Despair means to lose all hope. I disinvite all despair from my social fields. We are not playing that game here. This newsletter has a vibe, and that vibe is hope. It's about hope-pilling, embodying new imaginaries without being confined to a rationalist paradigm. Doom pilling is being convinced with “
This is serendipity. Today I was thinking that my problem is that I feel hopeless, in despair actually. I will not explain why, it's personal and I don't agree completely with your premise, but your post it's almost like an answer to my thoughts, as if you heard me and are answering me through the distance. So thanks.
I would say that hope and despair are two sides of the same coin - hope: having in mind a particular sort of future you want or don't want; despair: when things turn out counter to what's been hoped. What's in common is the grasping at something other than "what is". I suppose there's a fine line between hope, wishing, etc versus moving in the direction of something imaginal.
I ‘hope’ this new era generates enough bravery to generate an influx of creative and novel speculative fiction. Im SOOO tired of how pervasive and overused the dystopian future playbook is used these days… 😂😂😂
“People who are really brave are those who never despair.” Such a good line to embrace.
It makes me think of the people I've seen first-hand battling serious illness who didn't despair. Despite facing the bleakest of prospects, they retained some sense of hope for each day they were granted and gratitude for the chance to best use whatever abilities they had that hadn't yet been impaired. That's "really brave."
As Seneca put it:
"It is your body that is hampered by ill-health, and not your soul as well....
It is not only the sword and the battle-line that prove the soul alert and unconquered by fear; a man can display bravery even when wrapped in his bed-clothes. You have something to do: wrestle bravely with disease."
If people can have hope at times like that, then I guess there's hope for everyone.
The only issue I have with this is that only psychopaths don't get depressed.
They are also thrill seeking.
So we shouldn't put up on a pedestal people who don't have any empathy for others.
But we should be looking forward to a truly positive world.
For myself, I'm looking forward to an Abundance Centred Society. Also known as RBE or Post Scarcity Society. That's what makes me positive. That we can change to ways that resolve most of the existing issues with climate destruction and actually care for people, animals and our ecosystem.
But certainly none of it is about being cool, is it? I prefer to be real. Meming hope would be missing the whole point, I think.
I know hope because it is an indisputable feeling in my body. A feeling that does not arrive without at least recognizing the possibility for despair. One is unrecognizable without the other.
Title edit “… Never Succumb to Despair”. Have you met any people on the planet who never despair? I see plenty who pull themselves out of it, but few who have never encountered it.
Personally, I think that hope is vastly overrated as a driver for social change or as a preventative for inner collapse.. Better to face hopelessness than betray yourself to find hope. Who wants to go through life as hope's bitch? I think you'd inevitably end up spiralling into mindless memetic humanism through fear of self encounter.
This is serendipity. Today I was thinking that my problem is that I feel hopeless, in despair actually. I will not explain why, it's personal and I don't agree completely with your premise, but your post it's almost like an answer to my thoughts, as if you heard me and are answering me through the distance. So thanks.
I would say that hope and despair are two sides of the same coin - hope: having in mind a particular sort of future you want or don't want; despair: when things turn out counter to what's been hoped. What's in common is the grasping at something other than "what is". I suppose there's a fine line between hope, wishing, etc versus moving in the direction of something imaginal.
The middle way is equanimity.
I ‘hope’ this new era generates enough bravery to generate an influx of creative and novel speculative fiction. Im SOOO tired of how pervasive and overused the dystopian future playbook is used these days… 😂😂😂
f*ck it, we hope! MAJOR PILLS!
Guess I’ve always secretly been cool- as hope was never lost ;) always the fool
Love this, thanks 🙏
Love this. Thank you!
“People who are really brave are those who never despair.” Such a good line to embrace.
It makes me think of the people I've seen first-hand battling serious illness who didn't despair. Despite facing the bleakest of prospects, they retained some sense of hope for each day they were granted and gratitude for the chance to best use whatever abilities they had that hadn't yet been impaired. That's "really brave."
As Seneca put it:
"It is your body that is hampered by ill-health, and not your soul as well....
It is not only the sword and the battle-line that prove the soul alert and unconquered by fear; a man can display bravery even when wrapped in his bed-clothes. You have something to do: wrestle bravely with disease."
If people can have hope at times like that, then I guess there's hope for everyone.
Thanks for prompting the reflection.
The only issue I have with this is that only psychopaths don't get depressed.
They are also thrill seeking.
So we shouldn't put up on a pedestal people who don't have any empathy for others.
But we should be looking forward to a truly positive world.
For myself, I'm looking forward to an Abundance Centred Society. Also known as RBE or Post Scarcity Society. That's what makes me positive. That we can change to ways that resolve most of the existing issues with climate destruction and actually care for people, animals and our ecosystem.
Keep counting me in
Dispair is missing the target, according to holy fathers... I am glad you brought in St John the Golden Mouth to illustrate that thinking.
But certainly none of it is about being cool, is it? I prefer to be real. Meming hope would be missing the whole point, I think.
I know hope because it is an indisputable feeling in my body. A feeling that does not arrive without at least recognizing the possibility for despair. One is unrecognizable without the other.
Title edit “… Never Succumb to Despair”. Have you met any people on the planet who never despair? I see plenty who pull themselves out of it, but few who have never encountered it.
Personally, I think that hope is vastly overrated as a driver for social change or as a preventative for inner collapse.. Better to face hopelessness than betray yourself to find hope. Who wants to go through life as hope's bitch? I think you'd inevitably end up spiralling into mindless memetic humanism through fear of self encounter.
Is crying an act of bravery in letting go?
The Promise of World Peace is a wonderful book! Free online
Both and.