“On the Dangers of Hope” Kingston’s Journey #85

It has been said that hope is like fire, if you can control it, a fire serves it’s useful purpose, it provides light, warmth, protection and what not but too much fire and it will spread out of control and destroy what was built.

Same with hope, so hope it can then be said is the most dangerous of emotions. In 2 ways:

Firstly, a little bit of hope gives people a carrot to chase after. Chasing after a pope dream so to speak so that maybe, just maybe in the (ambiguous) future what they are pining for might be manifested. And since the odds of this ever happening are so marginal, even if just a small slice of what they wanted occurred, they will settle.

This runs back to having a reward mentality where you give and give and give, expecting a large return and when it doesn’t (which is the most likely scenario), you will be sorely disappointed. People will not give you the reward you so hoped for, it was merely bait, just like those used to catch fish.

Secondly, a large hope given to people making people believe they have a real good shot of hitting a grand slam to use a baseball analogy, makes people greedy, because people are cowards by nature (a topic for a different conversation) and it takes a mighty big person to go against the grain and fight this natural inclination. So if you give people the impression that something can be had from you cheaply and easily, it is only natural then that they will go and try taking it all.

So what is to be done with hope? If you fall for the former you become victim to biting the bait others have set to catch fish. Working and working and working for seemingly nothing. And if you give people the later they will become greedy and want more and more from you as they continually test boundaries for each one that is broken.

In the previous post, we discussed trading as a good solution to getting what you want. That is you making it clear from te get go that in order for you to give what the other person wants, they have to give what you want. On the other side of the spectrum, be the person whom is dangling the carrot, the reward, the bait, the hope in front of other people.

This is going to sound cynical I know, but the world was not built by altruism, it was built by those willing to go in there and take what they want without apology. In that line of logic, putting trade and reward in your favor is merely doing what you need to do to get what you want.

Kingston S. Lim

January 13, 2021

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Originally published at http://kingstonlim.com on January 17, 2021.