How do your fears or hopes about humanity’s future affect your actions? What is your personal definition of “hope”?#
The concept of hope has been a thorn in my side for some time now. I think hope is the opposite of agency. Hope is a weak emotion that arises when you have lost the ability to take meaningful action, it arises when there is nothing else you can do but hope. Fear on the other hand is a strong emotion. It is primal- keyed to our survival and can take control over our minds driving a person into rage, literally causing them to lose their mind. The opposite of fear, or perhaps contained within fear, is courage. Hope is a desperate attempt to avoid despair- the emotion that arises when a person has given up all hope and fallen into depression, despondency and or deep sadness. Fear serves to activate the fight or flight instinct, which can save our lives. But long term worries about the future give rise to long term anxieties and can eat away at our spirit.#
Is it any wonder that so many of us turn to hope in a desperate effort to avoid the fear and anxiety that arise with knowledge of the probable future of humanity and life on Earth? This is why hope has been a thorn in my side for some time now.#
I fear that what we have to fear is in fact radical fear. We face not just the loss of our life eventually, but probably the loss of our way of life before that. Worse yet, we face the knowledge of the loss of our culture, civilization and very possibly our species in the not-too-distant future! Is it any wonder that we choose to stay inside a warm cabin and listen to the music rather than go out on the cold deck and climb into a life raft and take the plunge into the chilly dark water?#
From this radical fear, I choose to exercise my emotional muscle of Radical Hope. I choose to exercise my consciousness as a cultural shaman and imagination activist. I invite a new dream into our world, a dream of courage to face the coming storms. A dream that acknowledges we do not know the path to this new place, and the trail will be long and full of tears. A dream of radical hope that nevertheless; humanity will survive and flourish in love with life, in harmony with Earth, and fully awake in conversation with the Universe.#
How do your fears or hopes about humanity’s future affect your actions? What is your personal definition of “hope”?#
The concept of hope has been a thorn in my side for some time now. I think hope is the opposite of agency. Hope is a weak emotion that arises when you have lost the ability to take meaningful action, it arises when there is nothing else you can do but hope. Fear on the other hand is a strong emotion. It is primal- keyed to our survival and can take control over our minds driving a person into rage, literally causing them to lose their mind. The opposite of fear, or perhaps contained within fear, is courage. Hope is a desperate attempt to avoid despair- the emotion that arises when a person has given up all hope and fallen into depression, despondency and or deep sadness. Fear serves to activate the fight or flight instinct, which can save our lives. But long term worries about the future give rise to long term anxieties and can eat away at our spirit.#
Is it any wonder that so many of us turn to hope in a desperate effort to avoid the fear and anxiety that arise with knowledge of the probable future of humanity and life on Earth? This is why hope has been a thorn in my side for some time now.#
I fear that what we have to fear is in fact radical fear. We face not just the loss of our life eventually, but probably the loss of our way of life before that. Worse yet, we face the knowledge of the loss of our culture, civilization and very possibly our species in the not-too-distant future! Is it any wonder that we choose to stay inside a warm cabin and listen to the music rather than go out on the cold deck and climb into a life raft and take the plunge into the chilly dark water?#
From this radical fear, I choose to exercise my emotional muscle of Radical Hope. I choose to exercise my consciousness as a cultural shaman and imagination activist. I invite a new dream into our world, a dream of courage to face the coming storms. A dream that acknowledges we do not know the path to this new place, and the trail will be long and full of tears. A dream of radical hope that nevertheless; humanity will survive and flourish in love with life, in harmony with Earth, and fully awake in conversation with the Universe.#