Hope is overrated.

[Coincomm]

If you let go of the desire of certain ends, hope becomes obsolete. Once you can embrace any end, any eternity, absolute freedom is achieved.

"Hope is another fraudulent method of evading the Absurd, and by not having hope, one is motivated to live every fleeting moment to the fullest."

[ShadesOfMarble]

Won't that stop you from achieving certain goals you have in your life? I mean, if you say "I hope one day I will be the greatest xy" then you will do everything do achieve this. If you say "I don't care how this ends up" and you don't care you won't achieve anything because there are other people who DO care and who are working to achieve a "certain end". And they probably will. Or at least more likely than you.

[Coincomm]

Won't that stop you from achieving certain goals you have in your life? I mean, if you say "I hope one day I will be the greatest xy" then you will do everything do achieve this. If you say "I don't care how this ends up" and you don't care you won't achieve anything because there are other people who DO care and who are working to achieve a "certain end". And they probably will. Or at least more likely than you.

Well, we can recognize our desires and care about them. All I advocate is not chaining yourself to them. Create a certain level of friction, if you will.

"I will do everything to achieve this but I will still be happy if I don't."

I see hope as relying on certain ends for your pleasure. I think pleasure can be found everywhere at anytime.

[cbeast]

Human emotions are really pretty simple. It's our interpretation of circumstances that complicates them. Hope originates with fear. That fear stems from the perception that we are powerless to meet a desired condition. Now you can choose to remove the desire, choose to hope, or choose to find the volition to overcome the circumstance of powerlessness.

[payb.tc]

this is coming from the same person (albiet an alt account) that said vaginas are overrated.

don't know what to believe.

[Taz]

Does anyone else just use in an arbitrary way?
Like saying "Oh my god" or "Good Luck"
Outside of saying "I hope so" I don't think I really know the meaning of the word.

[cbeast]

Does anyone else just use in an arbitrary way?
Like saying "Oh my god" or "Good Luck"
Outside of saying "I hope so" I don't think I really know the meaning of the word.

Have you been in a situation where an acquaintance may be dying and is going into surgery? It may be hard to find words, but saying "good luck" doesn't quite do it.

[repentance]

Won't that stop you from achieving certain goals you have in your life? I mean, if you say "I hope one day I will be the greatest xy" then you will do everything do achieve this. If you say "I don't care how this ends up" and you don't care you won't achieve anything because there are other people who DO care and who are working to achieve a "certain end". And they probably will. Or at least more likely than you.

Hope without action is useless and meaningless.  It's best left for situations where you truly have no agency and recognise that there is nothing you can do to affect an outcome or where you wish to acknowledge that you don't intend taking action.

Desire can be both a source of motivation and a source of frustration and misery - thus the Buddhist belief that attachment to desire is the source of all suffering.

Action is what tends to create results.  You're more likely to achieve desired outcomes while thinking negatively but taking action than you are by thinking positively but doing nothing.

[the joint]

Having worked with literally hundreds of mentally ill patients, I think hope is essential to emotional well-being.  When a person feels as though they are in a period of deep despair and they have no hope, that's when suicide looks like a good option.  Hope can motivate a person to do better and think better for the benefit of themselves and others.  Hope allows for people to believe that positive change is possible.  Given that human beings create meaning for themselves, I don't see how this is a bad thing.

If by "embracing the absurd" you mean "accepting whatever comes," then indeed I think this is a good choice, and perhaps the best one.  But why must hope and acceptance be mutually exclusive?  Why not accept all that comes and also hope for something better?

[the joint]

BTW, dare I say, Atlas?

[cbeast]

Having worked with literally hundreds of mentally ill patients, I think hope is essential to emotional well-being.  When a person feels as though they are in a period of deep despair and they have no hope, that's when suicide looks like a good option.  Hope can motivate a person to do better and think better for the benefit of themselves and others.  Hope allows for people to believe that positive change is possible.  Given that human beings create meaning for themselves, I don't see how this is a bad thing.

If by "embracing the absurd" you mean "accepting whatever comes," then indeed I think this is a good choice, and perhaps the best one.  But why must hope and acceptance be mutually exclusive?  Why not accept all that comes and also hope for something better?

I think Atlas was right about this one. He simply didn't take it far enough and ended up getting all Buddhist rather than Randist. Yeah, Rand wasn't completely wrong about everything. Sometimes all you have to go on is pure... solitary... screaming... volition.