open it. Pandora, like all women, was possessed of a lively curiosity. She had to know what was in the box. One day she lifted the lid ¬?and out flew plagues innumerable, sorrow and mischief for mankind. In terror Pandora clapped the lid down, but too late. Everything the gods had put into the box had escaped.  Everything, that is, but one thing: Hope.

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Many people are of the viewpoint that Hope was the only good thing in the box, a small boon snuck in by a sympathetic god.  This theory, though, is easily shattered. Seeing as Hope was the last thing to come out of the box, it was obviously THE FIRST THING TO BE PUT IN.  And why is that?

Because Hope was the MOST INSIDIOUSLY EVIL thing that the gods could muster up.

Seem a bit hard to swallow?  Perhaps a few examples will change your perspective...

Meet Daryl.  Daryl is a soldier fighting the "war" in Vietnam.  One day, Daryl's troop gets placed in a no-win situation.  Rather than fighting to the death, Daryl and the other soldiers surrender, with the Hope of fair treatment.  After seven years of horrific daily torture, Daryl finally dies of infections and malnutrition.  What kept Daryl alive and suffering for so long?  The Hope of finally being released.

Meet Susan.  Susan is Daryl's wife, or, perhaps I should say "was".  Susan's husband never came home, for obvious reasons. Susan never gave up Hope, however, and as a consequence died a little inside everytime she awnsered the door and it wasn't him.

Not convinced of the inherent evil of Hope?
What if I told you that Hope is what allows slavery to exist?  A preposterous idea, yes?
Not at all.
Hope causes the slave to do whatever necessary to survive, be it toiling in the fields, emptying mi'Lord and Lady's chamberpots, or filing form PX2279 in triplicate with data sheets neatly stapled in the top right-hand corner. Anything, so long as they can see the Hope of escape glimmering somewhere in the possible future.
Take away Hope, however, and the slaves no longer have anything left to live for. They then all lay down and die or go berzerk, killing all they can before they themselves are killed.  This lack of Hope makes slave trading a futile effort, and thus, slavery is abandoned.

And what if I told you that Hope is the root cause of famine?  Hear me out on this one.
The Hope of survival causes all the famine stricken people to snatch at whatever tiny morsel of edible material they can lay their hands on.  These people slowly suffer and whither away until the inevitable happens.
Take away this hope, and many would kill themselves quickly and painlessly.  With less mouths to feed, the food supplies stop being stretched so thin.  Hey, whaddaya know! No more famine.

And now you see the true nature of Hope.  Hope is peeling the Band-Aid off one excrutating hair at a time, rather than yanking it off and getting it over with.

So abandon all Hope, for then your Hopes can no longer be dashed.



Or Kill Me.

[LHX]

maybe hope requires a fear of death

good rant

So abandon all Hope, for then your Hopes can no longer be dashed.

some people would call that pessimistic

not me

but some people

[maphdet]

Interesting perspective on Hope.

The words you chose to use were Excellent in the Explanation of the
Possible danger of Hope.

Thanks Putz, something for me ponder today.

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

I say go a little farther and point out hope is just an attachment to things even more imagined than the "real" world. Any Buddhist will tell you attachment just screws you over, and so will I.

[The unimportant one]

praise the ubermensch!

[LMNO]

Good structure on this one, nicely thought out.



I don't believe a single word of it, though.


Mostly because hope is larger than one person.  Hope can last through generations, and hope is one of the driving forces of change.


And hey, who doesn't like change?  Oh, depressed nihilists, that's who.

[LHX]

hope is one of the driving forces of change.

is it?

or does it provide an excuse not to do anything?

[Scribbly]

To me, being without hope means one is far less likely to take action than someone who is filled with hope.

I was going to write a long counter-argument as to the importance of hope etc etc etc... but I can't be bothered right now.

DAMN YOU, APATHY!

[LMNO]

hope is one of the driving forces of change.

is it?

or does it provide an excuse not to do anything?

Is is.


If one does not have the hope that one's actions can actually change anything, then nothing gets done.


Why did we attempt PD06?

Because we hoped that at least someone would read it, and think something new.

[LHX]

without hope does not necessarily imply apathy

some people dont have time to hope because they are busy changing shit

[LMNO]

Why are they trying to change shit, if they have no hope that it will be changed?

[LHX]

Why are they trying to change shit, if they have no hope that it will be changed?

why would you have to hope for something to be changed while you are changing it?

am i hoping that i manage to get my pants on while i am putting my pants on?

[LMNO]

I know I am...





...Really, LHX, you should know better to try and refute an argument by introducing triviality...

[AFK]

in a sort of technical sense.  Not having hope would infer that one knows what the outcome will be.  If you have no hope it would seem you already know the outcome.  Using your pants, for example, a freak 70 mph wind could come through when you least expect it and blow your pants away.  So, you may not be actively hoping you get your pants on but your mind should be subconsciously aware of the possibility you just might not manage to get both legs through in a successful attempt.  

But, I'm not defining hope in the pathetically, annoying, bliss-ninny sense.  One can have hope and be realistic at the same time.  Using your pants again, you have the realistic expectation that yo will, indeed, get your pants on successfully simply because it is a routine exercise that you have completed, I'm assuming, many times before in the past.  Why should today be any different?

Of course, trying to spread the philosophy of Discordianism is no routine exercise.  But, we don't know what the outcome will be.  Some of us "hope" that we can at least reach one or two people that we know or encounter.  Others may "hope" we can turn our entire college dormitory.  Yet, most of us "realize", I'm assuming, that it will be an uphill battle just becauce societal norms WILL work against us.  So, while we may not think of it as"hope" in a literal sense, since we don't really know the outcomes of our efforts, we have to have some sort of "hope" that something will happen.  Subsitute the word "hope" for what you will but I think the premise of the word is there whether you actively perceive of it or not.  

I "hope" I've made my thoughts clear.  

[LHX]

don't you find the notion of hope to be a bit trivial?

don't you think hope is something people hold on to at the expense of accepting responsibility?


i am going to back track on my words a bit here and say hope is useful if it can help give a person some direction for their actions

but, as far as being an active process, the longer a person sits and hopes for a better tomorrow, the less time they are spending putting in work to set the foundation for a better tomorrow