Hope versus Optimism

Just before the 2020 Presidential election, a friend sent me and others friends a list of suggestions to help us cope with the political, economic and emotional stress we all are facing during this year in Coronaville.

His last line read “Be hopeful—not the same as optimistic.”

Thinking about that over the past several weeks and, wondering about the difference between hope and optimism, I consulted my “oldie but still goodie” American Heritage Dictionary  (Third Edition, 1992)

HOPE, the verb, was defined as “to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment” and, as a noun, the thing wished for “with expectation of its fulfillment.” 

OPTIMISM was defined as “a tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation” and an OPTIMIST as someone “who usually expects a favorable outcome.”

Of course, as is often the case, there are philosophical and theological meanings of these words, some listed as “archaic” (interesting term) in my iphone dictionary. Philosophically, optimism is used to describe the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz, who believed that “this is the best of all possible worlds” and was ridiculed for this belief by the French philosopher Voltaire in his story “Candide,” written in the 18^th century.  Theologically, hope is defined as confidence or trust in a future good, something “difficult but not impossible to attain with God’s help”

Given these definitions, HOPE is a wish or expectation that you want fulfilled while OPTIMISM goes from a wish to a “tendency to expect the best possible outcome.”  It would seem then that one cannot be an optimist without hope but one can be hopeful without being optimistic.  It all depends upon how seriously one “expects” one wish to be fulfilled.  

Yup, these are slightly different, but a very narrow gauge railway runs between them. I do suppose that a “tendency” might be a bit stronger than a “wish or expectation,” but English has become so elusive that it would be difficult to come up with an iron-clad distinction based on today’s usage of these terms.

I do hear many politicians being quizzed on the TV news networks fervently proclaiming they “remain an optimist.” I don’t believe them, but think that they want me to believe they are optimistic when they are not.

It would be better if, as my friend suggested, if we could restore some real meaning to the distinction between these two words. Maybe we could become hopeful, even in that “archaic” sense of having confidence or trust in something larger than ourselves, instead of just saying how sure we are that things will get better. 

Not to be too negative, but in our sad country ravaged by the mutating and deadly COVID-19 virus, which I just learned has spread from humans to minks in Denmark and then back to humans, it is hard to be either hopeful or optimistic.  However, given a choice and a chance that these terms may actually describe two importantly different ways of thinking and being, I will choose the more abstract theological version of HOPE rather than what appears to me to be the “cheap grace” offered by politicians and others who want to sell me on their OPTIMISM.

If I have hope, it will be easier to find help in community. If I am merely optimistic, I don’t need help.