Why We Need Hope

By Shruti Bhutada

While there is no dearth of hope in this world, actually, there is quite an economy that operates on selling hope and dreams, and earn big bucks; there are reasons to be skeptical about hope. Why do we need hope? I mean, we all know that while that song about hope, that nice motivational lecture you last attended, that movie you saw, that news report you saw where justice had been delivered finally, are feel good factors with a low shelf life. Then, before you know it, darkness descends again.

Stuff happens to people who do no wrong. Psychos turn enemies and friends turn psychos. Another irony about life is that there is this pattern to it. When things are going all right, and you actually start believing that things are as nice as they seem, they suddenly change their color scheme to the exact opposite. While we keep reading about the battle between the wrong and right, the good and the evil, nothing prepares us for the evil present in good, and the wrongs the rights commit. The only resultant that remains, and is actually more faithful than any of these factors, is cynicism. At least doubt is permanent.

Hope on the other hand, is like drugs. It gives you a temporary high, but then, reality strikes and you have to face the consequences. One of my dear friends once said, that hope is a fools weapon. There are times when I almost agree. Look at this world!

Everyday, things seem to be getting worse. The crimes against innocent, the crimes on the streets and on the internet. You can't trust anyone, you can't depend on anyone. People you know, show sides you would rather not see. All this not only weakens Gods and goods case, but also that of hope.

Forgive me for acting the devils advocate, but happiness, trust, virtue, good and God, all disappear when you need them most. Pain and hatred at least stay. You can never predict or claim, that if you are fair to people, they shall be fair with you. That if you do good, you will get good in return. But I can bet that if you do something bad, you shall receive bad. if you kick someone, you can trust them to retaliate. But if you hug someone, you can't trust them to reciprocate.

It isn't a comforting thought, but then there is that minuscule element of conformity, and at least that, is something that hope doesn't have. Cynics say that hope is a pretty good way of spending the time in between two tragedies. Your life may not actually be beautiful, but at least it will seem beautiful. That cynic is me. It makes you question, why do we need hope? So that motion picture industry can earn mega bucks? So that motivational speakers and religious leaders don't have to go search for new jobs? I mean, if life isn't going to be fair, why bother with hope and things like that? Why not join the bandwagon and become as indestructible a destroyer as you can.

People wont dare hurt you, because they know that you will respond to a slap, with a sword. No one shall mess with you, and if that doesn't happen, you can pretty much live life your way. I mean, then it can be fair, or blue or orange. After all, when every human being starts keeping a gun in their overcoat, the only way to ensure that you are safe, is to carry a tank and an army. So that any time someone shoots at you, you blast their existence off this planet.

BINGO!! Exactly. Aren't these gun totters the very people whose menace we try to hope against. I mean, if things just go wrong, if there is a tsunami, you don't complain much. Its when your friends disappoint you. its when people you don't even know, come and hurt you for no reason. Its when crime happens. Its when bombs drop from the sky like bird dropping. Its when an indestructible destroyer wannabe comes with a toy tank and pokes you, scaring you into believing it's a real tank, that you hope.

Then, you question hope. Then you question fairness. Then you kill hope and convince yourself that world is not going to be fair. Then, you know that you can be unfair too. Then, you become one of those very people you were trying to thwart. You become exactly what you battled against.

Its ironic, that even though hope seems inconsequential in this battle called life, it seems that it's the death of hope that starts this battle in the first place. Why do we need hope? To validate fairness? No. fairness isn't just some pinky sweety concept created by human mind. It is the fulcrum of this planet. It is the conclusion of the experiment called life.

Life isn't fair because you pray everyday so Gods watching and everything. Life is fair, because in this world, nothing is created nor destroyed. What goes around, comes around. Matter and anti matter exist together. When you suck out the space, you will get vacuum. It won't all end. When you forsake your ideals, something in you dies. It won't come alive when you really need yourself.

No human being can sleep well with a guilty conscious. If you hurt someone, it will deprive you of sleep, or worst, numb that area in your mind which tells you what you are doing is wrong. Which means, you have committed partial suicide!!! Which is rather foolish.

We don't need hope to validate fairness. Fairness is probably too profound for us to grasp, because we think that every time someone hits us in face, they will immediately turn back and fall in the ditch. We don't see that their hand hurts as much as our chin, and somewhere in their mind, something right just disappeared. Then, thinking that hopes waste, and we can slap around, we become the same, and start slapping people. There are others who cry and whine and basically become ultimate destroyers of hope. They are the kinds who tell you, " whatever you want, you will not get. Whatever you fear and hate, will eventually become your destiny."

We don't need hope to live our lives for us. To fight our battles or to make things right. We need hope to keep the boat sailing in storm till its past. We need it to keep us going till life comes full circle, because it will. We need hope, because we have no option. Don't give it up. Its more precious than you might know. And giving it up, will make things as worst as you envisioned, for all you know.

Passion is the thread that joins the heart to the mind and the mind to the rest of the universe.