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Iona Miller's PSYOPS SERIES --
HOPE AS DOPE
Hope Is Dope: The Last Evil in Pandora’s Box
By Iona Miller, 1/2009
“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”
–Barack Obama
“Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.” –George Washington, Valley Forge
“(Hope) alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away." -- Aesop, Fables 526 (from Babrius 58) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.)
"[Aion, Father Time, addresses Zeus :] `But, some may say, a medicine [Hope] has been planted to make long-suffering mortals forget their troubles, to save their lives. '" --Nonnus, Dionysiaca 7. 7 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.)
Hope Is A Meme
Now that our airbag economy is collapsing like a loaf of wet Wonderbread we are suddenly breaking through our cultural denial to a new level that embodies Mystery as Hope. Cherished hopes and beliefs about ourselves and our futures have been crushed even as others have been raised.
An avalanche of collapsing systems actively demonstrates that chaotic dynamics are in play. No one would argue against the notion that the global system is “far from equilibrium.” We can hope that a new more orderly state emerges spontaneously from the process.
We live in chaos. It is the central issue in our lives, particularly when we feel out of control of our own destinies and security. Hope has a religious component and is learned in the sociological context. Hope is ‘trust’ or ‘belief’ that process will result in better times. Hope is a defense against fear and pain. Hope is touted as the antidote to depression and economic Depression.
In the 2009 “Winter of Our Discontent,” hope is invoked to sustain us. Has hope returned to America to replace the apathy and rage generated by the last administration? Hope is not an Era. Do we hope because we only can hope? Hope should be a catalyst for effective action.
On the surface, happiness, hope, and optimism appear to be three different terms for the same concept. But they are three very different concepts. Although all three are generally considered positive, they each have different qualities. Hope is an emotional state of suspension. Yet, without hope we are filled with despair. Hope always remains in and informs the present.
Hope usually involves some uncertainty of an outcome, typically matters of importance, and usually reflects our moral values. Hope is frequently considered a temporary condition that is specific to a given situation and contingent upon one's experience, skills or abilities. (Averill)
Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and life circumstances. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. To hope is to wish for something with the expectation of the wish being fulfilled. False hope refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome.
Hope Is Potential
We hope to control our fear of the unknown through hope. Hope is expressed in magnitude – a little or a lot. Hope inspires us and might be seen as a function of Spirit or psychological faith which impels us forward despite great odds. Hope gets us high, but as pure potential, it may or may not manifest. In the current cultural context, hope implies some sort of national rebirth.
In Greek myth, hope was the last evil in Pandora’s Box. But contemporary society sees ‘hope’ as a gift, signifying an unfulfilled promise of improvement. Hope is the antidote to the death-dealing troubles of mankind. But hope is not a commodity; it is ephemeral --virtual. Each of us cooks it up in the crucible of our alchemical unconsciousness. Hope as a meme conveys its psychological and propaganda quality.
If Pandora’s Box is the collective unconscious that unleashes the inexorable forces of nature and mortality upon man, what does its derepression mean for us now? What does hope mean in an age of depression, financial and otherwise? Is the era of national hubris, manic overactivity, greed and false heroics over or is it taking new form in the politics of [false] hope? Hope promises transition from crisis. It is a process not a destination.
But what does this living legacy of Pandora mean in the “new” post-Postmodern political era? What does the ‘fantasy of hope’ symbolize in terms of our vision of the future at the individual and collective level? Is it merely another buzzword designed to manipulate the masses without encoding any meaningful content? Positive feedback confirms that our hope is well-placed. Negative feedback is not necessarily dampening but can be if preponderant.
Hope is the need to believe, related to wishful thinking. It is a mild form of greed and over-optimism. When those collective emotions become exaggerated, their impact is even stronger, leading to excessive behaviors, bubbles and crashes. We have an aversion to uncertainty, so we like to paint ourselves a rosy picture of the future.
Is it pessimistic or just more realistic to reject hope? Hope fosters the heart, yet “castles made of sand slip into the sea, eventually.” When that ship comes in, it may just keep on going. Are we afraid to hope because we are afraid of hurt? Hope is not a buzzword; hope is not a universal medicine; hope is not a strategy…
Hope Is Dope
Hope is a powerful motivator, a dopamine regulator that alters our consciousness much like a drug. Hope elates like new love. Dopamine is hope’s biological dimension, part of the brain’s reward system. We embody our psychobiology. Paradoxically, our way of worrying about the future and fear of catastrophe often involves eating, drinking, drugging and smoking ourselves to death, a personal apocalypse.
The promise of hope is to nurse us back to health. The biology of hope is linked to the healing of spirit. Hope is strongly correlated with quality of life. Dopamine plays a big role in our inner emotional and cognitive lives. What it can accomplish depends on how it functions in our overall system. We create our own hopes and fears, sometimes under – or over-exaggerating.
Dopamine is involved in joy and desire, in seeking and wanting. Dopamine is involved in both pain and pleasure. Dopamine function can be viewed as a learning signal, and dopamine can modulate emotions, attention and memories. Greed, hope and fear are emotional market factors.
Hope Less
Hope is generated by a confluence of factors in the final common pathway – dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine is more than a neurotransmitter of pleasure, being released well in advance of pleasure. Dopamine is primarily a chemical of anticipation – anticipation that something good will happen. When dopamine is released, it sets up the brain to do something, kind of like a fuel injector for action. Without dopamine, we retreat into a state of inertia.
Dopamine regulates hope and hope regulates dopamine. In depression, dopamine is suppressed. We know from the placebo effect that hope changes body chemistry and thought processes. But even with an optimistic attitude, we can be self-deluded. It is a matter of degrees how much we can build a real-time result from hope combined with effective vision and action. Hope is a passive part of the cycle holding the potential of salvation in some as-yet-unseen form.
Hope Is PsyOps
Averill and his colleagues (Averill et al, 1990) found that subjects rated anger, love, and hope as all having the same five features: 1) all are difficult to control, 2) all affect the way you think or perceive events, 3) all affect the way you behave, 4) all motivate behavior, increase persistence, enable one to go on (even in the face of adversity), and 5) all are common universal experiences.
As a propaganda tool, the buzzword hope is held up as the carrot on the stick. We want to hope; we need to hope, even desperately hope. We can even become addicted to hope. Hope can make us behave irrationally in the face of hard facts. Hope is intoxicating in crisis situations. And, for now, we have drunk the Kool Aid.
ionamiller2009.iwarp.com/whats...2.html
HOPE AS DOPE
Hope Is Dope: The Last Evil in Pandora’s Box
By Iona Miller, 1/2009
“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”
–Barack Obama
“Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.” –George Washington, Valley Forge
“(Hope) alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away." -- Aesop, Fables 526 (from Babrius 58) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.)
"[Aion, Father Time, addresses Zeus :] `But, some may say, a medicine [Hope] has been planted to make long-suffering mortals forget their troubles, to save their lives. '" --Nonnus, Dionysiaca 7. 7 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.)
Hope Is A Meme
Now that our airbag economy is collapsing like a loaf of wet Wonderbread we are suddenly breaking through our cultural denial to a new level that embodies Mystery as Hope. Cherished hopes and beliefs about ourselves and our futures have been crushed even as others have been raised.
An avalanche of collapsing systems actively demonstrates that chaotic dynamics are in play. No one would argue against the notion that the global system is “far from equilibrium.” We can hope that a new more orderly state emerges spontaneously from the process.
We live in chaos. It is the central issue in our lives, particularly when we feel out of control of our own destinies and security. Hope has a religious component and is learned in the sociological context. Hope is ‘trust’ or ‘belief’ that process will result in better times. Hope is a defense against fear and pain. Hope is touted as the antidote to depression and economic Depression.
In the 2009 “Winter of Our Discontent,” hope is invoked to sustain us. Has hope returned to America to replace the apathy and rage generated by the last administration? Hope is not an Era. Do we hope because we only can hope? Hope should be a catalyst for effective action.
On the surface, happiness, hope, and optimism appear to be three different terms for the same concept. But they are three very different concepts. Although all three are generally considered positive, they each have different qualities. Hope is an emotional state of suspension. Yet, without hope we are filled with despair. Hope always remains in and informs the present.
Hope usually involves some uncertainty of an outcome, typically matters of importance, and usually reflects our moral values. Hope is frequently considered a temporary condition that is specific to a given situation and contingent upon one's experience, skills or abilities. (Averill)
Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and life circumstances. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. To hope is to wish for something with the expectation of the wish being fulfilled. False hope refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome.
Hope Is Potential
We hope to control our fear of the unknown through hope. Hope is expressed in magnitude – a little or a lot. Hope inspires us and might be seen as a function of Spirit or psychological faith which impels us forward despite great odds. Hope gets us high, but as pure potential, it may or may not manifest. In the current cultural context, hope implies some sort of national rebirth.
In Greek myth, hope was the last evil in Pandora’s Box. But contemporary society sees ‘hope’ as a gift, signifying an unfulfilled promise of improvement. Hope is the antidote to the death-dealing troubles of mankind. But hope is not a commodity; it is ephemeral --virtual. Each of us cooks it up in the crucible of our alchemical unconsciousness. Hope as a meme conveys its psychological and propaganda quality.
If Pandora’s Box is the collective unconscious that unleashes the inexorable forces of nature and mortality upon man, what does its derepression mean for us now? What does hope mean in an age of depression, financial and otherwise? Is the era of national hubris, manic overactivity, greed and false heroics over or is it taking new form in the politics of [false] hope? Hope promises transition from crisis. It is a process not a destination.
But what does this living legacy of Pandora mean in the “new” post-Postmodern political era? What does the ‘fantasy of hope’ symbolize in terms of our vision of the future at the individual and collective level? Is it merely another buzzword designed to manipulate the masses without encoding any meaningful content? Positive feedback confirms that our hope is well-placed. Negative feedback is not necessarily dampening but can be if preponderant.
Hope is the need to believe, related to wishful thinking. It is a mild form of greed and over-optimism. When those collective emotions become exaggerated, their impact is even stronger, leading to excessive behaviors, bubbles and crashes. We have an aversion to uncertainty, so we like to paint ourselves a rosy picture of the future.
Is it pessimistic or just more realistic to reject hope? Hope fosters the heart, yet “castles made of sand slip into the sea, eventually.” When that ship comes in, it may just keep on going. Are we afraid to hope because we are afraid of hurt? Hope is not a buzzword; hope is not a universal medicine; hope is not a strategy…
Hope Is Dope
Hope is a powerful motivator, a dopamine regulator that alters our consciousness much like a drug. Hope elates like new love. Dopamine is hope’s biological dimension, part of the brain’s reward system. We embody our psychobiology. Paradoxically, our way of worrying about the future and fear of catastrophe often involves eating, drinking, drugging and smoking ourselves to death, a personal apocalypse.
The promise of hope is to nurse us back to health. The biology of hope is linked to the healing of spirit. Hope is strongly correlated with quality of life. Dopamine plays a big role in our inner emotional and cognitive lives. What it can accomplish depends on how it functions in our overall system. We create our own hopes and fears, sometimes under – or over-exaggerating.
Dopamine is involved in joy and desire, in seeking and wanting. Dopamine is involved in both pain and pleasure. Dopamine function can be viewed as a learning signal, and dopamine can modulate emotions, attention and memories. Greed, hope and fear are emotional market factors.
Hope Less
Hope is generated by a confluence of factors in the final common pathway – dopamine release in the brain. Dopamine is more than a neurotransmitter of pleasure, being released well in advance of pleasure. Dopamine is primarily a chemical of anticipation – anticipation that something good will happen. When dopamine is released, it sets up the brain to do something, kind of like a fuel injector for action. Without dopamine, we retreat into a state of inertia.
Dopamine regulates hope and hope regulates dopamine. In depression, dopamine is suppressed. We know from the placebo effect that hope changes body chemistry and thought processes. But even with an optimistic attitude, we can be self-deluded. It is a matter of degrees how much we can build a real-time result from hope combined with effective vision and action. Hope is a passive part of the cycle holding the potential of salvation in some as-yet-unseen form.
Hope Is PsyOps
Averill and his colleagues (Averill et al, 1990) found that subjects rated anger, love, and hope as all having the same five features: 1) all are difficult to control, 2) all affect the way you think or perceive events, 3) all affect the way you behave, 4) all motivate behavior, increase persistence, enable one to go on (even in the face of adversity), and 5) all are common universal experiences.
As a propaganda tool, the buzzword hope is held up as the carrot on the stick. We want to hope; we need to hope, even desperately hope. We can even become addicted to hope. Hope can make us behave irrationally in the face of hard facts. Hope is intoxicating in crisis situations. And, for now, we have drunk the Kool Aid.
ionamiller2009.iwarp.com/whats...2.html
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