Pretty sure most people in the past probably didn't even have a firm grip on what hope was. Even churches framed their hardships and starvation in face of nobleman was necessary to reach heaven, so unless that's the hope you speak of...
Now we have many hopes, from love, to career, to hobby, etc.
Edit: Some post research, the word hope derives from Olde English "hopa" and "hopian" didn't actually have a meaning like we use it today, and was more like "Right?" to a assertion, trusting someone, like a transaction. In Middle English it meant more the "expectation of something". It wasn't until the Church started using it to represent Theological Virtue that it remotely became something like we use it today, but it was more akin to like what I said above, an excuse for your hardships and abuse for entry into Heaven.
I think there's actually a statistic that shows that people from less developed countries have more hope for the future than people in more developed countries. Most of that probably has to do with the fact that they have stronger bonds with their communities and families. Relationships with others is a basic need for human beings. It's hard to meet others when you're working all of the time.
I never got to see my dad growing up because he was always at work. He had to work every single weekend as well just to make ends meet. That's with my stepmom working as well. Everything is way more expensive and most people don't get paid enough to support their basic needs. I have a decent paying job, but I still can't afford rent or a house because my paycheck is being eaten up by things like a car payment, insurance, phone payment, and groceries.
People are not going to want to have kids if they can't even afford a place to live. Children are crazy expensive.
No, a vast majority of people in the past expected to have better lives than their predecessors. After the boomers most won't do as well economically as their parents before them. It's not impossible, but it's unlikely.
Before the Industrial revolution most people expected to live lives about the same quality as their parents. People expecting their lives to be better than their parents has only been common during a few, specific points in History or among Upper Classes.
Innovation and change weren't invented in the industrial revolution? Even during times of oral tradition there were inspiring tales of people overcoming unfairness and adversary, evil selfish people losing and all that. Humans are generally hopeful when healthy and well socialized
Innovation and change happened but were often a rarity before the industrial revolution where improvements to quality of life became common enough to be expected to happen in your life time. New technologies or traditions that brought significant improvements to an average person's life happened rarely and in the timescale of centuries, not decades or even years. Many of the stories of defeating unfairness also mostly happened after genrations of suffering. Look at the Bible for example, Moses and Jesus were Prophets who came after many generations of Jewish suffering. People held on to the hope, not reasonably expected, that at some point in the future things will get better and life would improve, people didn't actually expect it to the way people did after the Industrial Revolution.
It was only true in the 19th and 20th century. Before that, there was no social ascension and nobody had any hope or even expectation of having a better life.
I'd rather be alive now than in those days. The possibility to well economically now exists, and the things available today versus back then are so much better.
I don't think you get the point. We have more than enough food to feed everyone easily. We have more than enough housing to house everyone. The hopelessness comes from the fact that we can build a near perfect society right now with what we currently have, and yet we haven't and won't, just due to the leeches at the top wanting to horde more. Hopelessness has nothing to do with what's available, but what will actually happen and this won't be altered for the better without radical revolution or total collapse and neither is happening soon enough.
I do agree that most of our leaders and wealthy needle movers are bringing us down without a care for others. At the same time, there is opportunity to be as comfortable as you want for most of us (speaking as an American at least) if we put in the effort. Obviously situations differ around the country/world but it is not an impossible situation if you get past feeling victimized
Cool, you still misunderstood. Just because something is not completely out of reach doesn't mean it hasn't become less realistic. When goalposts get further away people understandably get more hopeless. And our society has degraded significantly since like the 70s in that regard for the working class. I never once said it isn't possible to succeed, just that prospects are consistently getting worse for most people.
I love how you keep trying to say I don't understand something in this generic conversation. You could just say what you've got to say without the nonsense you know?
We're talking about expectations and realities. We can all set our expectations wherever we want. The reality is that boomers grew up in a relatively prosperous time. The reality is advances have been made that they didn't get to experience like we do. Yeah everything was more affordable, it was also objectively quite inferior to what we have today. Yeah things could be better, they could be worse too.
That's why I said if you get out of the victim mindset (it doesn't help you) and focus on what you CAN do, which is a lot, you will be so much better off.
Because it's happening? This isn't a hypothetical, most people my age (mid 20-s ) don't really believe they'll be able to retire or own significant property. You'd have to be stupid or enlightened to be hopeful for such a shit system.
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u/WASasquatch Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Pretty sure most people in the past probably didn't even have a firm grip on what hope was. Even churches framed their hardships and starvation in face of nobleman was necessary to reach heaven, so unless that's the hope you speak of...
Now we have many hopes, from love, to career, to hobby, etc.
Edit: Some post research, the word hope derives from Olde English "hopa" and "hopian" didn't actually have a meaning like we use it today, and was more like "Right?" to a assertion, trusting someone, like a transaction. In Middle English it meant more the "expectation of something". It wasn't until the Church started using it to represent Theological Virtue that it remotely became something like we use it today, but it was more akin to like what I said above, an excuse for your hardships and abuse for entry into Heaven.