Philosophy of Hope and Despair

Elizabeth Andre

After video, see discussion questions below.

After video, see discussion questions below.

After video, see discussion questions below.

During this pandemic, what examples have you seen of people being naively optimistic? How has this influenced their ability to approach the challenge in ways that recognize the complexity of the situation?
Have you felt pressured by what Barbara Held calls the “tyranny of the positive attitude in America” to gloss over negative emotions? How has this affected your experience of the pandemic?
What examples have you seen of people being hopeful (in the sense described by Orr of “doing what needs to be done in the spirit of thankfulness and celebration”)?
Which of the two views of life described by Joseph Meeker in his Comedy of Survival best describes your take on life—the tragic or the comedic? How has the metaphor (either warfare, or sport and courtship) influenced your thinking about how to engage with the pandemic?

When have you experienced hope, as described in Snyder’s “Hope Theory?”
- What was it about the goal that engaged your brain and made you feel happy and hopeful?
- When have you experienced false hope? Or had your hopes dashed?
In relation to the current pandemic:
- What goals could you imagine setting for yourself during this pandemic that would be likely (at least according to Snyder’s “Hope Theory”) to make you feel hopeful?
- What examples have you seen during the pandemic of people being dishonest in an attempt to promote false hope? What has been the effect of that dishonesty on your levels of hope?

In relation to the current pandemic, where do you find yourself on Latané and Darley’s five-stage model of helping?
- If you’re not actively helping, how has that affected your emotions?
  - Do you feel despair?
  - Do you find yourself using emotional-management strategies like literal, interpretive, or implicatory denial?
What, specifically, would it take to move you (or others) all the way to stage five?