Hope

Man, I fucking hate that word.

Hope has this connotation, this idea in mainstream that it's actually a good thing.  Where this came from, I have no idea, but it's used constantly to invoke some sort of positive response in people.  In this time when our language is being redefined on a daily basis, when people are getting to the reality of what it means to "have faith" or what have you, why is "hope" taboo?

Dictionaries break down the word to even make sure that there's this idea persists.  For instance, the definition: a "person or thing in which expectations are centered" seems like a valid, non-connotation-based definition until the example sentence afterwards: The medicine was her last hope.  Seriously, how did this become the example?  The last of the sick dying of the black plague was man's only hope for survival.  There.  An example that is much more "gray" than disturbingly positive.


You know what?  I'm gonna redefine the word here.  Screw the 40 different definitions for the word, I'm going to give one (ok, two, because you gotta verb it as well) that fits them all.


hope [hohp] 1. Noun. A desire that has no basis in reality to come true, but we wish for it to be so regardless.  2. Verb. The act of having hope.


Seriously, that's it.  Let me break it down for you.  Hoping is simply wanting something, but not having any idea whether or not you're really going to get it.  Sure, you can work at it, do what you can to make it happen, but if any action you take would assuredly make it happen, then it's no long hope.  It's simply an action (or for you physicists out there who probably aren't reading this, a reaction).


So in truth, it's just a baseless desire.  Now THERE'S a word that has changed meaning in the last few decades. Used to be you could wake up in the morning and desire toast for breakfast.  Now if desire is one of the first words out of your mouth in the morning, someone is bound to have a snarky giggle before you even finish the sentence.


What's to stop hope from having the same connotation?  After all, most likely as your reading this, that guy nearby is hoping to have sex with you anyway.  He's got no basis for this; he doesn't know who you are, what sexuality you may be, and probably doesn't even know how to start up a conversation.  Hell, he's probably trying to get a look at what you're reading in hopes he can use it as an icebreaker.  Won't he feel awkward when he sees the title and starts yammering about starving kids in Africa, or how his parents died, or 9/11.  


We've taken the time to redefine Belief and Faith as modern-day consumers.  Since Hope is really their relative, we really should not still be blindly considering it to be a positive thing.  Hope is the waiting room attendee's hope that something will cure someone's cancer before they die as much as it it is the psychotic's hope that the next kill can stop the voices in his head.  Neither has much basis in reality, neither knows for certain whether or not the actions taken can truly make a difference, but they both hope it's true.


Seriously, the only line between Hope and its ugly cousins is sacrifice.  Hope can still maintain some sort of innocence only in the fact that it can be completely internal; one doesn't have to act on one's hopes, and in fact acting on it often defines it as something else, although it still remains a hope.  The willingness to sacrifice someone else or someone else's hope turns it into a belief, whereas the willingness to sacrifice yourself or something you believe turns it into faith.  One can fervently hope that the heathens will come to realize their ways are destroying the core of humanity; the believers gather followers and launch wars against their enemies with hopes of converting them through martial prowess; the faithful strap bombs to their chests in hopes that their sacrifice will teach others the evils of their ways.


Seriously, fuck that word.  Every time I see it now, it just makes me angry.  It's constantly used as a trap to elicit feelings of guilt for things that, in truth, we hold no real responsibility.  Fuck sending money in some sort of hope that it'll do some good.  If you really feel that guilty about starving kids in Africa, pack up your own bag of money and catch a plane.  See how much good that bag of money will do out there.  Or get a job working for the cause, and make sure the donations are going somewhere good.  Then tell those you trust that you know this is going to make a difference, not simply hoping it is.  Take away the hope and just it into a want.  Make it something you can actually do something about, instead of hoping that your random donation is going to a good cause.


I hope you didn't read this hoping for some sort of positive twist at the end; but then, neither of us have any basis in reality for that, so screw it.