Satisfaction or Hope

“It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding that it can hold men’s hearts by hopes when it cannot by satisfaction.”  Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

What can we learn from the past?  Nothing, unless we study it and internalize the successes we discover.  We must also seek to understand the failures that have occurred along the way.

Every so often we get a chance to show our ignorance of history.  This lack of understanding leads us to near panic as we try to make sense of the times in which we live.  This election, this Presidency, is not the first (nor will it be the last) to stagger in the execution of its policies and world view.   

I would hazard a guess that few of us are content or satisfied with the current state of the Union.  Part of that dissatisfaction is the result of not knowing who to trust.  It appears that politicians, journalists, lobbyists, the general populace either see themselves as victims or saviors of the truth.  We wonder who speaks the truth.  Who can we trust?

This is a blog on the Power and Promise of Hope.  It is not a political blog.  That’s why I was intrigued and inspired by Francis Bacon’s quote.  We are not finding satisfaction, so where do we turn?  Bacon suggests turning to our hopes. 

Right now, most of us hope for a better economy or for an affordable way to pay for our healthcare.  We do not feel the satisfaction that statistics and polls suggest we should.  Most of us hope that we can hold on to our homes and our jobs.  Can’t get much more basic than that kind of hope.

But we do not have wise government at work.  Instead, the government works overtime to convince us that all is well and we should be satisfied with the speed and direction of our regaining the good times.

Natural disasters, violence, worldwide tension, near anarchy in our streets, is a strong deterrent to our feeling satisfied and secure.  But our government keeps shouting at us “all is well, hang in there, it’s only been a month.”  No, it’s been the last 50 years that have slowly taken its toll on our satisfaction levels.  

We are not satisfied and we are tired of being told that we should be.  That’s what the most recent election showed us all.  Democrats aren’t satisfied, Republican aren’t satisfied, Independents have no voice at all.   

According to Bacon, a wise government would stop trying to coerce satisfaction from us and start to enlist our hopes.  Hopes like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Hopes like, “give me your tired, your poor…” We welcome those homeless, huddled masses who yearn to breathe free.  We welcome them and engage them so that they may share in a social order built on the hope of freedom and equality.

A wise government would cease attempts to convince us to be satisfied.  They would teach us the history of humankind – that amid change, the people have always had the last word. 

So here is the power and promise of hope. 

If we unite by pursuing the hope of humankind to survive with grace and equanimity, we as citizens of the world might change the conversation and demand the government hear our hopes and dreams.  We would no longer settle for the satisfaction levels our governments are promising us.  People of hope and resiliency always prevail.

As the future unfolds, the challenges that will present themselves will not be country specific, but regional and then planet-wide.  Pollution, limited and ever dwindling resources (food, water, air, energy), constantly increasing population, unresolved conflict, territorial imperatives, will all demand world-wide resolution.   

The ultimate hope is that before we destroy the planet, one another and civilization, in a planned or accidental nuclear holocaust, we find our shared humanity and build on hope and wise governments rather than on manipulative and coercive assurances that “all is well.”

We need wise government.  We need hope.  We need lives that are inspired by noble purposes.