Political hope can lift personal mood and restore creative capacity

Evidence

Hope and fear are essentially interchangeable; they are passive affects, which arise from our incapacity to actually act. Like all superstitions, hope is something we call upon when we have nothing else. This is why Obama’s “politics of hope” ended up so deflating — not only because, inevitably, the Obama administration quickly became mired in capitalist realism, but also because the condition of hope is passivity. The Obama administration didn’t want to activate the population (except at election time). … We don’t need hope; what we need is confidence and the capacity to act. “Confidence”, Spinoza argues, “is a joy arising from the idea of a past or future object from which cause for doubting is removed”. Yet it is very difficult, even at the best of times, for subordinated groups to have confidence, because for them/us there are few if any “future objects from which cause for doubting is removed.” — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1870 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Many studies have found that children who express concern about political problems (nuclear war, in the case of these studies) are more likely to feel hopeful about the future and more likely to do well in school than those who claim not to care*’ (Goldberg et al. 1985; Berger Gould, Moon, and Van Hoorn 1986). Talking to their parents made children significantly more hopeful that they and others could prevent nuclear war than were children who did not talk to their parents; having activist parents helped even more. The evidence is clear: children who live in a politically open atmosphere will blossom more fully than those who do not. Children are not the apolitical beings volunteers assumed them to be; they are deeply aware of the wider world, and this awareness infuses all corners of their well-being. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 459 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

A manageable level of cynicism about the media actually serves the capitalist realist media system well. Since the media stands in for the public sphere, if journalists and politicians are perceived to be “all liars”, as they widely are, then there is no hope to be had in public life at all. Hack exculpations appeal to a market Hobbesianism: they are giving people what they want but what they won’t admit to liking. When, pickled in the jouissance of self-loathing and their other stimulants of choice, the hacks style themselves as “princes of darkness”, they see themselves as reflecting the public’s own disavowed cynicism back to it. Nobody likes working in the sewers, but don’t you all love the pretty little globules of sensation that we dredge up for you? — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1570 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hope is a passive affect distinct from confidence and undermines political action — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1870; Moral and political engagement can drain the creative source that justified it — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 493; Emotionality aids rather than disrupts political reasoning and democratic life. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1660 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Hope is a passive affect distinct from confidence and undermines political action #contradicts (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1870
• Children who discuss political problems become more hopeful and thrive academically #exemplifies (0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 459
• Managed public cynicism about media neutralizes hope in public life #qualifies (0.77) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1570
• Moral and political engagement can drain the creative source that justified it #complicates (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 493
• Apparent political defeats can conceal the seed of a lasting personal victory #exemplifies (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 484
• What matters politically is that passive revolution generates hope enough to reinforce hegemony. #qualifies (0.74)
• Imagination precedes and enables the achievement of political transformation #corroborates (0.73) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3429
• Emotionality aids rather than disrupts political reasoning and democratic life. #corroborates (0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1660
• Authentic political action reduces the need for escapist doubles #complicates (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 1090