Hope is not the same as optimism, a psychologist explains − just look at MLK’s example
Retrieved on:
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” Twenty-two hours later, he was assassinated.
Key Points:
- But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” Twenty-two hours later, he was assassinated.
- He was not optimistic that he would reach the “Promised Land,” yet he was hopeful about the ultimate goal.
- Self-help books on optimism are lined with hacks – like imagining your greatest possible self or focusing on the best-case scenario.
- It is a mindset that helps people endure challenges, tackle them head-on and keep their eyes on the goal – a virtue that King and other community leaders exemplify.
We, not me
- Hope is stronger than optimism at predicting academic success and people’s ability to cope with pain.
- Plenty of scientific evidence suggests that hope improves individuals’ health and boosts their well-being.
- Centuries of spiritual and philosophical work describe hope as a virtue that, like love, is a decision, not a feeling.
The myth of time
- He faced repeated waves of criticism, and, at the time of his death, fewer Americans approved of him than of the Vietnam War.
- In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King lamented the optimism of moderate white Americans who said they supported his goals but took little action.
- There is a “strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills,” he wrote.
King was not alone in leveraging virtuous hope for justice. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire described hope as an “existential imperative” that promotes action. Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, called hope a “powerful weapon.”
Forged in adversity
- I study virtuous hope in a South African Zulu community, where there are few reasons for optimism.
- This is the part of the country where HIV is most widespread, with the percentage near 50% in some communities.
- These individuals demonstrated an unwavering focus on striving for a better future, often unglued from expectations of personal success.
- Like King’s, it manifests in hardship and is refined in adversity.
- Hope enables communities to march for justice and democracy even while tasting the danger of dictatorship, apartheid or oligarchy.
Kendra Thomas receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation