12 Comments
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Pretty Prepared's avatar

Never much liked Michael ("you can't handle the truth!") Mann. If you want it straight James Hansen's the guy.

Cassandra Columbia's avatar

I’m still hoping that we make deep, drastic, and permanent reductions in CO2 emissions starting in 2019, like the IPCC models say we need to. 🤞 C’mon, baby, that window is almost closed!

Wayne Stiles's avatar

Preaching for their audiences much like religious figures ask us to "have faith." Some can't deal with reality and grasp at the straws people like Mann hold out.

Keith Wells's avatar

really good read, what a paradox

Trimi Shala's avatar

"Focus on the light at the end of the tunnel" sounds kinda like "When it gets really tough, and hope is on EMPTY, and I'm out of weed, again! I just remember, the sweet kiss of death awaits at the end...". Truly helpful :D

HumbleLeader2460's avatar

Hopium, lot's of people are smoking it...meh.

Harry Pothead's avatar

A truly great essay.. One of your most insightful and informative pieces ever, I think. I've long thought that "Hope" is a 4 letter word, and an obscenity, like other 4 letter words. I defined it for myself as "A strong desire for some outcome not at all supported by the facts of physical reality. It's denial and delusional thinking all tied up in a single word.

I don't "do hope" and don't have much use for faith either. I like my reality like I like my Scotch. Straight and neat 😎

PoppyD's avatar

Excellent essay Eliot! Thank you. Deceptive expectations indeed. Love the pandora analogy. ❤️‍🔥

Nightride85's avatar

Are you hoping for a world without hope? Stop hoping!

Martin White's avatar

Loved the essay really a strong read - and from the math department, no less.

I thought,thiugh, you had stipulated no royal "we" allowed, anywhere,anyhow, yet it's all over the windup.

I, for one, do not express hope. "We" are all in social motion until events "overshoot" us.

Matt Schlegel's avatar

I am a hopeless activist 😆

HumbleLeader2460's avatar

“As every office worker knows, it’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you that kills you.”

― Mick Herron