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The Human Experience

Hope: Blessing or Curse?

John Creigan considers whether hope helps us thrive or holds us back.

Hope is often celebrated as one of humanity’s greatest virtues – a force that sustains us through adversity by fuelling dreams of a better tomorrow. It’s revered in literature, psychology, and philosophy as a beacon of resilience and optimism. Yet I find myself questioning whether hope is as universally beneficial as we often believe. Could it be that hope, so often hailed as a blessing, contains negative consequences we rarely consider? Is it possible that hope sometimes hinders, rather than helps, human flourishing?

Consider this, for a start: for hope to exist, there must also be doubt. Hope does not thrive (and is not even needed) in certainty.

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