Hope? What are you waiting for?

Thoughts on hope

Inspired by a recent podcast episode that I recorded with

Chris Musei-Sequeira

, here are some thoughts on hope. First, a quotation from Joyful Militancy

Nick and carla: Our last question is about hope. Spinoza himself is pretty wary of hope, but he sees it as quite future-oriented: to hope is also to fear, because you’re attached to a future object or outcome. More generally hope is often equated with a naïve optimism: it can become fixated on a certain outcome. But in one of your interviews, you talked about it as something that’s a lot more open-ended. It’s more the sense that we can do something. Do you think that hope is necessarily attached to a vision of the future?

Federici: Hope is positive if it is an active passion; but only if it does not replace the work necessary to make our action successful.

I share Spinoza’s view on hope, that it is related to fear, that it is future-oriented (I think by definition it is but more on that in a moment), that it is about attachment.

And I share Silvia Federici’s emphasis on work in this moment.

The way that people tend to use hope is that it is about waiting. Waiting passively to see what will happen.

Or maybe sometimes doing things because a particular outcome is desired. A particularly fixed outcome.

Apart from using the word hope colloquially (I hope you like what I have written or said today, I hope you have a good time), I think I no longer use the word hope when referring to the future of the world or to my own sense of wellbeing.

I do not hope things about the world. I try to live (hopefully in the Joyful Militancy way, please read the book, link above) in a way where a belief about the future of the world is not necessary for how I am living today.

And I don’t feel hopeless nor hopeful. The future is unfolding and we don’t know in which ways but we do know that we can influence how it unfolds by living our lives right now as though we care about each other, that our minds —together— can be brilliant and creative and militant in the face of any and all shit shows.

Hope you agree! Let me know if you do. Hit reply if you got this by email. Otherwise, leave a comment.

In hope,

Heather