Is hope a bad thing?

I think it's pretty much the only thing that keeps a person going, isn't it?
What would you have if you had no hope?

I agree fully with you aidan.

Hope is a proven carcinogenic. Sorry! There's a scientific correlation between the level of hope a person has and bone cancer. Sorry to break the truth to you so abruptly.

I think "hope" is too passive a thing to either be good or bad. Like wishing, hoping doesn't require anything of us other than that we think it. Hope without any action tied to it isn't worth much.

Thanks for your responses. I wanna say that a friend of mine prompted me to ask this question cos in her mind hope is a bad thing to have. But I disagreed with her on the basis of Aidan's answer. I also agree with Boomerang and it's not worth much if there is no action to fulfill that hope. But what I think she means when she says hope is a bad thing is that we expect something to happen and when it doesn't the feelings associated with that hope come crashing down. What I want to know is if expectations are different to hopefulness or are they too similar?

Where would a person be without hope? It's just always keeping a positive, expectant attitude about everything. Eliminate the negative.

Sounds trite but, what else? No hope means you don't even try.

I agree with you totally but my friend thinks hope is only useful in your darkest of times, otherwise it's a 'dirty' word to use as she puts it. But I think it's okay to say to someone that you hope for their well being or you hope to see them again etc.. I see nothing wrong with it.

Is to expect something, different from hoping for something?

Well, I think "hope "is a bad thing, just like "wish". It's like the word 'victim'. Hoping - what the hell is it but sitting and waiting? "Oh, I hope I get that job I applied for." What's the point of that? Either you will or you won't, and no amount of hope is going to change that. It's a wasted emotion, IMO.

No.

I hope not.

In some sense I agree with you. But I wonder would you give the same talk to someone who is about to jump off a cliff?

Yes. If they want to jump off a cliff, where does HOPE come into it? Either your life is terrible and you don't see how you can improve it, which is why you're there, or it is improvable, in which case, it just needs to be pointed out to them. Either way, HOPE is useless. "I hope my life gets better if I don't jump off this cliff" - how passive is that?

Anyway, it would all depend on who's on the cliff edge, doesn't it?

According to American Heritage Dictionary:

Faith: A confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing; 2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. 3. Loyalty to a person or thing. 4. Belief and trust in God. b. Religious conviction. 5. A system of religious beliefs. 6. A set of principles or beliefs.

Hope: 1.To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. 2(archaic) To have confidence, trust. 2. to expect and desire. 1. To look forward to with confidence or expectation. 2. To expect and desire. 1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. 3. One that is a source or reason for hope (the team's only hope for victory). Something that is hoped for or desired. 4. (archaic) Trust, confidence. To hope with little reason or justification.

Does that solve anything? Feelings of hope have to be accompanied by an expectancy of fulfillment (a positive feeling about the thing hoped for).

Passive maybe, but offering words that were empathic to another to find some semblance of support or help doesn't neccesarrily mean you have to use the word hope. But of course there are those who are more inclined to help out a fellow human being than others. I can't say why that is but I can make an inference that some may think a situation is hopeless, while some may think that helping out is what anybody else would do.

Imagine it was you on that cliff edge? (As unimginable as it may be)

Definitions are all well and good, but what does HOPE get you? Nothing. It's a wasted emotion. Better to try to do something to effect the change you want than to sit on your hands and HOPE, which brings nothing at all. It's a waste of time.

And anyway, I disagree with those definitions of hope. "... with confidence and expectation.." = re: lottery ticket, expectation, maybe, but certainly not confidence... I agree with the last one, "To hope with little reason or justification." That equals - WASTE OF TIME.

Thanks Pemerson, now I'm wary of what to hope for and not to hope for. Lately I've been saying to my self that "the only things to expect is that your expectations may never be fully realised and to expect the unexpected." Now you've made clearer that my hope is interchangeable with my expectations.

Should we face all the adversity in the world, if we don't have feelings of hope that our life can change, then forget it and keep facing that horror. Walk out the door with nothing and face nothing. Become a Charles Manson, or steal what you don't have from others.

People with no hope won't wilt, or die, they'll just keep living with adversity until, hopefully, something or someone wakes them up. When a person is at the bottom of their life, should they give the smallest of kindness to another, or be on the receiving end of a kindness then they are no longer asleep and incredible things can and do happen because they then have hope.

"Ya gotta have hope, all you really need is hope." Sometimes it can be just a smile, or an acknowledgment that someone exists, i.e., a homeless person, and you may give them feelings of hope, instead of despair.

What the hell can anyone say more about this word, and it's not just a word, it's a feeling. And a kindness to another is the smallest of reasons, or justification, to give someone hope that their life can be better.

But hope isn't always sunshine and unicorns. "I hope you're happy" is often used to express displeasure with someone or something and "I hope s/he rots in Hell" is probably one of the more common "hopes".