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By Abel Merawi
September 14, 2020 (Ezega.com) – Human beings occupy the same physical space and time in this world. However, the defining description of the world is numerous. These differences in understanding the same world have less to do with intellect and more to do with perspective. Even if you ask intellects from the same field of study, you can get a surprisingly different definition. The same goes for uneducated people, politicians, religious people, artists, and even children. Sometimes the difference is so vast that it makes one wonder if they are defining the same planet or not.
I argue that we perceive and understand the world based on the past and the future in the context of the present. Hope is an integral part of this process. When our experience and present condition are full of adversity, we often imagine a bleak future. On the contrary, when our life until now seemed like a rose garden, we often look forward to a bright future. However, it is not always our actual experience that leads us to a pessimistic or optimistic description of the world. Sometimes education makes the world personal and we may have a dark picture of the world even when we personally lead a pretty good life.
There are also rare but profound events that shake our entire belief system. Such moments put us in a state of shock to the point of doubting our previous understanding. These moments make us insecure and anxious; They make us look for something to hold onto and make sense of it all again. We can take the war in Syria, the world wars and the terrorist attacks as prime examples. These are moments that make us question humanity. After the two world wars, a nihilistic approach grew stronger and spread throughout the world. Most people found it difficult to trust the future. They simply lost hope and faith both in the world and in themselves. This gave rise to a postmodernist approach, which held that there is no truth or morality other than subjective and personal valuation. This is a symptom of hopelessness that ends with a meaningless life.
Currently, the world is facing shock and helplessness due to the COVID-19 outbreak. At such times, people feel insecure and helpless. This can lead to hopelessness because we feel unable to cope with our immediate environment and protect ourselves and our loved ones. As has happened in the past, we need hopeful people to rid ourselves of this pandemic along with the accompanying frustration and anxiety. In this sense, hope is defined as the ability to transcend our immediate situation and realistically imagine a better future.
To be human is to value. We do not simply observe external circumstances. Rather, we measure and try to make sense of them. In this assessment process, each of us has the ability to understand the world and derive a definition of life from it. Thereafter, our subjective definition appears as the objective world and we live accordingly. Hope is born out of this subjective experience and when we begin to share it collectively, it defines our family, nation and even the world. Ideologies are born from this assessment. At this juncture, it will be wise to clearly define and explain the meaning of hope.
The prominent psychologist Erich Fromm in his work ‘Hope’ has defined and discussed the other innate virtues that accompany it. He affirms: “Having hope is a state of being. It is an inner disposition, that of an intense but not yet exhausted activity. “He goes on to argue that hope” is not a passive waiting or an unreal forcing of circumstances that cannot occur. “Consequently, hope is the same as predicting from the best alternative for the future realistically. Hope is a state of being because it determines our life manifesting itself in our daily attitudes and actions. It should not be confused with “passive hope”, which is to hope that the future is better without any active effort ours in the present. Furthermore, hope is not an “unreal fantasy” that ignores the facts and naively forces reality to give in to personal whim. Hope is rather a realistic approach to undesirable circumstances to improve them.
Hope is based on faith and brings forth strength. Erich Fromm eloquently comments: “Faith is rational when it refers to the knowledge of the real that has not yet been born; it is based on the faculty of knowledge and understanding, which penetrates the surface and sees the core. Faith, like hope, is not a prediction of the future; it is the vision of the present in a state of pregnancy ”. It is worth understanding that faith is the very source of life that helps us to continue in life. We get out of bed not because we are sure the day is going to be good, but because we have faith that it will be good if we interact with life to the best of our potential. Fortitude or courage is born from this willingness to face life despite current circumstances. Erich Fromm states: “Strength is the ability to resist the temptation to compromise hope and faith by transforming – and thus destroying – empty optimism or irrational faith. Strength is the ability to say no when the world wants to hear yes. “Therefore, freedom finds expression in the strength we have to live up to our faith and hope. It is when we imagine a better tomorrow in a Realistically that we have the courage to face any difficulties in the present.
Hope makes us actively participate in the construction of ourselves and the world around us, while hopelessness leads to passivity and violence. One manifestation of hopelessness is “pseudo-innocence.” Renowned psychologist Rollo May in ‘Power and Innocence’ explains pseudo-innocence by commenting: “When faced with questions too big and horrendous to contemplate, we tend to shrink into this kind of innocence and make powerlessness, weakness, a virtue. and impotence. … With an unconscious purpose, we close our eyes to reality and persuade ourselves that we have escaped from it ”. To put it in context, acting like COVID-19 doesn’t exist, arguing that our country is safe and everyone lives in harmony, or naively saying that the world is beautiful is a mark of hopelessness in passivity. The other form of hopelessness is violence. Erich Fromm argues: “Precisely because men cannot live without hope, he whose hope has been completely destroyed hates life. Since he cannot create life, he wants to destroy it. …. it matters little whether it destroys others or is destroyed. This is the attitude of the violent protesters and their leaders. It is also the mindset of leaders who corrupt and destroy a nation because they lack faith in their own country.
Finally, the value of hope is fundamental both for the individual and for society. We hope not only because we have a frame of reference in history, but also because of an ideal that is humanly possible. Both the individual and society cannot progress without hope, because being static is going back and decaying in time. Friedrich Nietzsche said it best in Thus Spoke Zarathustra when commenting: “Wherever I found the living, I found the will to power.” The New Year should be celebrated with hope and faith in progress. It must be faced with the strength or ‘will to power’ necessary to overcome COVID-19 and progress in unity as a nation.
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Abel merawi is an Addis Abeba contributor for Ezega.com. You can contact him through this form.
Other items from Abel merawi:
Free But Chained, Part IV: Personal Bondage
Free but on Chain. Part III: Economic Slavery
Free but on Chain. Part II: Social Slavery
Free but on Chain. Part I: The Slavery of the Worldview
Unemployment and economic growth in Ethiopia
Human ignorance underrated
Is America the land of the free? (Part II)
Is America the land of the free? (Part I)
Capitalism becomes an impediment to morality
Ketman: Living in Disguise to Win Acceptance
The system and the ‘criminal’
Trust as an economic force
Do you trust the government?
Our online world
Fame confused with expertise
The heavy burden of health workers
A time to reflect
The Plague of Albert Camus: Fiction becomes reality!
History of pandemics in Ethiopia
The Human Fight Against Pandemics: Historical Perspective
Crisis speculators
You can make the difference
Rule of law for a free society
Adwa
The origins of law
Determinants of Market Value: Part II
Determinants of Market Value: Part I
Your life matters too
Manifestations of artistic expression
Achievements vs natural accidents
The sacrificial grip
Injustice is never justifiable
The educational demands of the future
Job security, life and an unpredictable future
The shift from racism to bodybuilding
Sacrifice meaning for power?
Cultural and market forces
Intersubjective reality
Searching for cosmic justice
National myths: creators and destroyers of nations
Are we truly free?
Maturity: the prerequisite for freedom and democracy
Loyalty to the truth, not the group
The value of work
The shortcomings of the Ethiopian political system
The intellectuals and the people
Where are our conquerors?
The Allegory of the Cave and Its Lessons for Leaders
The truth behind humanity
The seven virtues
The seven capital sins
What is the right thing to do?
Building National Identity
Adey Abeba and the spirit of change
Street violence
Living the truth as a human being
Hubris: the tragedy of not learning from others
The Age of Group Mindset: Us vs. Them
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