Optimism as strategy
“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.”
Noam Chomsky
Optimism is an irrational emotion, not a concept.
Hope is more of a concept than optimism since hope is based on a philosophical understanding of reality while optimism and pessimism are derivitive of personal feelings.
I do not disagree with Mr Chomsky’s advice but when I review my life of struggle against death it was my hope and my faith that guided my steps forward, and neither optimism nor pessimism entered the equation. I hoped the Lord was real, and events have so conspired as to confirm my faith in Heaven. If by optimism Noam means setting goals that inspire, rather than depress, well that too is a rational process which fuels the soul by pointing us toward personal roles in the story of life that contradict death.
I once hoped for eternal life, now my faith confirms it. To be optimistic, or fatalistic about the everlasting future, would require having no knowledge of how creation put itself together.
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