Is hope a weakness?

Question

That's why I asked this question.

Answer 1

Hope is a double edged sword that can cut either way. It is simultaneously our greatest strength and weakness.

False Hope - Can be a damning when a realistic approach to a situation is necessary. I.E. A man is on trail accused of a double murder. The evidence against the defendant is overwhelmingly. The state has ballistics and DNA evidence to prove he was the perpetrator of the crime. His wife does not`t want to accept this ordeal. She clings on to false hope and spends the families savings to provide her husband with the best legal defense possible. The verdict comes in and it is no surprise..."Guilty"
Now the woman has not only lost her husband for life, she has also lost her families savings which took a lifetime to accumulate.

Hope to Survive - The belief or hope that a person can survive is exercised in
"Will Power" and can help a person overcome insurmountable odds.
I.E. A woman is on her death bed with breast cancer, and the doctor tells her she has two weeks to live. Instead of lying down and accepting this unfortunate faith - she battles back. She clings on to Hope and believes that she will make it. Six months later she`s made a full recovery.

The second scenario is highly unlikely but it has occurred. While doctors and scientist alike will term this to be a "medical mystery" or "chance occurrence" most of us know it was that persons HOPE their will to survive that pulled them through.

Answer 2

Hope is the route to feeling disappointed and dissatisfied. Hope is the process of wanting something to be different than it actually is. Hope is also a judgment about what exists and what is hoped for is perceived as being better than it is.

We are a black and white species. We can only think in terms of hope or hopeless. There is the middle, the fulcrum or the centre between the 2 states.

So yes, hope is a weakness.

People often hope for things that are unreasonable. the bulk of youth who hope to be rock stars or NBA athletes is unrealistic. Why hope for something that is virtually impossible. Given the relatively fixed number of NBA spots, for example, it does become a way to torture one's self. That doesn't mean that one should be hopeless, only that we should check in on the reasonableness of wanting. Buddhist would argue that wanting is suffering.

Answer 3

Hope in its purest form is a strength. Tyrants throughout history have known that to break a population, first you take their hope, resigning them to things as they are.

Sometimes hope feels like a weakness. We open ourselves to optimism and we're crushed in return. But unfortunately, both emotions and virtues come in pairs, and you don't seem to get one without the other. The flip side of hope is disappointment. So I guess the answer to your question is, which seems more desirable to you: a life with no disappointments but no hope or a life with both?

Answer 4

For many who have lost all else it is a necessity. It helped some in Auschwitz to survive emotionally. For those who are able but fail to take some sort of action while hoping to do or get.or be something some day, it is a weakness. For all it is a feeling, of little use unless it can motivate us to some sort of act or emotion reaching beyond ourselves.

Answer 5

Not at all, it's representative of strength. How could it be a weakness when most people can't muster the 'strength' to keep hoping in critical moments? What is your first reaction when you're in a critical moment? To give up or to keep hoping? Hoping is just another form of continuing the fight.

Answer 6

All emotions exist because they create a survival advantage for those who have them.

Could your weakness too much or too little hope?. Sure.

IS hope a weakness?. No.

Answer 7

Hope is a motivator. It is neither a weakness nor a strength although it offers many people the strength to persevere.

Answer 8

Hope, i believe is what keeps man going. Gives us something to look forward to. Without hope, we have nothing to live for.

Answer 9

hope is the idea of a better future.

faith is the knowledge that ideas and future arise within the mind, and that mind arises within singular consciousness.

true life is to dwell in that knowledge.

Answer 10

No, hope is a source of inspiration and only leads us to be stronger in achieving our goals.