is false hope better than no hope?

[Poindexter Arachnid]

Rez'd.

I vote "no hope".

False hope inspires mediocrity in one's self; you will be dependent on tired platitudes to keep you going (I know--I don't get it either).

Once you tell all of that crap to piss off, you embrace the abyss of despair and something in you "breaks". Underneath that "facade" you've struggled to maintain all of your life...this is what you REALLY are. You won't like it. But you'll accept it.

It's the most liberating feeling in the world. Recommended.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

For anyone who believes in false hope..... go right ahead. But it's not my responsibility to keep that hope alive. That task is yours, and yours alone. I have no ethical obligation to do so, whatever you may think. If thinking positive is so easy and awesome, you should be able to do that without my help.

I'm more than happy to live life with my glass half empty. My experiments in living life with my glass half full was not a success. I suppose I'll try that again if someone really wants me to, provided that they try my way, also. Maybe if there were more "glass half empty" people on Wall Street, the stock market wouldn't have crashed.

I like knowing where things stand. If that makes me unhappy, it's my responsibility to deal with that. It's not anyone else's. Trying to be an optimistic is too chaotic.

And check this out:

http://www.wikisocion.org/en/index.php?title=Positivist_and_negativist

Don't know how valid that is for everyone, but it certainly seems accurate for me. Also, crushing dreams is fun!

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

People always fare better with a beautiful lie than the ugly truth. That's why religion is hardwired to our brains.

That's a lie, and not a beautiful one. Maybe for ESFPs.

 

[Mole]

I think I am a no hoper. I do though hope for better things but it is hope flying in the face of experience. I think I can't get my head around the fact I am a no hoper. Everything conspires to give me hope. And like a loon I reach for each bright hope. But for reasons I can't explain I remain a no hoper. I don't know what to do. I think of things to do, but somehow, for reasons I can't explain, I don't want to do them.

I try to romanticise myself, I try to see myself as an attractive no hoper, but I don't seem to be able to attract hope.

They tell me I should have faith, hope and charity. But being a no hoper, faith and charity are out of my reach.

But I'm not even bad, I haven't been able to embrace my dark side. Most no hopers can at least go over to the dark side, but I remain caught at dusk and dawn with the dark on one side and the light on the other. My only saving grace is that I hear the Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I don't like people telling me to be more optimistic.

 

[Redbone]

I want to say no but considering how good I can be at glossing things over and running on this bizarre form of negative optimism...it's gotten MUCH better with age, though. So I'll still say no but only speaking for myself.

 

[WALMART]

I think I am a no hoper. I do though hope for better things but it is hope flying in the face of experience. I think I can't get my head around the fact I am a no hoper. Everything conspires to give me hope. And like a loon I reach for each bright hope. But for reasons I can't explain I remain a no hoper. I don't know what to do. I think of things to do, but somehow, for reasons I can't explain, I don't want to do them.

I try to romanticise myself, I try to see myself as an attractive no hoper, but I don't seem to be able to attract hope.

They tell me I should have faith, hope and charity. But being a no hoper, faith and charity are out of my reach.

But I'm not even bad, I haven't been able to embrace my dark side. Most no hopers can at least go over to the dark side, but I remain caught at dusk and dawn with the dark on one side and the light on the other. My only saving grace is that I hear the Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

So much love for your posts.

Also, I think about your sig with fair frequency. Excellent choice, whatever reason it was.

 

[Ene]

If a deceived person knew that he was being deceived then he would no longer be deceived.

If a person put her trust in false hope, knowing it was false, then it would no longer be hope, but rather insanity.

There are some insane people, but the truth is that if anyone says he has no hope, he is not honest with himself. Everyone goes to bed hoping s/he will get up the next day, if he says otherwise and remains alive, he lies. We all have hope in the barest sense of the word, except for those who their own lives. They have no hope. Ultimately, true hopelessness produces death, yet even in death there can be hope. Those who say they have no hope and yet continue to speak and interact and reach out to others in any form whatsoever, have some form of hope. Even putting a thread on an internet form is evidence of hope. It testifies that the poster has an inclination or an expectation that someone might respond, so that is hope.

Hope is nothing more than the expectation that something will happen. For example, I hope to go to work this morning. I hope the sun will come up in the morning. I hope to be successful in my business venture. Without hope, people DO nothing. Hope is the expectancy that all efforts will yield a result. Without hope the whole world would soon fall into...death, yet, even when there is death there is life. A seed cannot produce a new plant unless the seed coat dies and decays first, unless the seed is consumed with the new life; so, even death can produce, does produce, life and where there is life, there is hope.

Dum spiro, spero, amicus.

 

[Mole]

Without hope, people DO nothing.

My chaplain told me that those who do things cause all the trouble.

 

[Mole]

So much love for your posts.

Also, I think about your sig with fair frequency. Excellent choice, whatever reason it was.

Here it is -

It was the Water Rat!

Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.

`Hullo, Mole!' said the Water Rat.

`Hullo, Rat!' said the Mole.

`Would you like to come over?' enquired the Rat presently.

`Oh, its all very well to TALK,' said the Mole, rather pettishly, he being new to a river and riverside life and its ways.

The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on it; then lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not observed. It was painted blue outside and white within, and was just the size for two animals; and the Mole's whole heart went out to it at once, even though he did not yet fully understand its uses.

The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his forepaw as the Mole stepped gingerly down. `Lean on that!' he said. `Now then, step lively!' and the Mole to his surprise and rapture found himself actually seated in the stern of a real boat.

`This has been a wonderful day!' said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a boat before in all my life.'

`What?' cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a--you never--well I--what have you been doing, then?'

`Is it so nice as all that?' asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.

`Nice? It's the ONLY thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on dreamily: `messing--about--in--boats; messing----'

`Look ahead, Rat!' cried the Mole suddenly.

It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.

`--about in boats--or WITH boats,' the Rat went on composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. `In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not. Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of it?'

The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. `WHAT a day I'm having!' he said. `Let us start at once!'

`Hold hard a minute, then!' said the Rat. He looped the painter through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket.

`Shove that under your feet,' he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.

`What's inside it?' asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.

`There's cold chicken inside it,' replied the Rat briefly; `coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssan dwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater----'

`O stop, stop,' cried the Mole in ecstacies: `This is too much!'

`Do you really think so?' enquired the Rat seriously. `It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it VERY fine!'

The Mole never heard a word he was saying. Absorbed in the new life he was entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long waking dreams. The Water Rat, like the good little fellow he was, sculled steadily on and forebore to disturb him.

 

[Ene]

My chaplain told me that those who do things cause all the trouble.

And you listened? To a chaplain? You, the Mole? You must be careful, chaplains have a tendency to infiltrate your thinking and alter your perceptions. I'm concerned about you now. I am concerned that you may be loosing your mole-ness

 

[RaptorWizard]

I would much prefer a false sense of faith rather than hope.

With faith, it's very much a goal we stretch across the horizons to reach, and even if it's never achieved, there's so many expansions that we can make!

Hope on the other hand is more like wishing for things without steps of action.

 

[Mole]

And you listened? To a chaplain? You, the Mole? You must be careful, chaplains have a tendency to infiltrate your thinking and alter your perceptions. I'm concerned about you now. I am concerned that you may be loosing your mole-ness

Oh my God, I'll have to talk to my therapist about this. I had no idea chaplains have a tendency to infiltrate our thinking and alter our perceptions. And yes, I am concerned about me too. I can feel something slipping away, something precious, something like my identity, and I can barely bring myself to say this, but my very self.

You, dear Ene, have diagnosed my problem perfectly. I have an identity crisis, indeed an existential crisis, brought on by listening too much, far too much, to my chaplain. I blame myself.

 

[Ene]

Oh my God, I'll have to talk to my therapist about this. I had no idea chaplains have a tendency to infiltrate our thinking and alter our perceptions. And yes, I am concerned about me too. I can feel something slipping away, something precious, something like my identity, and I can barely bring myself to say this, but my very self.

You, dear Ene, have diagnosed my problem perfectly. I have an identity crisis, indeed an existential crisis, brought on by listening too much, far too much, to my chaplain. I blame myself.

It's okay. You have recognized it and therefore are on the road back to being your Mole-self again, or maybe I should say back in the boat? No need to blame oneself. Those chaplains are full of tricks and even the best of moles and other furry folk can be tricked from time to time.

 

[CheshireCat]

In the grand scheme of things, I'd say no. You should see things objectively, if the outcome is looking dismal, find an alternative with more promising results. Settling for false hope is congruent with giving up.

 

[A window to the soul]

In order to answer the question, I came up with the only two logical definitions I could think of.

Definition 1: It’s what we say ‘the loser’ had after he/she loses a gamble. For example, you hope to win the lottery, you don't, and your neighbor does, so your hope turned out to be false. And life is a gamble, which requires hope on a grander scale. Almost everything we do requires it. Some will survive the ride to work, some won’t, but hope will put people in the driver’s seat. The alternative is hopelessness, depression, and suicide. (In this case, hope is better than hopelessness.)

Definition 2: Believing in something that, with 100% certainty, does not exist. (In this case, there may be benefits for the well-being of someone with a medical condition. I think the ‘placebo effect’ is a good example of putting hope into something that isn't real where benefits are realized.)

The definition of Placebo Effect

The beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.

 

[ygolo]

I am of the opinion that giving someone false hope is a cruel thing to do to him/her.

 

[INTP]

Depends on the situation

 

[tkae.]

Depends on the situation and the extremity thereof.

9/10 times it's not worse. It's a proven fact that if you're in an accident that strands you in the wilderness, keeping a good attitude and having faith in being rescued will increase your chances of survival. But if you have so much hope that you sit there waiting to be rescued instead of getting shelter together and collecting food, or have false hope that you can swim/walk back to civilization, then it's gone a bit far.

As far as terminal illnesses go, it's a bit of a different story. For some people it's better, because they die believing they'll live, so they keep the delusion to the end. If you're being treated, it's always better. But if you have false hope that you don't need treatment, then that's another thing entirely. That's setting yourself up to die. And people who have false hopes about illnesses run the risk of crashing hard when they can't avoid the reality of the situation.

As far as existence goes, I think it's better to have hope than to be a nihilist. Hope is satisfying and comfortable, and since our time is limited, why not be comfortable? It's like a Snuggie. Sure, you don't need one, but it doesn't hurt anything.

 

[Thalassa]

When it comes to some thing like a love interest I would infinitely prefer to be told to drop dead than have false hope or any kind of ambivalence. I can find dates fairly easily, so I would rather not spend my time pointlessly hoping to get with some one who is taken or decides I am not their type.

For many other situations, though, hope is extremely beneficial and good for you, as [MENTION=11066]tkae.[/MENTION] already mentioned.