Hopeful and Hopeless. Which of the two best describes people in general?

Answer 1

"Words do not make the man"


we are infinate creations of god

Answer 2

As hopeless would mean the total absence of hope I don't believe that any sane person can actually feel such a thing and continue living, therefor hopeless definitely does not describe people in general, only that portion of people who's lives are about to end. As for hopeful, yes I believe that defines most people in general because at any level hope for something is the motivation for all action, whether it be hope for fulfilling a dream, hoping to achieve the next meal or any one of the millions of things people in general scramble for on a daily basis.

Answer 3

I think you could put those terms on either end of a continuum that would describe the general stance that people have in their lives. They end up there by virtue of genetics and how they approach life. Genetics determines a 'set point', a level of happiness that we tend to gravitate toward much like we do with a weight set point. It is powerful too. They've done studies comparing people that became paraplegics with lottery winners. The paralyzed folks get sad and the lottery winners get really happy, but the effect is only temporary (a few years). Eventually they end up back at their set points.

Happiness = Set Point + Circumstances + Voluntary Control

This is what Martin Seligman, the foremost researcher on happiness has come up with. His site is worth looking at. There are free tests that are pretty useful on there that are scored as soon as you complete them.

Answer 4

Some people are totally hopeless. they are not willing to try to see things in a different perspective, or listen to another point of view. These people are hopeless because they are ignorant to what is really happening in the world, and are full of hate for other human beings who share our planet but not our language or religion. I am hopeful that things will change one day.

Answer 5

Neither. People swing from a state of being hopeful to a state of hopelessnes just like a pendulum. If one were to become utterly hopeless, one would commit suicide.

Answer 6

If you look beyond philosophy, you will find that a person's inner view of the world is a projection of self. Therefore man has posed to subjectively define the quality of mankind in arbitrary view of perception

Answer 7

The link " AND " we travel between them both and unfortunately we allow our circumstances to decide the way we feel. I choose to be hopeful whenn 99% of the situation might be showing me the oppisite, perhaps they just don't see what is known to me and maybe I'm wrong, I thought I was before but I was mistaken.

Answer 8

NEITHER. Every person is a confused mass of both.