Hope

Hope was a major product vended by the Obama campaign in 2008. "Yes we can." The words sound silly now, because he couldn't, as it turned out. 

This illustrates an aspect of hope which comes to my mind often. Hope can be a sustaining incentive or a defeating denial of reality. Hope can be a symptom of an optimistic personality. Hope can be a symptom of insanity.

Hope which is unfounded in some substantial knowledge of reality is simply whistling in the dark. Selling hope to others when it is unfounded in knowledge of reality is dishonest. This is the province of the preacher, not the healer. This explains why churches are more often populated by the impaired than by the resourceful.

Hope can be sustaining when all else fails. However, hope based in education and information is more sustaining than hope based in delusion. The former is an acceptance of the human condition. The latter is a denial of the human condition. Being fully aware of the nature of coincidence and chance in a world which can be better understood through education brings a special kind of peace which sustains even when hopes are not realized.