By Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
Life without hope is not worth living. Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for something good to happen. It can also mean “a feeling of trust.” In the physical system of reality, we all need hope to survive and to surmount some encumbrances of life. However, hope has dealt with us!
Hope is an essential ingredient for sustaining human struggling and anything human beings under the sun do that’s bereft of hope will certainly be in vain. Hope therefore, is a blessed attitude that enables humans to direct their agency towards the possibility of good life. In philosophical contexts, where either the possibility of a future life beyond this momentary life or the idea of human progress is accentuated, hope is more often seen as an appropriate and even virtuous
Elpis was an ancient goddess in Greek mythology and the etymology of the word hope is traced to ‘elpis.’ The myth has it that Elpis saved mankind from all the evils of the world that had been unleashed by Pandora when she opened her jar and scattered its contents. Only Hope remained inside the jar. The daughter of Hope the last goddess is Anticipation, that we love because she gives us value. In Latin, Spes (meaning hope) was worshipped as a goddess in ancient Roman religion. Numerous temples to Spes are known and inscriptions indicate that she received private devotion as well as state cult.
No wonder Aristotle’s fascinating philosophy on hope is anchored on his saying that, “One cannot truly hope unless one has experienced fear… if one feels vulnerable that one might not succeed. One cannot hope unless there’s a chance that one’s hope will not be realized.” According to Aristotle, “Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost…”
According to Duncan Andrade theory on hope, there are three kinds of hope namely, Material hope which is the sense of control when given the opportunity and resources to deal with forces that influences everyday lives. The second one he called Socratic hope. This according to Duncan provides occasions to question injustices in the unjust society. It further explains how teachers model lessons not only in the classroom but in the way they live their life. The third one he called Audacious hope which he pointed out that it inspires teachers and students to properly examine inequalities based on social and cultural identities, understand inequities, and unite in solidarity with students who are traditionally sidelined.
These foregoing aspects of hope are very essential in the assessment of our daily political, religious, economic, social and other related aspects of our material cum spiritual existence. It completely points to the fact that you need hope in all aspects of your physical endeavours for a better society. Critical amongst this, is the fact that Critical Hope reflects the ability to realistically gauge or assess our present day environment through a lens of equity and justice while envisioning the possibility of a better future.
The above is in tandem with the Hegelian principles of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. While attempting to provide the Synthesis (solution) in this context, it is very imperative and crucial to further accentuate here that no human life survives outside hope. But now that things are changing so fast in our society that even some words in English language are disused consequent upon being antiquated, obsolete, out-dated or old-fashioned, do we still trust that hope has not changed in its denotation and meaning? Do we still have hope in this type of hope? In fact, philologists and or linguists will tell you that English Language has changed over time for instance; the word ‘beloved’ was formally ‘beowulf’ but does the change affects the content and meaning?
Whether we call it semantic satiation, semantic shift, semantic progression or semantic development, the question still remains, does the change or shift of a particular word affects its content and meaning? The answer you may get may bamboozle or amaze you. I do not want to concern myself so much with the distorted nature of words and its street meanings; however, I’m concerned more about the nature of hope we have in life.
I do not want to complicate simplicity and destroy your hope for the future. But permit me to say here that Plato the Greek great philosopher is not left out in his opinion concerning hope.
Plato’s positive view of hope can be traced to Apology and the Phaedo, where he argues that hope for the afterlife is rational. Thus, even though not every hopeful person is courageous, every courageous person is hopeful. In his words, “If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.” I want to simply ask if this type of hope we all have has any lantern to pass to humanity. Hope is strong, Hope is great, hope is prosperous, hope is fearless, hope is dynamic, hope is might and hope is alive simply because we are alive; when one dies, his or her hope in the physical world is dead. Where hope does not exist things go awry and skewed. But where hope is ‘bad’ and expectations are not met in hope, the situation becomes topsy-turvy.
I want to ask if we still hope in this type of democracy that hope gave to us since 1990. Our hope is almost dead because, hope is making us die in hunger. Our hope in having a sane society is been destroyed by our collective hope on God and our leaders. We keep hoping without doubt, though hope without doubt is foolishness. Our youths are without future even in our various religious temples, some are killed while hoping for a better future. Has our collective hope in hope not disappointing us? Well, I still hope that one day, especially as long as we are alive, things will be better for those destined to be great in this country.
Hope you have no respect for humanity; you have strangulated many that you disappointed. Some have committed suicide because you have not kept your promise in bringing them into the world. Life has not kept hope alive by providing food on the tables of the lethargic, indolent and lazy ones. Nobody appears to be happy while trusting in hope, yet we trust and believe that our hope will not fail us in life. Hope, you know we can’t do without you but please temper justice with mercy on how you have made us to hope endlessly. Those who bear you as their name, some of them are in prisons for an offence they did not commit. Few are successful in their various carriers while those both in prison and with other predicaments believe that hope will justify them one day.
I was born to believe in hope and up till now, I still believe in hope but my hope in the type of hope I see today, is a bugaboo. When will the hope we have in life make us smile? When are we going to have fairness and equity in our political system with you in this country? When will our religious leaders have the courage to speak out against unrealized hope in our various churches and ills going on in our various churches? When will our church leaders while hoping in the future life, be bold to tell the world the hidden truth about spiritual life?
I do not have faith in hope in so far as I’m in this world. My hope is in God if hope will not disappoint me before God. I know that God does not think like humans. Hope has corrupted us in vanity. Hope has stolen our faith in suffering. Hope, what have we done to you that you are leaving us with continuous hope? I just wish hope will understand that we have ran out of hope. We need a better hope than this endless hopeless life.
The Bible says, “If in this world only we have hope…we are of all men most miserable” 1Corinth 15:19. In the Quran 3:139, Allah is quoted to have said, “Do not lose heart (hope) nor fall into despair! You shall triumph if you are believers.” In the Bhagavad-gita 18:61 Lord Krishna says, “If these difficulties seem unresolvable, we may lose hope. Thankfully however, even if we lose hope with ourselves, Krishna never loses hope with us.” In the Anguttara Nikaya 3:13, Lord Buddha says, “There are three kinds of people in the world: The hopeful, the hopeless, and the one who has done away with hope.”Are you among those that have done away with hope? Almost all the sacred writings support having hoped and encourage faith in God.
Hope itself is like a star, not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr, “Crave a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment” he further concludes, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Never lose hope dear reader, because strong people overcome storms of life and no predicament last forever. Yes, hoping in hope is certainly the best way to survive in life. If you run out of hope; you must at the end of the day start all over in the morning with hope. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. Finally once you chose hope, anything is possible.