Hope looks ahead and anticipates. It affords us a power to act and perceive of which neither reason nor understanding are capable. Hope sharpens our sense for what-is-not-yet, the not-yet-born that dawns at the horizon of the future. It is the midwife of the new. Without hope, there can be no departure or revolution. Indeed, it is quite possible that evolution is driven by unconscious hope. Hope is the invigorating force per se, which innervates life and protects it against torpor and paralysis. According to Fromm, hope – as a ‘state of being’, as a mood – is an ‘inner readiness, that of
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