Hope is a peculiar thing; it is almost akin to a mental, viral infection of reason. It squeezes itself in a little space created by reason, a place made manifest by uncertainty and improbability. In that little space it hatches, by making certainty an uncertain possibility. If left to expand, its limits will devour the realms of impossibility, making the impossible a certain possibility, and eventually bordering faith: the impossible certainty.
Hope, when rightly accommodated, becomes an affable and holy means of engagement; a necessary viral infection.
incognitio
Babaloo Reinhardt said,
June 19, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Here’s one from Nietzsche:
“Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man”.
incognitio said,
June 20, 2008 at 11:29 am
Hehehehe, that’s in the genealogy, I remember reading it and raising my eyebrows; I can’t remember what page though.
incognitio said,
June 21, 2008 at 9:19 pm
The peculiar thing about Nietzsche’s quote is the word ‘reality’ that plays a massive role in the whole sentence; it reduces hope to a relationship between the person hoping and that in which the hope is in, in this case reality.
So much needs to be said about this word before Nietzsche can even begin to convince me of his statement.
Furthermore, there’s an ambiguity in the very sentence, which isn’t so uncharacteristic of Nietzsche. The ambiguity lies at the beginning of the sentence on his use of the connective ‘in’. “Hope in reality”: as directed to reality (hope in…), or hope in general when engaged in reality (hope within…)? Is the ‘in’ an abbreviation of within or another way of saying ‘directed-at’? Or even did he intend a sentence of this form: “hope, in reality, is the worst…”. It’s quite difficult to tell from just the quote, it would be interesting to get into it, if you could remind me what page, in the genealogy, this is in?