Far from being foolish or self-indulgent, it should be considered a virtue
https://www.ft.com/content/83f19825-d44f-4bc0-8b67-e2e7d259ed0b
Jemima Kelly:
Hope is often conflated with optimism, but there are some important distinctions between the two, as Edward Brooks, executive director of the Oxford Character Project, who is writing a book on the subject, tells me. “Optimism is an expectation of a positive future,” he says. “Hope is a habit of focusing action and attention on a future that is good and that is difficult but yet possible to attain.”
In other words, optimism — while it brings health and happiness benefits of its own, and tends to be more motivating than pessimism when used in messaging — is a much more passive thing; some people seem to be born with it and others without. Hoping is a choice to focus on the possibility, however faint, of some future good, and crucially involves individual and collective agency. Hope carries with it the conviction that we can take action that makes our desired future more likely.
https://www.ft.com/content/83f19825-d44f-4bc0-8b67-e2e7d259ed0b
Jemima Kelly:
Hope is often conflated with optimism, but there are some important distinctions between the two, as Edward Brooks, executive director of the Oxford Character Project, who is writing a book on the subject, tells me. “Optimism is an expectation of a positive future,” he says. “Hope is a habit of focusing action and attention on a future that is good and that is difficult but yet possible to attain.”
In other words, optimism — while it brings health and happiness benefits of its own, and tends to be more motivating than pessimism when used in messaging — is a much more passive thing; some people seem to be born with it and others without. Hoping is a choice to focus on the possibility, however faint, of some future good, and crucially involves individual and collective agency. Hope carries with it the conviction that we can take action that makes our desired future more likely.