โThe hope of reason lies in the emancipation from our own fear of despair.โ โฆย It is not despair that is the agent of imprisonment, not despair that keeps us, (or reason), in a state of unfreedom in need of emancipation; but ratherย fear. The problem is not despair, but our being afraid to feel despair. In other words, it isย not pessimismย that is a challenge to the liberating effects of rational hope, but our fearful dismissal of it. It is optimism itself that keeps us from achieving what optimism hopes for. Optimism is its own worst enemy; it is self-destructive โฆ Kierkegaard suggests [we] give in to despair โฆ Any life that isnโt fundamentally lived in submission to God is a life lived in despair anyway, whether it is lived in pursuit of aesthetic enjoyment, or in pursuit of fundamental ethical commitments. The problem is that both sorts of life unavoidably must involve various kinds of mechanisms for covering over despair, of distracting us from it. But such mechanisms cannot succeed forever, and in fact the mechanisms usually only serve to make things worse. So the advice is just to cut to the chase, to choose hopelessness. Despair is the necessary step to God, so being openly in despair is better than trying to fool yourself that youโre actually not; and in this sense despair takes you closer to God and to genuine hope.
โ from “Hope & Despair: Philosophical considerations for uncertain times” by Michael Stevenson
2018
