There’s a strong temptation to resign ourselves to the crises and disasters in the world today, to feel powerless, or to succumb to deep sadness. Where is the light?
Daily news is dominated by depictions of wars, natural disasters, and social divisions—as if the world is falling apart from its own wounds. In the midst of this darkness, it’s difficult to believe in a better future. A lot of people struggle with the question of whether there is any hope at all. But it is precisely at times like these that our longing grows for light, for a spark of confidence that allows us to carry on. It is, therefore, not surprising that more and more publications are devoting themselves to this existential question: the need for hope that keeps us going even when the world and everything around us is shaking. One of these publications is presented here as a representative due to its sensitive approach to the topic.
In her new book,1 the French philosopher Corine Pelluchon describes the path out of hopelessness in a “philosophy of hope.” She calls this path “the traverse of the impossible”. Paradoxically, our vulnerability and the courage to stick with our vulnerability unleash new forces so that seeds of hope can grow from them. However, according to the author, this requires traversing despair, because only then does our inner eye become open to this new strength: “One must have experienced despair in order to be able to speak of hope—in these darker times, when we see the global consequences of our failed development model for the environment, health, politics, geopolitics, the economy and society.” She is not talking about “positive thinking” and optimism in the sense of “everything will be ok.” We must learn to find this strength in the midst of loss, grief, vulnerability, and suffering.
“The greatest misunderstanding about hope, then, is to confuse it with optimism. Hope is not a soothing speech, a consolation for pain, or a strategy designed to prevent discouraging goodwill and to spare weaker people the effects of greater clarity. It is like a third eye and the complete opposite of denial. As I said, its lucidity comes from having traversed the impossible and experienced the suffering which characterizes hope”. And we are not alone in this! There is already a whole movement following this new message of “enlightenment in the age of the living”—it is already in the world and many are following it. It needs the reassurance that it will prevail in the long term, even against great resistance, so that it isn’t trampled to death. “Hope is the expectation of the impossible: the shifts that this progress embodies do not seem immediately possible. But what is impossible today can become possible tomorrow. Hope provides the patience necessary for this movement to prevail against the obstacles it will necessarily encounter along the way.”
Other recent publications also encourage us to work together from the forces of hope by creating new “imaginations” together. According to the well-known psychologist Verena Kast,2 “Through imagination, hope becomes creative. Coming out of the state of mourning for what we have lost or are in danger of losing, we imagine together living conditions that could be different or better, how we could take better care of ourselves.” This coincides with the anthroposophical impulse as outlined by Peter Selg:3 “We need imaginations or visions of tangible emergence, not just loss and demise, and we need to develop them together in increasingly difficult times.”
Corine Pelluchon’s book also contains chapters on “Climate change —the possibility of impossibility”, a chapter on empathy with animals, and finally on “The feminine or the art of metamorphosis”. Her delicate yet powerful voice with its “philosophy of hope” deserves our attention. The French philosopher knows what she is talking about, because she also went through difficult phases of depression in her personal life. She can encourage us to never give up hope, even in crises and difficult times.
The essence of the “philosophy of hope” can be summarized in these key sentences by the French writer Georges Bernanos: “Optimism is a substitute for hope […]. But hope has to be fought for. It can only be attained by following a path that leads through the truth and requires great effort and patience […]. Hope is a virtue […] The highest form of hope is despair overcome”.
When, after repeatedly falling into “nothingness” and suffering the emotional distress in and around us, we experience the great “and yet…,” the “grace” of being held by helping spiritual beings—no great words are necessary. The mystery takes place in each individual quietly and effectively for a world which, despite its decline, will never lose its uplifting new forces, its enthusiasm for “creating out of nothing,” as long as there are still people who come together in this process. In keeping with this, the following meditation by Rudolf Steiner can kindle an inner glow in our powerlessness and, subsequently, a bright, upright flame, again and again:
Spirit Triumphant!
Flame through the impotence
of fettered, faltering souls!
Burn up selfishness,
kindle compassion,
so that selflessness,
the lifestream of humanity,
may flow as the wellspring
of spiritual rebirth! 4
Translation Laura Liska
Photo Davies Designs Studio
Footnotes
- Corine Pelluchon, Die Durchquerung des Unmöglichen. Hoffnung in Zeiten der Klimakatastrophe [Traversing the impossible: hope in the time of climate catastrophe.] C. H. Beck Verlag, München 2023.
- Renate Daniel et al. (Hrsg.), ÜberLebensBilder. Quellen innerer Kraft [Images of survival: sources of inner strength.] Patmos Verlag, Ostfildern 2023.
- Peter Selg, Das Leben des Geistes in der Corona-Krise. Von der Hoffnung und vom Vertrauen in die Zukunft [The life of the spirit in the corona crisis. On hope and trust in the future.] Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, Arlesheim 2021.
- Rudolf Steiner, in GA 268.
