Question: What moves a person to act against despair?
To answer the question, I must first understand what despair is. Merriam-Webster says it is “the loss of hope.” The philosopher Martin Heidegger in his analysis of angst in Being and Time says angst is similar to a sense of unease with the realization that the levers we normally pull on to make sense of our lives are unsatisfactory. A psychological definition of despair might consider the length of time one experiences helplessness or dejection.
So, in order to act against despair we must use what is absent: Hope.
Jean-Paul Sartre said in Being and Nothingness: “Life begins on the other side of despair.”
Hope, to me, is the propellant for action. Without the positive re-framing of potential futures we cannot tether ourselves to something outside of what we’re currently experiencing, like despair. That tether, is hope.
Hope is not the same as optimism.
Optimism implies passivity.
Hope is a conscious choice.
Hope is the maintenance of a positive stance on an issue or vision, especially in the face of adversity. But, why is it important to make this distinction? Well, for one, passive optimism denies the “responsibility of freedom”: the outlook that we are free to do as we please and with that freedom are then responsible for our actions. When one hopes, one is also searching for meaning which implies that the individual has control.
Hope acts as a signal for change. And, when we become aware of that signal, the next step is to act on it. But, despair often includes a dimension of fear and fear tends to leave us frozen in place. So, in order to act we need to develop our muscle for courage.
Friedrich Nietzsche in Twilight of the Idols said: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Hope provides the why. But, in order to act in a state of despair, we need courage. Courage is what allows us to experience the “how.” You cannot be courageous unless you are fearful.
All this, to ask another question: Do I trust myself to act and to think through those actions?
This leans into the idea of self reliance. We will talk more on self reliance in upcoming newsletters, but for now I do think it is important to highlight that hope and courage play a big role in developing a self reliant mindset.
It’s one thing to think through ideas and another to put them to the test.
I aim to do the following this week:
I like to promote resources I find that have helped me in some way to explore my own personal philosophy. Since this is the first newsletter, I thought it fitting to recommend the book that started it all for me. It is one I’ve come back to time and time again.
It is common to conflate nihilism, existentialism and absurdism. This video by Aperture provides clarity. Aperture has other great videos on interesting topics as well. Check ‘em out!
