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Hope Is An Act of Will George
Washington's Blog Several long-time activists have told me recently they are overwhelmed, worried, and think that we may be losing the struggle to end the imperial wars, save our Constitution, and stop false flag terrorism. One very smart friend asked me if there is any basis for hope. But hope is an act of will, not a passive mood. Admittedly, things are easier when circumstances bring hope to us, and we can just receive the hopeful and inspiring news. But if we care about winning, we have to be able to decide to have hope even when outer circumstances aren't so positive. I have children who are counting on me to leave them with a reasonably safe and sane planet. As I've said elsewhere, "I care too much about my kids and my freedom to be afraid. I care enough about them that it gets my heart beating, connects me to something bigger than myself, and that gives me courage, even when the chips are down."
If I allowed myself to lose hope about exposing false flag terror, about protecting our freedom, about preventing World War III, I would be dropping the ball for my kids. I would be condemning them to a potentially very grey world where bigger and more violent false flags are carried out, where their liberties and joys are wholly stripped away, where every ounce of vitality is beholden to "the war effort". Many of us may be motivated by other things besides kids in our fight against fascism, propaganda, perennial war, and government-sponsored terrorism. Only you can know what that is. But we each must dig down deep, and connect with our most powerful motivations to win the struggle for freedom and truth. I don't know about you . . . but I don't have the luxury of giving up hope. When I get depressed, overwhelmed or exhausted by the stunning acts of savagery, treason, and disinformation carried out by the imperialists, or the willful ignorance of many Americans, I will myself into finding some reason to have hope. Because the struggle for liberty is too important for me to give up. If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving,
you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite
of it all. And so today I still have a dream. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless
swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the
life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road
and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists,
it is real, it is possible, it is yours. Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when
many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. Hope is passion for what is possible. Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes
indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. He who does not hope to win has already lost. When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you
get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes
from knowing you are working to make things better. Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful
sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness
to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather
an ability to work for something because it is good. We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes. Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to
take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let
them. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done
without hope and confidence. The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides
human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth
and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for
a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think
of it, ALWAYS. We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite
hope. There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so
powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow. Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is
to grow by conflict. Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage;
anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain
the way they are. What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the
certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes
strongly has within him the gift of miracles. Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure. Let perseverance be your engine and hope your fuel. Develop sincere desire for the goal. Out of fire of desire comes success. You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops
of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. Don't lose hope. When it gets darkest the stars come out. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people
who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees
the opportunity in every difficulty. The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed
ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet
be determined to make them otherwise. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history
is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve
the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a
tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different
centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep
down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
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