Do you think it's reasonable to give up hope in life?

[C2Ultima]

Allow me to get very vague and philosophical for a moment and ask the following question:

Is it ever acceptable reasonable to give up hope?

Just relating to life. Hope for your own life, or for the lives of others. Not so much giving up hope that the new Die Hard movie will be any good, or something like that.

Personally, I think that there is always a reason to keep hope alive in your own life. There are always things to look forward to, or things to do. Hope for the lives of others is a bit more complicated, because there are certainly reasons to keep hope, you just might not be sure that they'll realize it as well.

But still, just for the sake of example, say someone's cast into some post-apocalypse scenario. They live alone with no contact with sentient beings for a full year, and they doubt their situation will ever improve. They know with certainty they have no family or friends left. Would it be reasonable for them to lose hope?

EDIT:
Oh dear....

Some poor wording on my part seems to have given the impression that I'm judging others from some sort of place of superiority, and that's certainly not what I intended. I just want to hear some different viewpoints on the matter of whether or not you believe hope is a sacred thing that's always worth holding on to.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Acceptable? I don't think people who no longer want to live give a shit whether other people consider this attitude to be acceptable. People who have given up hope should be met with compassion, not judgement.

 

[C2Ultima]

Acceptable? I don't think people who no longer want to live give a shit whether other people consider this attitude to be acceptable. People who have given up hope should be met with compassion, not judgement.

I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to issue judgement on anyone. I'll improve my wording.

 

[NightmareExpress]

To an extent, but I think it's a tad unreasonable to give up on the possibility of improvement.
Hopelessness is usually a product of a string of unfortunate events or an expectancy that unfortunate events will happen (leading to the defeatist statement "why bother").

It all depends on the individual in question, their outlook on life and their rationale.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

To an extent, but I think it's a tad unreasonable to give up on the possibility of improvement.
Hopelessness is usually a product of a string of unfortunate events or an expectancy that unfortunate events will happen (leading to the defeatist statement "why bother").

It all depends on the individual in question, their outlook on life and their rationale.

Exactly.
I for one, through thick and thin, would try to hang on to it, no big philosophical thought process here, I'm just sentimental like that.
Then again, I'm still young, I've never had something exceptionally tragic happen in my life so maybe I won't have this positive demeanor forever but goodness I really hope I do. Cynicism doesn't suit me so well.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Acceptable? I don't think people who no longer want to live give a shit whether other people consider this attitude to be acceptable. People who have given up hope should be met with compassion, not judgement.

I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to issue judgement on anyone. I'll improve my wording.

Sorry I snapped at you. To give up hope in life is pretty much what it means to be depressed, so I interpreted the question as "Is it acceptable to be depressed", which is unfair because it's not as though anyone chooses to feel that way. I see you didn't mean any offense so carry on!

 

[Arakasi]

Absolutely.
I have no hope, it doesn't make me sad or anything, just less disappointed when something bad (or nothing) happens, and more pleasantly suprised when something good happens.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Also, if you just sit around "hoping" then you're an idiot. You have to accomplish it yourself.

 

[Strazdas]

Certainly. Hope is the mother of fools. There is no point in hoping. you have to get out there and do something. or not, but then dont pretend hoping something will happen works.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Hope is important, but sometimes you have to learn not to hope too much if you know the limitations of your situation - hope shouldn't extend beyond the possible. Work should be done, always be happening, to expand the possible and therefore expand the ability to hope, but one must know where hope is foolish and where hope is a motivator. A lot of people, either occasionally or habitually, fail to recognize where hope belongs in their life and so they either become foolishly optimistic and perpetually disappointed until hope dies or give up hope entirely before disappointment can occur, defeating it before it can even take shape.

It's a tough balance and even people who know how to attempt reaching it often fall short in one way or another. Hope is tricky that way.

 

[floppylobster]

I think it's inevitable at some point in anyone's life to give up hope after the expectations and promise of their youth has met with reality. 'Acceptable' is the weird word in your question. But to answer it, no, I don't think it's acceptable for someone to make a conscience decision to give up hope. Because they would be making a judgement about many things that are well beyond their control. There's nothing wrong with giving up hope. It happens all the time. But that's the great thing about hope. It is always based on a future outcome. And as the future doesn't exist, it can never be proven right or wrong. So keep hoping for a better future while remembering the times in your life when things seemed hopeless but turned out okay.

 

[Spinozaad]

What's hope?

The idea that things somehow, in some magical way, turn for the better without you taking an active role in shaping your life? Yeah, because that's an unhealthy mindset.

Hope as an equivalent to expectations? As in: "I worked so hard on improving , I hope it impresses and lands me a !"

You should cherish that shit.

 

[mrhappy1489]

Personally, I don't think that I could give up on hope, at least for an improvement.

The fact that things are at their worst, would mean that there is only room for improvement and I think that is what my hope would feed off. I've suffered mild bouts of depression which were unpleasant but never gave me much cause to give up on hope. Speaking in general though, I think that some people do have their breaking point, but I think it depends on the individuals resolve and personal strength whether it is or is not acceptable. Some would continue, while others don't. This really isn't a question any of us can answer, unless we are some kind of legion-esque multiple conscious being as some of us have a stronger mental fortitude while others among us a weaker. To give answer your surprisingly vague question though, I believe it depends on the individual and there really isn't a point where it becomes either reasonable or unreasonable.

 

[DrunkenMonkey]

I always thought of as hope as the thing that keeps human beings alive. It's similar to the to the idea that the pursuit of happiness is indeed happiness itself rather than its destination. Hope is rather similar to that in the sense that it is the sole things that makes us look forward to the the future. If we can't look forward to the future in any way than what is the point of living, if you can't even think positively about improving anything in your life. There are times when you have to throw away hope in order to protect yourself from your own naivete. But forsaking it all together is equivalent to a slow and painful suicide.

 

[Living Contradiction]

Apathy. Don't talk to me about apathy.

Misquotes aside, we all have hope and we use it every time we attempt something. I hope to get to class on time this morning, to eat something moderately delicious before I go, and that my girlfriend finds photographs worth taking today. When a person loses hope, that person loses the ability to anticipate and enjoy even the smallest of pleasures.

Yet we also use hope to endure hardship and anguish. C2Ultima, to use your example of post-apocalyptic world, a survivor might accept that the world was in a permanent state of fucked and start focusing on the smaller, easily attained goals with hope(something to eat, clean water to drink, shelter out of the sun) while another might use those goals to build towards a hope of restoring the world despite having lost all she loved and knew. One alive in that scenario with no hope might eat, sleep, and move as the hopeful do without any real motivation or joy or might just curl up under a bridge and wait for the end.

Or such hopelessness might cause a person to justify lashing out at everything, raging at the injustice and unfairness of reality until reality consumes him. That's another possibility, one that many don't consider. Trading in hope, not just for apathy, but nihilism; the notion that if we're all dead in the long run anyway and nothing matters, why wait? Why not speed things up and reduce the pain endured? That kind of logic leads the hopeless to find another flavour of hope: the hope that the agony will end sooner. Having tasted that kind of hope, I can assure you it is both bitter and empty.

We can accept that a goal or dream can be hopeless. People fail. Dreams die. Does that mean we lose hope entirely? Not often, no. For even if we lose hope in everything, until we stop drawing breath, there will always be something else to hope for and a chance that we will take it up again.

 

[HardkorSB]

Personally, I think that there is always a reason to keep hope alive in your own life. There are always things to look forward to, or things to do. Hope for the lives of others is a bit more complicated, because there are certainly reasons to keep hope, you just might not be sure that they'll realize it as well.

What if you're homeless with no friends or family and then you get into an accident and you get paralyzed from the neck down?
That's a pretty good time to give up hope, I think.