Optimism is everywhere, from thought/cult leaders on LinkedIn (one even used optimism in the name of his company) to organizational values. But what if optimism wasn’t the benefit it was set out to be? What if there was an alternative? Hope.
On the surface, hope and optimism may seem similar, but they are pretty different.
First, it is crucial to understand what optimism is. Optimism is expecting things to turn out well. It is a positive outlook. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the classic scene from Mont Python’s Life of Brian:
And while on the surface, this may seem like a good thing, if we think about this rationally, there isn’t always a good reason to look on the bright side. If there is a reason for your optimism, it isn’t being optimistic; it is being rational. And if there isn’t a reason, it seems ill-advised at best.
In Hope Without Optimism, Terry Eagleton explores the ideas of optimism and hope. He starts by harshly criticizing optimists.
THERE MAY BE many good reasons for believing that a situation will turn out well, but to expect that it will do so because you are an optimist is not one of them. It is just as irrational as believing that all will be well because you are an Albanian, or because it has just rained for three days in a row. If there is no good reason why things should work out satisfactorily, there is no good reason why they should not turn out badly either, so that the optimist’s belief is baseless. 1
This may make optimism seem naive, but some people still see optimism as a virtue. Eagleton counters this notion,
professional optimism is not a virtue, any more than having freckles or flat feet is a virtue. It is not a disposition one attains through deep reflection or disciplined study. It is simply a quirk of temperament. “Always look on the bright side of life” has about as much rational force as “always part your hair in the middle, ” or “always tip your hat obsequiously to an Irish wolfhound.” 2
It might be easy to conclude that optimism is meaningless, like “freckles” or “flat feet.” But it goes deeper than that. The worldview that optimism inspires can be problematic. Eagleton likens optimism to being conservative.
Optimists are conservatives because their faith in a benign future is rooted in their trust in the essential soundness of the present. Indeed, optimism is a typical component of ruling-class ideologies.3
And here, things have taken a turn. If we expect things will always work out, this removes our need to change, push for change, and try to make a difference. Optimists are content with how things are because they see the positive in them and have no reason to change them.
As an example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr famously said, “The arc of the moral universal is long, but it bends towards justice” 4
However, when Dr King spoke those words, the context was not that of optimism. He went on to say, “Let us stand up. Let us be a concerned generation. Let us remain awake through a great revolution. And we will speed up that great day when the American Dream will be a reality.” 5 His message was not one of optimism that we don’t need to worry or do anything because it will all work out, but rather one of hope. If the arc of the moral universe bends, it is because, little by little, our efforts have bent it.
And here we encounter what is needed in place of optimism: hope. Hope is not the belief that we will succeed but that it is possible to achieve and that our effort will be worth it.
But hope isn’t like the blind faith of optimism. The possibility that underpins hope must be based on something. Eagleton continues,
Authentic hope… needs to be underpinned by reasons… It must be able to pick out the features of a situation that render it credible. Otherwise it is just a gut feeling, like being convinced that there is an octopus under your bed. Hope must be fallible, as temperamental cheerfulness is not.6
To have hope is to recognize the possibility of success. You must have reasons to believe it could work, or there is no hope. With this, hope acknowledges the possibility of its own failure
It differs from optimism partly because it is not merely a question of temperament, and partly because it is ready to confront the possibility of its own ruin.7
Hope must recognize the possibility of something that doesn’t seem obvious. It cannot be the case that if things continue as they are, the outcome will be reached. Hope demands more. It must be based on the realities of the present condition, but the hope must be for something the status quo, something that, left to its own devices, would not be the case.
For there to be genuine hope, the future must be anchored in the present. It cannot simply irrupt into it from some metaphysical outer space. At the same time, the yeast-like powers at work in the present do so in a way that finally surpasses its limits, pointing to a condition beyond our current imaginings. A future that could be adequately captured in the language of the present would be too complicit with the status quo, and so would scarcely count as a genuine future at all.8
However, hope isn’t just a desire for what you want to happen. Hope is based on some degree of possibility. “Roughly speaking, hope consists of desire plus expectancy.” (Eagleton, Terry. Hope without Optimism (Page-Barbour Lectures) . University of Virginia Press. Kindle Edition. )
“I hope to be in New York next October” registers an expectation that you will be, whereas “I wish I were Mick Jagger” does not. “I hope for release from this torment” expresses a wish but also perhaps an expectation. Precisely because it anticipates rather than simply desires, hope must intend the possible, or at least what those in the grip of it regard as possible, which is not necessarily true of desire.9
That is to say, for hope to exist, what you hope for must be possible. But at the same time, it cannot be sure. There is a hierarchy of certainty:
Hope and knowledge would seem to be mutually exclusive, rather as faith and knowledge are for the fideist heresy. The phrase “I hope so” generally implies uncertainty. It is weaker than “I think so, ” which in turn of course is less emphatic than “I know.”10
What does this look like at work
When it comes to modern work, optimism seems more omnipresent than hope. There is even a particular cult/“thought” leader whose company is named the Optimism Company. Eagleton points out that optimism is very connected to a certain American way of being:
There is a compulsive cheeriness about some aspects of American culture, an I-can-do-anything-I-want rhetoric which betrays a quasi-pathological fear of failure.11
Organizations often preach the idea that we have to believe (or at least pretend to believe) that everything will work out. This takes the form of various methods of looking on the bright side: looking at the small choices we have as freedoms to create an illusion of autonomy amid heteronomy, seeing challenges as opportunities, and reframing things you are told to do to be things you want to do. I am sure you have the extortion not to say you have to do something but that you want to.
These perspectives are optimistic in that they seek to make things okay, not by fundamentally changing the conditions leading to suffering and exploitation but by ignoring those conditions based on the assumption that if we think positively, everything will be okay.
What does it look like for a middle manager to choose hope?
Choosing hope is critical, but what does that look like? It means trying hard things where failure is a possibility.
Hope means being critically rational about what is happening and what it will take to succeed. It means pushing for a possible future based on the present but yearning for a better future.
It recognizes that, at times, it won’t seem possible or likely to succeed, but that you are with the team in trying and, at the same time, being honest about the chances of success.
It doesn’t mean making failures a success but having everyone look positively at what they learned. Learning from failures is not a problem, but it is critical to recognize failure as what it is and not to sugarcoat it or constantly need to find the silver lining.
Middle managers aim to improve the conditions of those they manage by actively seeking ways to push for change. If anything, this newsletter aims to help middle managers see a far greater number of possibilities than they had before. But even in failure, there is reason to try to push for real change.
There is more at stake in acting than dismal or agreeable outcomes. One would not refuse a glass of water to a man trapped under a roof beam simply because one knew that the rest of the building was about to fall in on him and finish him off. Hope can acknowledge loss or destruction to be unavoidable, which is where it differs from some currents of optimism, yet still refuse to capitulate…. In this sense of non-despair, one might regard humanity as doomed while still having faith in the human spirit. “Even though all is lost, we are not” might serve as the motto of this refusal to give way. 12
Hope is most needed when it feels like there may be little to gain. It doesn’t deny the likelihood of failure, as optimism does, but it forges ahead.
Hope can acknowledge loss or destruction to be unavoidable, which is where it differs from some currents of optimism, yet still refuse to capitulate. 13
You may know that while you have hope, the outcome you desire is unlikely, and this is where hope shines. It is not certain that things will work out; things could end horribly, but it is worth trying. The final quote I will leave you with from Eagleton summarizes this view nicely.
Fundamental hope clings to a nameless conviction that life is ultimately worth living. Yet it is not certain that this is so. 14
So, while I may not be optimistic about the future, I am still full of hope, and I encourage you to be as well.
- Eagleton, Terry. Hope without Optimism ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- King, Martin Luther. Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Eagleton, Terry. Hope without Optimism ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Ibid ↩