Hope is action while optimism is passive. I don’t want to hear about optimism - there’s absolutely no reason for it. Hope, on the other hand, ah, hope. Hope implies that someone is doing something and it really should be the one who claims to have hope.
Where am I going with this? (You might ask if you are reading because of the title.)
I am approaching hopelessness. The more we do to alleviate suffering, the more the sick minds of oppressors and their capitalist puppet masters act to cause even more suffering. And I wonder if we (those of us working to heal the world) are falling into some trap we don’t see?
Is it this? Is it that some of us focus on one conflict (be it war or an attack on the planet itself) disregarding everything else? I know some will say “well, we can’t deal with everything all at once.” That may be true, but that is what is holding back progress.
Here’s an analogy: The local dam has given way. Your house is flooding. So you block up the first floor so water can’t get in. But outside the water rises; then presses against the windows cracking them and now the water rushes in. So you block the stairs to the second floor. Only the water keeps rising… But also, the water is rushing past and now your house is unstable. So it collapses. As you are pulled into the swirling, rushing water you see all your neighbors’ homes wrecked and going under just like your house. The only way to have saved your house (not to mention the rest of them) would have been to make sure the dam was maintained in good repair.
I’ll stop now because either no one’s reading or someone is and by now has something to say in reply.