Hope

2009-3-6 04:26:00

"When hope is loose in the streets, wise men bolt their doors and shutter their windows."
-- Eric Hoffer

SH replied to the above quote with:

"Hmmmm. So wise men shut out hope... implying that hope is for fools?

"Unless I have grossly misunderstood Mr. Hoffer, I disagree with him.

"FDR rallied a fear-disheartened generation by teaching that 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' There is a wealth of truth and hope in that statement.

"There was hope in Churchill's epic speech, hope borne of a decision made in advance to never surrender, and even if defeated to look to the New World for eventual deliverance.

"I can't speak for anyone else, but the times in my life when I've been most hopeful have resulted in my having the positive energy necessary to accomplish beyond my normal capacity. In the long run, I think I will do better with a few unfulfilled hopes than with a perfect streak of self-fulfilling hopelessness.

"Should hope be loosed on my street, my doors and windows shall be unbolted and unshuttered, regardless of what category Mr. Hoffer (or anyone else) would therefore place me in."

JJ:

You've brought up an important point Duke. I have written about hope in the vein that you mention and such hope is indeed a positive thing. The ancient truism reads: "Hope springs eternal." This is indeed a true statement and it is a good thing that it is true because sometimes, as human beings, that is all we have had to keep us going. No matter how much the weight and trials of the world bear down on us, as long as we continue, hope returns and we have a sense of daylight at the end of the path.

That said we must also take into consideration that we live in a world of duality and all qualities have their positive and negative aspect.

Now hope is such a positive quality in most minds that it is difficult to see any negative side of it, but it is there nonetheless.

Hope is positive when you are hoping for an end result that will play a part in moving spiritual evolution forward and result in more love, light and abundance on the earth.

On the other hand, hope is negative when its attention is placed on something that is harmful to progression or is full of illusion

For instance Hitler and his group hoped Nazism would succeed.

Many there are who hope their belief system will triumph when it would spell disaster if it did.

Many hope the object of their desire will become their mate when there is no compatibility and a marriage would be a disaster.

When I read Hoffer's quote of hope being "loose in the streets" an image of something like the Bolshevik Revolution or Castro's band of hopeful freedom fighters came to my mind. These were rebels filled with illusionary hopes that caused retrogression and human suffering.

Another misuse of hope is to place too much on a man because of charisma or strong authority. The scriptures says "cursed is he who trusts in the arm of flesh." One could follow this by saying "cursed is he whose hope rests in the arm of flesh." One should look to internal verification from the soul and heart to generate positive hope -- not to a man.

Hope that true principles will prevail and the Spirit will bring forth the people necessary for the hope to become a reality. Place your hope in a man to bring forth true principles and disappointment will generally follow.

"Fools rush in where fools have been before."
-- Unknown