A Little Bit of Hope

The World never needed Hope like it does today. That is not to say that the World, as the term translates to our Global Society, hasn’t always needed and continues to need hope. Yet, as a Society we once had several sources from which to draw this hope, in the form of Religion, Values, Family, even Government, but these things are less in vogue nowadays (in fact one can be severely criticised by his intellectual peers for being a religious person or for wishing to build a family, so many simply keep quiet about it).

Claiming independence from all these sources of Hope of the past through Science and Humanist Wisdom (both aspects I value when not misused to drive other important things away), we have replaced the old sources of Hope with Consumerism and the desire for Fame, Wealth and Power at any cost and without regard for the consequences. This was supposed to keep us placated in the present that we would not need to hope for the future. As usual in History, this served the purposes of a relative few to the detriment of all (including them), until now we find ourselves victimised by our own global-social-greed to an extent where we desperately need Hope and have almost nowhere from which to draw it.

A week ago, I have refilled my personal bucked of Hope a little bit more by witnessing the conclusion of the 6th Jogo da Cidadania (roughly translates to Citizenship Game). In short, this event selects, tests and congregates college undergraduates of different disciplines into teams and coaches them with an impressive infrastructure of dedicated employees and volunteers to enable these idealists to come up with original projects in CSR that are judged and implemented by leading frontline national and multi-national enterprises. It is a demanding process that exacts these youths to their limit, and more than a few drop-out as they realise the practicalities of doing good may not be easy at all if you want it to be sustainable over a long period.

Yet, those that hang on and deliver often produce projects of such quality as to impress seasoned professionals. Having seen the winners and the runners-up delivering hope in those pages and presentations; and then being rewarded for it was once more an experience of hope that our Society may have begun its healing process.

If you don’t speak your mind against a wrong, you are consenting to it by your silence.

Is Self Extinction our Answer?

Something impresses me today and that is our inability to say NO to our children. It used to be that when a child came with any absurd proposal to his parents, the parents themselves would filter that proposal by simply saying NO to it. Yet, nowadays when we are too consumed with our daily chores and ambitions to raise our children properly, we find ourselves feeling guilty of the fact and inundating them with material gifts and facilities to compensate for our absence. Naturally, as a result of our complacency, our children grow to become selfish and tyrannical; sometimes becoming frustrated and delivering themselves into the use of drugs, the practice of violence and utter hopelessness that affects our world. Their destructive approach to frustration is, first and foremost, the product of all the NO's we have not said to them that they would not learn that the world goes beyond their needs and wants.

Ironically, instead of arguing this point as it should, post-modern couples argue instead that the cruel world that our parents created through us, their offspring, is far too hazardous for new children. I have heard countless times that "it is an irresponsibility to put a child in this world" or that "it is a selfish act to have children". Such defeatism is the product of nothing but fear and is itself the selfishness it pretends to avoid.I for one wish to share with my children the wonder that is to be alive. The beauty that the world insists to offer us despite our many faults to it. The summer sunsets and the winter frost, the sound of rainfall and of the waves, the flowers and the creatures that I have had a joy to know. How can I deny posterity to the sensation of love and love's first kiss, the experience of an adventure, the thrill that is learning nature's secrets and man's minds. I firmly believe that these things far outweigh the murders on TV, street violence, the wars and the poverty of so many; each and all ugly reflections of the evil that is human greed.

No. Denial to generate new life will not solve our responsibility to our children, which goes beyond making them content and goes well into making them truly capable of happiness. As with all things, we must take responsibility for our actions and we must have faith in that there is more than our own competence to thank for the successes necessary to bring new hope to our battered reality. Hope lies not in our extinction, but in our good conduct in upbringing the next generation that they become reflections of our love for them.

Moral inconsistency is the most frequent flaw in contemporary institutions. Moral unaccountability is the most dangerous one. Greed is the most harmful, for it corrupts everyone and constitutes the source of the other two.