Hope: Blessing or Curse?

John Creigan considers whether hope helps us thrive or holds us back.

- John Creigan

Hope is often celebrated as one of humanity’s greatest virtues — a force that sustains us through adversity by fuelling dreams of a better tomorrow. It’s revered in literature, psychology, and philosophy as a beacon of resilience and optimism. Yet I find myself questioning whether hope is as universally beneficial as we often believe. Could it be that hope, so often hailed as a blessing, contains negative consequences we rarely consider? Is it possible that hope sometimes hinders, rather than helps, human flourishing?

Consider this, for a start: for hope to exist, there must also be doubt. Hope does not thrive (and is not even needed) in certainty. Rather, it presupposes uncertainty about the future, such that what we desire may or may not come to pass. Doubt, then, becomes an essential partner to hope, indeed, the very foundation upon which it rests. So doesn’t our attachment to hope also compel us to tolerate, even embrace, doubt, as an unavoidable aspect of life? And if so, what does this reliance on hope, and the accompanying doubt, mean for how we should take responsibility for shaping our future? For instance, if doubt is needed for hope to exist, would people rather live with doubt, just so they can feel hope? And does our attachment to hope compel us to tolerate uncertainty even when it might be more empowering to let go of hope altogether and face reality? If doubt is hope’s necessary counterpart, might we benefit more from confronting the doubt directly, rather than clinging to hope’s comfort?