Hope for the Many

Abstract

Publisher Summary In the society where people do not believe they can achieve many of their goals, people may nevertheless hold to a conviction that life will be better for them or their children at some point in future. The human mind is remarkably resilient, and it is known that throughout history, people have held out hope under dire circumstances. Hope for imagined goals is a pacifying mentality that enables people to endure. The chapter attempts to break new ground by proposing a theme that should be at the core of future work on the hope construct. The chapter specifically argues that the study of hope should reflect a mentality about enhancing individual and shared future goals. Therefore, it advances a hope that is more for the many than for the few. Subsequently, it speculates about ideas for empowering hope and explores how these ideas can be nurtured for the greater good of individuals and societies. It then targets two places—work and government— where hope could grow. Following this, the chapter discusses the role of communal hope as it relates to the trilogy of emotionality, meaning, and morality. It then examines how communal hope sometimes can be pacifying and yet at other times revolutionary. The chapter speculates about where the concept of communal hope can take people.