Normally I consider asking “omg why the downvotes boo hoo” to be crass, but in this case I’m genuinely curious: why do you guys think that this quote is inapplicable ?
Well, I liked the quote, and you have my upvote. It says to me, stop wasting time hoping things will turn out right (and contrapositively, worrying that things will turn out wrong) and get down to fixing the problems.
Am I reading too much into it? I don’t think so. I don’t care, either. It made me smile because it showcases a big part of my world-view.
Just as a matter of precise use of language (i.e. pedantry): no it doesn’t. It merely says that it is impossible to be disappointed without first having hope.
Given that Warhammer 40K is a dystopia of the first degree, the natural reading of the quote is that disappointment is an inevitable consequence of hope.
It does sound like the sort of thing a Nurglite evangelist would proclaim, but the problem is that “disappointment is an inevitable consequence of hope” is simply not what the words mean.
Warhammer 40K is one of those settings that is highly is open to interpretation. My interpretation is that it’s in a situation where things could be better and could be worse, victory and defeat are both very much on the cards, and hope guided by cold realism is one of the main factors that might tip the balance towards the first outcome. I consider it similar in that regard to the Cthulhu mythos, and for that matter to real life.
I am not sure what “Progress” or “Improvement” mean in this context, but I interpret the quote to mean, “Instead of unfounded hope, try and get some reasonable expectations, or else you’re going to end up being disappointed”. I could be wrong, though. In any case, thanks for replying !
I downvoted it because it is meaningless noise - “hope” is the first step to anything, without hope a person would just sit there in an apathetic puddle. Without hope, a person won’t even try to find the “reasonable expectations” you mentioned in a latter response. Everything is founded on “hope”.
I’d rather focus on anticipation. For me, “hope” has connotations of unjustified optimism, like “faith”. As such, unjustified belief is (hopefully) a step on a road that would end with learning what’s actually true and probably against unjustified belief, a “disappointment”.
But what, precisely, is hope? At a talk I gave last spring, someone asked me to define it. I turned the question back on the audience, and here’s the definition we all came up with: hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless.
I’m not, for example, going to say I hope I eat something tomorrow. I just will. I don’t hope I take another breath right now, nor that I finish writing this sentence. I just do them. On the other hand, I do hope that the next time I get on a plane, it doesn’t crash. To hope for some result means you have given up any agency concerning it.
-- Warhammer 40,000
erm, this isn’t rationality… this is poisonous cynicism.
Normally I consider asking “omg why the downvotes boo hoo” to be crass, but in this case I’m genuinely curious: why do you guys think that this quote is inapplicable ?
Well, I liked the quote, and you have my upvote. It says to me, stop wasting time hoping things will turn out right (and contrapositively, worrying that things will turn out wrong) and get down to fixing the problems.
Am I reading too much into it? I don’t think so. I don’t care, either. It made me smile because it showcases a big part of my world-view.
Thanks for the upvote; I interpret the quote in a similar way.
The quote denies the possibility of Progress or Improvement.
Just as a matter of precise use of language (i.e. pedantry): no it doesn’t. It merely says that it is impossible to be disappointed without first having hope.
Given that Warhammer 40K is a dystopia of the first degree, the natural reading of the quote is that disappointment is an inevitable consequence of hope.
It does sound like the sort of thing a Nurglite evangelist would proclaim, but the problem is that “disappointment is an inevitable consequence of hope” is simply not what the words mean.
Warhammer 40K is one of those settings that is highly is open to interpretation. My interpretation is that it’s in a situation where things could be better and could be worse, victory and defeat are both very much on the cards, and hope guided by cold realism is one of the main factors that might tip the balance towards the first outcome. I consider it similar in that regard to the Cthulhu mythos, and for that matter to real life.
I am not sure what “Progress” or “Improvement” mean in this context, but I interpret the quote to mean, “Instead of unfounded hope, try and get some reasonable expectations, or else you’re going to end up being disappointed”. I could be wrong, though. In any case, thanks for replying !
I downvoted it because it is meaningless noise - “hope” is the first step to anything, without hope a person would just sit there in an apathetic puddle. Without hope, a person won’t even try to find the “reasonable expectations” you mentioned in a latter response. Everything is founded on “hope”.
I’d rather focus on anticipation. For me, “hope” has connotations of unjustified optimism, like “faith”. As such, unjustified belief is (hopefully) a step on a road that would end with learning what’s actually true and probably against unjustified belief, a “disappointment”.
That depends on your definition of hope, really.
I’ve generally been partial to Derrick Jensen’s definition of hope, as given in his screed against it:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/170/