There are lots of reasons to be dismayed by the state of human civilisation, and lots of reasons we can find for our faith in human goodness to be shaken. Man’s inhumanity to man. Our own pettiness and flaws, that seem intractable. Futile and protracted wars, with no true victors and countless innocent victims.
Careers destroyed and reputations maligned in retaliation for acts of courage and public service. Inconvenient truths and searching questions covered up and suppressed by global media corporations. Stewards of the public interest falling asleep at the wheel. Manipulation and fear-mongering on a scale scarcely imaginable before the advent of mass media.
We might feel a niggling temptation to throw in the towel, or feel that the dice is firmly loaded against us, or that any endeavour to make a better world is destined to fail, and therefore not worth the effort. When public institutions across so many walks of life let us down hard, we can feel like those passengers on the Titanic, listening to their last violin concerto, as the ship slowly but surely goes down.
It is good and right to be lucid about the decadent state of our culture and the advanced state of decay of many of our public institutions. There is no point pretending that we live in the Garden of Eden.
Yet if we separate these sobering reflections from hope, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because hope motivates us to live life to its fullest, and build something new and daring, whereas despair condemns us to live like the walking dead, in a state of lethargy and passive resignation.
Sobering truths about the dark times we live in can be nothing short of paralyzing if we view history, and our present moment, from a place of despair or hopelessness. If we view the future as pre-ordained, or we think of history as a sort of giant, unstoppable juggernaut, then we are condemned to contemplate our personal and collective lives as passive observers. And to be a mere passive observer of one’s own life is to be a miserable slave of history.
So if the antidote to despair is hope, what exactly is hope?
There is a naive and unrealistic type of hope that closes its eyes to reality, and pretends that everything is hunky dory. I once had a friend who was always cheerful, but completely incapable of recognising that evil existed, and that there is a dark side to human nature. He was living in a well-protected castle of comforting lies.
Then there is a more realistic, yet superficial and fleeting type of hope that comes from a reasonable expectation that something good will come our way. For example, if I find out that I have inherited a large sum of money from a distant relative, I may become hopeful that I can use that money to live a more comfortable life.
But this sort of hope is a hostage to fortune, which, as Machiavelli so aptly put it, is like a capricious, unpredictable woman. If our hope rests on good luck, then it will be easily sunk in the next storm that crosses our path.
The Christian celebration of Easter holds out the promise of a higher and more enduring hope, a hope that can outlast death itself, and even the tortuous death of a Redeemer sent by God. This sort of hope is not rooted in any merely human reality, but in the reality of divine Love.
Christian hope exceeds our human comprehension and challenges our instinctual response to suffering, injustice, and oppression, which, for many of us, tend to be heavily tilted toward frustration, resentment, and despair.
The meaning and possibility of a hope that is not even defeated by death itself is a great mystery, hard to get one’s head around, for believers and non-believers alike. Whatever each of us thinks of the narrative of the death and resurrection of the man-God that is at the heart of the Easter season, the very existence of Christian hope could be a spur for us to ask ourselves, “What keeps me going? Do I hope for a better future? If so, why?”
It seems to me that all of us, whether people of religous faith, or no particular faith at all, need a form of hope that is not a hostage to fortune, a hope that is not eviscerated with a change of regime, or destroyed by the losses and disappointments that are bound to come our way from time to time.
Easter is as good a moment as any for us to reflect on the nature of our hope, and where it is grounded. Do we feel a sense of excitement about a future that holds out a real possibility for growth and improvement, for ourselves and for others? Do we sincerely believe it is worth working for a better future, even against the odds? If so, where is that hope grounded?
Is it grounded in a serene confidence that good can triumph over evil, or in a quiet reverence for the mysterious beauty of life, in spite of everything? Is it grounded in the goodness we have seen in our family, friends, community, or romantic partner? Is it grounded in the belief that there is a providential God that will assist, almost as a midwife, over the birth of goodness in this world? Is is grounded in a choice to trust that this fallen world can be lifted up and redeemed, even if we do not quite understand how? Or is it a combination of all of the above?
Whatever we base our hope on, without hope we have nothing left to live for, and will be sunk into one depression after another when life throws us nasty curveballs or we witness injustice and cruelty. With a true and enduring hope - which is not to be mistaken for a delusional state or a stubborn denial of reality - we have something to live for, even when the going gets tough, and we can transcend the disappointments of life to work for a better future.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a sincere “thank you” to my readers for joining me on this blogging adventure which I embarked upon in October 2021. It has certainly made my abrupt departure from Twitter a lot less bitter than it might otherwise have been.
I would also like to say a special thanks to my paying subscribers for their generous economic support for my work as a blogger and podcaster.
While part of my work is pay-walled, a large part is open access because I want my work, much of which touches on issues of great public interest, to reach the widest possible audience.
Happy Easter to everyone. May this be a season of hope for all.
Here are some of the posts you will unlock with a paid subscription:
We’re Still Hunkering Down in the Bunker, But Nobody Quite Knows Why
Is Civil Society Strong Enough to Withstand the Menace of Democratic Despotism? - Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Mask Mandates Sum Up All That Is Wrong with the New Covid Regime
Easter: A Time of Hope
When i think of hope this time of year i feel dandelion medicine right with me, the illumination of the dazzlingly bright yellow as it shines its light forth, in full flower. but most of all i am reminded of the dandelion because its lets go of itself and disperses knowing that we will land where we land. that some seed will be victim to circumstance, false promises and failure. And that it's not the future that we hope for, but instead the act of living.