Why the World Needs Hope
Hope is the most important thing in a chaotic world
Most people are familiar with the myth of Pandora’s box as the tale the ancient Greeks devised to justify the existence of evil in the world. Disease and plagues were “gifts” that Pandora cast down. Zeus fashioned her to torment people and extract revenge on Prometheus, who gave mankind fire. However, how many of us can recall that in the tale, hope is imprisoned in the box and survives long after all other worldly evils have disappeared? Personally, I did not.
Philosophers still argue over the significance of that specificity today. Why did hope become stuck if it were the last of the evils? However, if hope is the antidote to corruption, perhaps it was protected by the Gods for us.
Even today, millennia later, we still disagree on the definition, function, and even the meaning of hope. The idea has persisted in posing problems across history and across disciplines.
Do we benefit or suffer from hope?
Is it a virtue or an illusion?
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”
– Robert H. Schuller
As someone well-educated and skeptical, I have always found it challenging to take hope…
