Hope is Not Equivalent to Positive Action

[unspeakablehorror]

One sentiment that I see often regarding things like the climate crisis is that we have to have hope to fight against denialism and that hopelessness is a form of denialism itself.  

And while hopelessness is, I think, certainly one of the weapons employed against us, it is not, by far, the only one.  The people who have a vested interest against fixing these problems know that hopelessness will only be adopted by certain people.  They have no compunction about employing both hopelessness and false hope in order to reach the widest audience possible.  Hope is no more immunity against deception than despair.  

In fact a hopeful person who believes an industry lie about how things can be fixed can be much more useful to that industry than a hopeless person who believes that nothing can be done. The hopeful person can be induced to work with great enthusiasm towards efforts they are made to believe will help save the Earth, but that actually only obtain industry profits while further despoiling our world.  The hopeful person can be induced to spread the industry's lies for free in the hopeful belief that they are a source for good in the world.  Greenwashing is a thing not because it appeals to the hopeless, but because it appeals for the deep human desire for hope.

False hope can even be as much a source of inaction as despair is.  If one believes things are particularly hopeful, they may even feel they don't need to do anything themselves at all.  Electric cars will fix the problem.  My purchase helps save the Earth.  Carbon offsets will fix it.  All of these beliefs can give people hope that the problem will be addressed, but it is a false hope generated by the very industries creating the problem to begin with.

Ultimately it is inaction that must be addressed, as well as action in the wrong direction.  Hope alone cannot make us a force for good.