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“I’ve been injected with false hope so many fucking times I’ve lost count”
via concealthefeeling
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“We all suffer from dreams.”
Bernard Cornwell
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Well. I am unequivocally a hope guy.
I believe leaders should be dealers of hope.
I believe hope is stronger than … well … pretty much anything.
I believe no one should be empty of hope.
I believe everyone deserves someone to give them hope when hopelessness seems the only thing available.
That said.
While, technically, false hope is a simple definition, realistically, there are a couple kinds of false hope.
Ok. Actually a shitload of derivatives of false hope.
In my words there would be, on one end of the spectrum, the more heinous version of ‘offering a fantasy unrealistic thought’ all the way over to the other bookend of ‘grasping for some glimmer of a semi-impossible reality.”
And then everything in between.
Hope, in even a false way, has many dimensions. And within any and all dimensions I would suggest even a sliver of hope has an exponential value beyond its mere size. It is quite possible that is where false hope becomes a little dangerous – that exponential value beyond its actual size.
Even with a glimmer, hope can shine so bright it can blind you to the relentless onslaught of truths and realities. The truths which are more likely to showcase the horizon you are not only gonna be stuck looking at, but visiting at some point <which is not the horizon you had actually hoped for>. But false hope is maybe even slightly more dangerous than that <if anything could be more dangerous than be blinded by reality>.
It actually is more likely to blind you on the important little shit than the meaningless bigger shit. False hope inevitably drives someone to focus on the bigger more audacious, and less likely, objective. This translates into the fact that same someone is more likely to overlook the smaller more important shit that would actually have increased the odds of attaining the hopeful objective.
How does that most often happen?
You are more likely to make some smaller, more impactful, poor choices and decisions hanging on to the sliver of false hope like it is a security blanket from the dangers of the reality you know must be out there.
By the way. That is the main difference between real hope and false hope – in the nuts & bolts aspects.
Real hope. Real hope, which truly has aspects of reality embedded within, actually permits you to navigate reality’s obstacles as you pursue the real hope of something. The real truth is that real hope does not blind, it actually opens your eyes. That said. Contrary to belief the most dangerous false hope is not the one which is complete fantasy it is the type that actually has some reality embedded.
Yeah. False hope is not always some fantasy.
Yeah. False hope is not always something with “no knowable chance of coming to fruition.”
Yeah. As I stated in the beginning someone who purposefully propagates a true fantasy, something so unrealistic, well, that really isn’t false hope that is propagating a lie. And exploiting a lie is a heinous act <but that is NOT false hope>.
So, to be clear, false hope can be propagated not as some false promise or lie, but rather in a weird ‘well intended way.’ Say, for example, someone has been elevated to a position who is unqualified and untested … but has some tested competency. They sit down at their new desk with all the intentions to succeed and all the words to suggest everyone should believe they will figure it out and succeed.
Well. Let’s say they have strong well intended hope that they will do the job and deliver what they promise.
That is a trickier version of false hope. It is propagated from someone who quite possibly has some false beliefs with regard to their own capabilities, but true belief in a good objective.
Uhm. But what if they do figure it out?
Well. They have delivered on hopes therefore, in some weird equation of Life, a false hope has becomes a real hope delivered.
Look. My point is hope is hope.
And unless someone is lying just to get everyone’s unrealistic hopes up, any hope is better than no hope. You can either not have hope, or have false hope, or real hope <albeit ‘real’ and ‘hope’ is a tenuous relationship>.
To be clear … all actions should be determined by reason, logic and practicality within a construct of strategic hope. That is the main Hope equation.
But hope is, well, hope. And it is hope for a reason. You want something better and at exactly the same time you are not omniscient nor a future prognosticator therefore any and all hoe is fraught with some potential falseness an some potential truth.
Hope, in and of itself, is and has always been an abstract concept.
Fortune, luck, hard work & preparation can guide someone toward hope or away from hope. Hope is never, and I mean NEVER, representative of certainty. Therefore to accept any hope, false of true, you have to accept the existence of possibilities – good and bad.
To me, in my pea like brain, all false hope implies is that the odds are against you and success is slim, yet, people believe they can overcome any and all obstacles. And, in that point, is where I could argue that false hope is as good as any hope out there.
For in that statement if that is what makes someone get out of bed in the morning and go out and try to do something good or even just try, well, that’s not false that is real.
Having led people I do not use hope flippantly even though I believe in hope as a leadership responsibility.
I do believe people want truth.
I do believe people want to feel safe.
I do believe people want someone to accept some of the burden of the bigger more visionary aspects of Life.
I do believe people want to contribute, personally, within progress toward a specific hope for something better.
I do believe Hope, false or true, is hope.
And we all deserve hope.
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“People aren’t interested in the truth.
They’re interested in what keeps them safe.
They’re interested in being looked after. They’re interested in a tale being spun… Mighty men have moments of great despair that common people do not want to know about.”
Melina Marchetta
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originally published December 2016