Tag: hope

Hope is Us

barryh1 Comment

Along with several fellow bloggers, I have often lamented the state of the world crisis, and veered between hope and despair – usually landing on hope as the only way forward – the glass is always half full. I was listening to a SciMed talk by Richard Tarnas the other day and Richard came out with a fascinating perspective on hope, which I paraphrase:

“With hope we call on the deepest wisdom we have access to, and plant seeds for the future. Hope is part of the unfolding of new thinking which leads to the new world. All is connected and we are each part of its evolution. The whole evolves through the involvement and evolution of its parts, and the path forward emerges through our common efforts, driven by hope – not through a single great inpiration.”

American poet Emily Dickinson expresses it more poetically:

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”

See also Vaclav Havel on hope.

For a final word, I asked my new ‘friend’ Chatgpt, “Is there hope, or are we all doomed?” Chatgpt replied instantly:

“As an AI language model, I don’t have personal opinions, but I can provide you with some perspectives on the subject.

It’s natural for people to have both positive and negative feelings about the future. On one hand, there are many challenges facing humanity, such as climate change, social and political conflicts, and access to resources. However, it’s also important to recognize that humans have shown remarkable resilience and innovation in overcoming difficulties in the past, and there is still hope for a better future.

In the end, the future is shaped by the collective actions and decisions of people. By working together and making informed, responsible choices, it is possible to create a brighter future for all. So, rather than focusing solely on whether we are doomed or not, it’s more productive to focus on what we can do to create a positive outcome.”

Precisely! But not concisely.

We are the people the world has been waiting for, and hope is the way ahead. Go to it, friends, and never despair! We are with you, despite the many apparent setbacks and difficulties…

Featured image of chickpea sprouting by I, Prathyush Thomas
(GFDL 1.2 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html or FAL),
via Wikimedia Commons

Hope reprise

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I make no apology for reblogging this quote from the Vaclav Havel, the much loved last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic. I believe it speaks particularly to the difficult times we face, worldwide. It is through hope that we will chart a way through.

“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.
Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.
Hope is not a prognostication.
It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
Hope definitely is not the same thing as optimism.
It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

Amen.

 

New Renaissance vision – 25 years on

barryh4 Comments

I recently came across this short unpublished article I wrote towards the end of 1996, reflecting on The Knutsford Lectures 1993-1996 on Visions of a New Renaissance, previously described in this post. It was an ambitious attempt to capture the spirit and outline of the needed New Renaissance, inspired by what the 19 individual speakers had said. The limitations of my perspective and the lack of suitable outlets meant the article was never published.

Discovering this piece led me to consider, what has changed in nearly 25 years. Was the outlined vision valid? Are we any nearer to it? Here’s my brief assessment, against the categories in the Emerging Vision section of the above paper i.e.:

  • Sustainable ecology.
  • Ethical behaviour and social responsibility
  • Local economy and community
  • Appropriate scale and human scale
  • Open science
  • Soul and spirit
  • Love, compassion, nonviolence
  • Holistic views
  • Living philosophy
  • Imagination, inspiration, arts

I have to say that, despite some encouraging features, it seems as if we are further away from a New Renaissance than we were 25 years ago. Consider just three points:

  1. Dominating everything else, the failure to effectively act on environmental sustainability and climate change for 25 years has led us into an increasingly perilous situation. We, particularly governments and moneymakers, have failed the test of ‘acting as if future generations matter’. On the other hand, far more individual people are acting as if they do; the pendulum is moving.
  2. Behind this is the dead weight of materialism, mechanism and reductionism, continuing to dominate science, governance and economics, stifling the emergence of soul, spirit, love, compassion, true values.
  3. The conflict between large scale and human scale is still heavily over-balanced in favour of the mega-projects, big government, industrial-scale farming and against human communities, particularly indigenous, and local solutions. Human inequalities increase as a result of an economic/governmental system that systematically increases them.

It does not have to be thus. We are creating the new world day by day, in our thoughts and resulting actions. The New Renaissance is a spur to our forward thinking. Take at look at SciMed‘s current New Renaissance initiative!

And I have to be encouraged by the direction taken by international organisations, and particularly the forthcoming Davos Agenda, plus this year’s schedule of global conferences. Covid-19 appears to have catalysed the understanding that the current ‘system’ no longer works, and a new direction is necessary for the whole of humanity, based on working with nature, inclusion and social justice, and trust between nations. A reason for hope!

Wrapping up a tumultuous year

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Matthew Wright’s posts from New Zealand and others across the world show that there are a lot of people who are disturbed about the direction humanity is going, and the apparent regression to the mentality of the 1930s (and we all know where that finished up). Yet his call for optimism and hope is surely the only sensible response for us.

Matthew Wright

It’s almost the end of 2019, and I am wrapping up my blog for the year with a few thoughts; some joyous, some sombre.

The joy is that, for some, Christmas is upon is, as is the New Year. It is a time for family, and to enjoy a brief respite from the labours of the world. As has been earned, and as we should.

But for me this year is also set against a sombre darkness. When I look around at what is happening globally; at the ugly end-game of greed and entitlement into which the neo-liberal revolution of the 1980s has fallen; at the way certain social media platforms amplify polemic and reduce reason to asserted slogans – a litmus test, perhaps, for human nature; and when I look at the way national sentiments around the globe are becoming polarised for deeper-running socio-economic reasons, I have to wonder…

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Hope and Fear

barryh5 Comments

The posts on Aperture of Brahma are simple yet challenging. Consider the latest one here. I will quote and comment on some of the points made.

By holding a mental picture in mind, we gradually but surely draw the thing nearer to us.

So if we focus on fear, rather than a positive vision, this draws the things we fear nearer.

Difficulty and obstacle are necessary for wisdom and spiritual growth.

As a society we are presented with great difficulties in these times. These challenges are encouraging us, individually and collectively, towards wisdom and growth.

We may be of the most service by keeping an open mind. Be interested in the race not the goal; the pursuit not the possession.

Visualization facilitates feeling. Even during difficulty and obstacle, we can maintain a positive mental state by feeling positive. An open mind is a mind without judgement or assumptions.

It is the process of engaging positively with the challenges we face it is important that we do not to rush to judgement or stick to preconceived notions. For example, we should seek to ensure a positive outcome to the ongoing Brexit process – perhaps visualising what would satisfy most people, rather than just sticking to our preconceived notions of the ‘right’ outcome and fears of the ‘wrong’ one (oh dear, this is not easy!).

We do not have to laboriously shovel the darkness out. All that is required is to turn the light on… by adjusting our thoughts/directing our attention to an ideal state. By allowing our thoughts to focus on loss, disease, and disaster, we facilitate the maintenance of self destruction.

Focusing on a positive vision, linked to the good, the beautiful, the true, doing what we can, where we are now. This is the way of hope, as opposed to the self-defeating path of fear.

We can see wisdom in many places. Thank you, Aperture of Brahma.

Picture of light on Grand Canyon from Hopi Point by Tuxyso / Wikimedia Commons

 

 

Never despair

barryh3 Comments

World affairs can sometimes lead us into a trough of despair. Gandhi must have felt this sometimes in his battles for truth and justice. I just came across this quote which gives hope in difficult times:

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
Mahatma Gandhi

It also reminds me of EF Schumacher’s words at the end of A Guide for the Perplexed (pub 1977):

“Can we rely on it that a ‘turning around’ will be accomplished by enough people quickly enough to save the modern world? This question is often asked, but whatever answer is given to it will mislead. The answer ‘Yes’ would lead to complacency; the answer ‘No’ to despair. It is desirable to leave these perplexities behind us and get down to work.”
EF Schumacher

Of course, hope is the antidote to fear, and one of the great messengers of hope in the world has been Barak Obama. For example:

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
Barak Obama

Hope

barryh1 Comment

I just came across this quote from the Vaclav Havel, the much loved last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic. It particularly resonates for me, with hope being part of my family name. Our future depends on hope.

“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.
Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul, and it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation.
Hope is not a prognostication.
It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.
Hope definitely is not the same thing as optimism.
It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

Amen.

 

Rude and crude

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I was taught that being rude is bad mannered and being crude is just not on.

It is rather disheartening to see the appalling standards of much public interaction, to some degree in the UK, moreso in the US, and also on the internet. Yes, Twitter, Facebook and the rest are public spaces.

Unfortunately, it appears that in the political arena, being rude and crude can be a very successful strategy for getting elected. Bring your talk down to the lowest common denominator and a lot of people will vote for you –  a lot won’t, but you only need enough.

Also in the media, being rude and crude can be a successful strategy for selling ‘news’papers.

This is the way to coarsen our societies. The fish rots from the head, the opinion leaders.

True leaders offer hope and vision, point to higher values, rather than trading on invented fears. They listen to alternative viewpoints and respect opponents, rather than attack and insult them.

I’ve been lucky enough to live over 70 years in a civilised UK and Western world. Its very foundation of baseline civility seems under threat.