Is it All Hopeless?
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- I don't know what to do when the world defies my expectations, but I know giving up is the wrong thing. Let's talk about why...
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I liked this video, Hank. I struggle with depression and feel like giving up ... often, on different things. Not on life itself, but it's hard for me to plan things because I'm either on top of the world with optimism or at or near the very bottom without any. I kind of needed this. You, reading this, are not past saving. Even if you are struggling you're working hard to keep going. So do keep going. There are many terrible things going on but life is still good to have.
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Thank you. Currently exhausted from a recent platonic breakup and a panic attack moments ago. Your comment was really nice to read. Thank you.
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“Times are rarely precedented.” I am a strong fan of that line.
It's a good line, but I don't think it's exactly true. There have been many wars, many plagues, and considerable political/social upheaval throughout recorded history (and, no doubt, before that). There have also been times of relative peace and prosperity. The details change, the technology changes, but the world keeps turning and the highs and lows keep happening.
Times are rarely unprecedented.
History is the study of the precedent.
I kind of hate to say it, but I disagree with this notion so completely, that I would sooner argue that the direct opposite is closer to being true. In one form or another, to one degree or another, very few things in life are truly unprecedented. One need not be a historian to know that there have been pandemics before. There have been wars before. There have atrocities, genocides, extinctions, and most all of the other bad things you can imagine. The fate of life on earth has been sealed from it's very conception, much as death is the only promise of life. We aren't so special or unique, and times aren't so strange. We are just caught up in our own self-centered perceptions and experiences.
Reminds me of this Kurt Vonnegut quote: "History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.”
My dad used to make fun of me and younger people that we were addicted to our phones, and it’s weird that he and a lot of the older generation a couple years ago were happy to point and laugh at this problem, and are now just as addicted to their phones as the people they used to make fun of
Sometimes even moreso!
@@vlogbrothers totally, I’m 24 and most of my peers have a much healthier relationship with our phones and the internet than the older generations (specifically the 60+ group) who grew up without them. It’s still unhealthy for most of us, but I do think the boomers have it pretty rough.
My grandma is on her phone all the time when "visiting" us or when we fly up to visit her.
When I go to the dentist or the doctor's office I like to play a game called "be the only person in the waiting room under 50 and the only one reading a book instead of on their phone". It's a fun game.
@@Random3716 I do this too, but sometimes I just sit there in silence and be mindful of the world around me. I once did this waiting for food in a restaurant for long enough that the staff thought I had fallen asleep... until they said our name and I just hopped right up and grabbed our food. :)
"It is a shockingly useful rectangle" is something I don't think we appreciate enough. We carry basically infinite knowledge around in our pockets every day. A smartphone is a dictionary, map, fact-checker, compass, and yes, even a flashlight that also allows us to connect to our friends and family anytime, anywhere in the world. Past generations would be absolutely in awe of this technology that we so casually carry around with us. I also really resonated with "we are only past saving when we believe we are past saving." Things may really suck right now, but humans have always found ways to adapt and overcome. We can and we will do better.
There used to be a Facebook group, when Facebook was a wee babe in 2005, called "I use my cell phone as a flashlight". Mind you, phones didn't have a flashlight feature at that time, it just meant that you had your phone flipped open in the backlight screen was acting as a woefully dim light.
In the words of Ron Swanson, "This is an excellent rectangle!"
Beautifully expressed👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🥂!
Lol I named mine Mimir for exactly these reasons
Smartphones is not something to appreciate, smartphones are a curse to humanity. People are wasting away, roasting their brains on those things. The negatives far outweighs the positives of smartphones
Honestly in these unprecedented times the “doing my silly little tasks” meme actually has kind of helped a lot, like ya what you’re doing in comparison to the giant dumpster fire that is our planet is silly, but you’re still doing it nonetheless, and even though it’s “silly” it’s still ok
I love this so much
keep doing those silly little tasks
Just keep doing the silly little tasks and making the difference in the world those tasks do! ♡
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Think globally, act locally.
And I'm increasingly convinced the former should only be the occasional "am I still in line with my values?" check-in. Accept your limited sphere of direct influence.
I taught a teenager how we see different colors today, that made both of us happy
The Anthropocene Reviewed instilled in me an everlasting "No" to that question
Yes!
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Yeah? Why?
The book or the pod? I've only done the pod. If anything, the pod might suggest that we are doomed as a species on that time scale, which I don't fully agree with, but I fear we will have far fewer prospects and a shittier outlook than we do now
I don't know man, as a person living close enough to the war to have had a projectile crash a couple of kilometers from my home yesterday, despite my country not being involved in the armed conflict yet, I have found dark humor to be helpful in the past weeks. I think it's partially about acknowledging the worst case scenarios are possible, accepting our reality and our future are very uncertain and possibly very bad yet still imagining ourselves and our individual future as a part of it, doing what we have to with the situation given, living through it not as some abstract people but as the same people we know ourselves to be - including finding humor in whatever situation surrounds us. I have found it not to be hopelessness-inducing, but empowering, and it has helped me come to terms with it and act on it with what little agency a person has in that kind of a situation
Hang in there, Strep
@@EliasGitterman Hey thanks, you too 💪
I'm glad I'm not rare in this sentiment, I fully agree with you. I can't explain it properly because I don't yet understand it, but the dark humor and specifically the jokes about "giving up" are strongly empowering for me as well. I don't act like all hope is lost and dissolve into listless nihilism, but that doesn't mean that I haven't taken jokes about giving up to heart at all. A part of me genuinely feels like it gives- or has given up, but rather than feeling bad about it, I get a strange sort of relief and freedom from it. It feels like I'm giving up on trying to hold onto some dying unrealistic idealized view or projection of the world, and I can refocus my efforts on pushing through problems and helping improve the world as it really is rather than waste a bunch of effort and heartache resuscitating an overly optimistic future that wont happen. It genuinely feels like I'm giving _something up_, I'm not really sure what, but I'm positive that it doesn't at all feel like quitting the fight. Fully accepting our situation in a way that personally makes sense to ourselves feels like a strong first step to fixing it.
I hope things turn out well for you and your loved ones, Strep. Know that you're not alone or inappropriate for taking solace in the dark humor. It might not help everyone the same way, but it helps you, and maybe that's good enough right now.
Don't know how I'd cope with anything without gallows humor, to be honest. I hope you're doing okay.
@@Bad__Music2262 That's very nicely said. Hang in there as well, I hope one day it turns out that we worried too much about things that didn't end up being all that bad
The way i think about it is this. Just after the pandemic started, i played a game called Astrologaster, about a quack doctor who lived during a plague outbreak in the late Elizabethan era. People were dying from illness. Catholics were being persecuted and driven from their homes and businesses. England was enmeshed in a complicated war. There was a regime change that threatened to erupt into a schism between two shakily joined countries. But the game was hilarious. And i hold onto that hope, that in five hundred years people will look back at our quaint backward ideas about science and communications and public health and find something funny. There will be people in five hundred years, and they will laugh at us
This perspective made my day! Thank you
That's the kind of joke I will be proud to be the butt of. If they can grow past the petty things of our day and look back with greater wisdom, I'll be happy to be laughed at posthomously.
That is actually really comforting, thank you for sharing that idea!
Your last sentence made me tear up?? Thank you.
Hank’s next book: “A Shockingly Useful Rectangle”
I'd buy it.
it fits the cadence of the last two
I had a AP world teach in high school say something to the affect of "every time human society came close or thought they were coming close to extinction, they survived. we either adapted or got lucky but we are still here." and I appreciate him for that. I'm sure people living through the black plague thought it was the end of times a well, or the world wars. Now there's more of us than ever. I'm grateful for my teacher giving me that perspective.
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I somehow find the "well we haven't died out yet" argument to not be very compelling. Our power/influence over the planet has increased exponentially just in the past 100 years, and it's a power we don't yet deserve.
I'll never understand this argument. It's so flawed to its core. Even your teacher said we got lucky, how is that helpful for people who feel hopeless? We have so much more tech and power over our own planet than we ever had and we've known about this happening for like 50 years and we've done next to nothing to stop it. We have metrics to show how this WILL kill most of the people in the world if we keep going the way we are. At that point why even bother using this as an argument?
@@awesomesauce1030 people are doing stuff, you’re only looking at negatives. Ozone hole has shrunk significantly, electric cars are becoming cheaper and the norm. As tech advances things will only get better. People getting older are more passionate about this stuff. And like I said we aren’t at defcon 5. When it seems the worst. I think you’re just a little more negative than everyone else which isn’t bad but still. Realistically we are not anywhere close to destruction of the planet or societal collapse. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or trying to scare you.
I appreciate Hank's perspective, and Vlogbrothers has often been a great source of hope for me over the years.. but I do want to respectfully push back on the idea that folks are experiencing despair because it's "the cool thing to do". Things really are incredibly hard for a lot of us. I get that isn't really the point of the video, but I think when we characterize the experience of hopelessness as trivial or foolish, it only serves to further alienate and invalidate.
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I definitely think humans will exist in 200 years but I agree with your sentiment. It may just be my own personal mental health but I for one look at the amount of harm we all do to one another and the amount we are unable to affect our political situations and feel hopelessness in spite of all the effort I see from people trying to make a change in the world. Like millions of people are banding together to help every couple of months for some new disaster and it just feels like there is no end in sight. No respite. So yeah.. I feel pretty hopeless. I'm going to keep going because I don't see a better alternative. But I certainly don't think hoplessness or nihilism is cool. It's just I can't comprehend how to not see it that way.
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Thank you! I used to find vlogbrothers videos comforting but I've found them harder and harder to watch lately.
Their optimism and hope seems completely detached from the actual state of the world, and it's painful to watch. I just end up angry, because it feels like they're living in a different, much nicer reality to me.
@@cloud_appreciation_society But isn't reality just how we perceive things? For every horrible thing going on in the world, there's at least 3 great things. There have been worse times in human history, there have been many wars, and people got through. This isn't to diminish the hard things but a recognition that it's not always hard. Moments of wonder are there every day if we look for them. As an example, pick something to look for, say a certain type of car. Then spend a couple of days focused on that. You very quickly see them all over the place, cars that you didn't notice before. Your perspective shifts. This is where they are trying to lead us.
A good example is Emmanuel Dagher. As a child in Lebanon, he lost his father to the war and his mother had them hide out in a convent. He slept on a stone floor with little heat or food for years. Finally his mother got them to the US. He now devotes himself to giving hope to others, helping them heal. He's one of the most wonderful, hopeful people you can meet and that comes from him learning how to find happiness in the worst of circumstances. You can find his stuff here on CZcams.
I’m a teacher so the value I place on my job is based on my belief in the future, and that’s been very difficult to maintain these days. This made me feel a lot better, thank you.
Me too, comrade. It's a hell of a thing to literally spend all day on the edge of the future, but feel so unspeakably sad inside.
Well said Shane!
I hope that in the future we treat teachers MUCH MUCH better.
"I don't just use it because I'm addicted to it"
considering how much Hank is on TikTok, that most definitely checks out
at least hes self aware
Am I addicted, or do I just like it!!
@@vlogbrothers They are not mutually exclusive.
@@vlogbrothers I'm sure you can stop at any time
@@vlogbrothers yes
"I get that this is a joke, it's just a joke that I hear a lot and I'm starting to like less"
Big agree
The "just giving up" jokes, I will say, are actually something I lean on. As part of my therapy journey, I am working on managing my anxiety about things I can and can't control. When I joke about things like this, it's to me saying, there are people out there who can determine the fate of my life without my say so, instead of living in fear, I will laugh at it. Because it is not worth living in fear, I can share my little piece of comedy instead
Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
I love when you and John speak on this topic. I have crippling anxiety/depression and it's very difficult to coexist beside the "haha it's so silly that the planet is dying and there is nothing but suffering" mentality that I am constantly around. It's so comforting to hear an environmentalist consistently talking up humanity and its future. Thank you.
"A shockingly useful rectangle." Is my new favorite phrase.
"we are only past saving when we believe we are past saving"
Hank continues to be the only person who can remind me that we're not done yet, that there's still thousands of opportunities to make this better, and despite our pessimism we still live in hope.
Thank you. I'm so over self-depricating or hopeless humor - especially on the Internet. It's had its era, but let's grow out of it and embrace some hope for a change. 😅
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i agree i’d much prefer jokes with the end goal of compliments, i’d argue they would be much funnier too
wild seeing you here
greetings from Tuatarienhausen
@@eli3163 Yeah, wild. Who would've thought that we both like the Green bros? ;P
For me I’ve realized that underlying a lot of my feelings of hopelessness is just being overwhelmed-there’s so much dumped on us on top of the regular work of living, and part of me feels guilty for not giving everything my full attention. But that is literally impossible, and there is no point in feeling guilty for being a human being with limits. So I pick my lanes and do what I can there, and try my best to support people in their lanes as we all try to make the world even a little better.
Hope you're doing well, John. Losing someone close to you is never easy. Just remember it's okay to not be okay. Always love your videos, Brothers Green.
I love your outlook on things and agree completely. The "we're doomed!" jokes are starting to hit different and I think we need to transition to a more future positive outlook.
But WHY? I have no reason to believe things will get better for the vast, vast majority of people in the world, and will only actively get worse as time goes on.
"I don't see anyone giving up... it's a betrayal of the future. It's a betrayal of the past, too. It's also a betrayal of the present." Never saw it the way the quote started. I'm not necessarily hopeless of the times, if anything my knowledge of history puts this event into perspective of hope. I just thought the phrase matched well with my sentiment.
"No one is acting hopeless and that gives me a plenty of hope". It was such comforting thing to say, I'm still smiling 🥺🥰
This really resonated with me. It *is* tiring to see so many jokes sort of steadily veer towards hopelessness...and while it's understandable, I would much rather hold on to hope, however silly or naive people might act like that is
Honestly, I feel like things are actually improving in lots of ways. These are all things that weren't true 10 years ago:
1) All the mainstream auto manufacturers have an electric or hybrid vehicle of some kind for sale. It used to be all you could get was a Prius.
2) Wind power is the cheapest form of electricity.
3) Solar is taking off in a big way. Even in my VERY conservative state, I was just able to sign up for 400 kWh per month in what is basically a municipally run solar power coop.
4) Ebikes are a thing. I love that.
5) This one is more complicated, but we got everyone on the internet. This may seem like it's a bad thing, but in the past people were doing bad stuff and it wasn't visible. Now they do bad stuff happens and everyone knows about it. Not as many people reject it as we may like, and more people than we may like agree, but the bad has been aired, an the general trend is that most people don't really want it around. Technologists are starting to work on what socially responsible communications looks like rather than just pursuing the smash and grab tactics that Facebook uses.
I could go on but I think you get the point. Things do progress, but progress happens at the same time as bullsh*rt. Unfortunately, we can't just "solve" humanity and have everything be wonderful forever (although that doesn't mean you get to stop trying).
Some how you and John have become me and my partners constantly reminded that we can be scared, sad and all the other feels. While still not loose sight of very real possibilities it could still work out, not due to inaction but because of all the work being put into making it work out. Thank you for that.
I really needed to hear this. Thanks Hank.
I have complicated feelings about this. On the one hand I get Hank's point, giving up won't get you anywhere / leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy to a certain degree. But I don't agree that being/feeling hopeless is the same as giving up.
I am generally speaking a pretty pessimistic person with very little hope; I don't think my future holds much good in it, let alone the future of the earth / humanity. That doesn't mean I am giving up, either on myself or on the earth and humankind. I have very little hope for the future, but I simultaneously hope that I am wrong about that, and I will try to do my bit to combat the big bad that I see in the future. It might be hopeless, but I won't go down without a fight.
I genuinely cannot imagine a world in 200 years where the world isn't a lot worse than it is now, but that doesn't mean I will give up on trying to prevent that somehow.
I really needed to hear this today as I’m feeling a bit hopeless too at the moment 😊
I didn't know I needed to hear this and now I'm crying. Thank you.
currently watching this video on a shockingly useful rectangle. that's a +
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Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but from the title I kinda hoped you would explain the war that’s happening right now, cause I’m shocked and terrified and vlogbrothers channel has always been a place for hope for me
It's a very hard video to make, especially because no one knows exactly why and I don't really like all of the guessing. But John might have something for you next week...we'll see.
I feel like this Creator makes a good effort czcams.com/video/qTmUx1tGZUk/video.html
In the meantime, I encourage you to read broadly and support the journalists who are risking their lives to report the truth. For deeper analysis from experts that goes beyond day-to-day news, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and Council on Foreign Relations are good places to start. (CFR has helpful overviews and timelines of conflicts, too, if you're building your knowledge from scratch). Wishing you well - DFTBA
@@clairezalla wow thank you for providing resources that can help people with different levels of understandings of the history surrounding what's going on.
I'm ngl I've found myself sitting on google recently, trying to learn about the history around the conflict, but I struggle to even know which knowledge gaps I should fill first to better understand the build up to the war
With the constant influx of current news, it's easy for people (myself included) to get overwhelmed by the expectation to have an opinion on what's going on, right now, every day, with every new development, that we don't pause enough to learn the context that surrounds something as complex as this conflict before making assertions based on implicit biases and things that what we've learned through osmosis (notoriously not a good way to base opinions on events as globally impactful as war)
I dunno, with how easy it is to find dangerous misinformation online, I just always appreciate when I see individuals trying to promote quality sources with reliable information. Thank you!
The Economist has had pretty great in-depth analyses recently. Since they have a paywall after 5 articles I believe, I recommend "The Stalinisation of Russia" and "History will judge Vladimir Putin harshly for his war."
I'm not hopeless because it's fun. I'm hopeless because I have no power here. Hank, with all due respect, you have a lot of power and influence. If climate disasters go impressively worse in a few years, the entire country my family is from would be flooded constantly and your family will be fine. No one on my block had a working kitchen the first few months of the pandemic, and they're opening million dollar condos across the street. I'm hopeless because I'm tired and I don't have the fight in me. I'm hoping on allies like you, who still seem to hold on to hope, to make things better...in the meantime, I can only care for those around me. If I think about anything else, I won't survive it.
Yes! "Don't give up" is only hopeful when you have resources left to fight with. Humanity will likely continue but a lot of individuals and communities won't. And many of those are already running out of resources to fight with. I know I am.
@@loraleitourtillottwiehr2473 You put it into words, thank you so much. "Humanity will continue but a lot of individuals and communities won't" is exactly the difference here.
Hard agree! I usually agree with a lot of what Hank says, but this video seems to be tainted by his privilege a little too much. Hope you and your family are safe and doing well ♥️
I find it sus that he looks around and can't see anyone who is giving up ... What does he think the opioid crisis and the massively increasing numbers of OD's mean?
i just finished 4 years of planned therapy the other week and the realisation that everyone feels helpless at times is something i’ve struggled to understand. But being able to see someone i genuinely look up to discuss the same thoughts that i have really does make it feel like somehow everything will turn out okay. Both personally and globally. Thank you hank :D
I like what they call phones in The Expanse - “Hand Terminal”
Incidentally, in that series it sort of seemed like hand terminals didn’t really belong to anyone in particular. They were just kind of around and different people used them.
Communal tools are more common in poor societies. Either you share or no one gets any is a forced situation.
My brain immediately went to the expanse when he asked that.
Phil of the Future had "Wizards". They all seemed to be exactly the same, and potentially government issued.
this made me cry. thank you so much. my country that is held by a terroristic government and is approaching north korean model more rapidly than ever. the majority of people around me strongly believes the propaganda and i watch those few with a different worldview flee or being brutally silenced. and you know. it's nice to be reminded that we end when we are hopeless, and we still aren't somehow, even though the hope is very slim
Said starting at 2:44:
"We are only past saving when we believe that we are past saving". Hank, this is absolutely brilliant. This is one of those things said that seems simple at first, but simultaneously is actually complex and makes sense. It may *seem* when a situation occurs we can't overcome, we must give up eventually. Yet, thinking that is actually giving up, since that is giving up at its most basic form--thinking we must give up. It's so simple, it's actually complex. Giving up is not some abstract concept, but rather itself. And this is something I needed to hear. Recently, I have been dealing with missing some good friends of mine who changed my life, and the change between being able to see them and not was so sudden I had no time to process it. That's the short version, anyway. This past week I have been wondering if I should give up on reaching out (they are far busier than me), but then I remembered doing that would be a disservice to times when we would do things for each other. As you put it, it would be a "betrayal of the past". While all this was applied to humanity in the video, it also applies to individual situations, especially to ones I am dealing with--and, based on other comments I have read, other people probably feel the same way. So thank you. This video helped...a lot.
To deliberately focus on the tech question, instead of the existential one:
I think now that we have personal communication & information devices on us at all times, that won't change. The same way that when people first figured out how to ride horses, we never went back to exclusively getting around using our own energy.
I don't know what form the "phone" will take in 200 years, but I'm certain we'll have something that does all these jobs.
I appreciate this video and I think it’ll make it to my playlist of “things to watch when I’m convinced my life is insignificant enough to give into the darkness around me”. I often joke about my pessimism and cynicism, and while it’s true, I do tend to live my life in that manner as a general rule… I think it’s starting to become more commonplace for people to just be pessimistic about life, the state of the world because having optimism is scary. Seeing something bad and dark and trying to find the light in it is scary. You know what the end result is with pessimism every time, without fail, there’s no surprises in looking for bad and getting the bad. But when you’re optimistic, you just have to wait and see and hope and holy shit, is that terrifying.
It's mostly that I find it harder and harder to truly stay optimistic recently.
"Just pretend you're happy, smile when your feeling blue. If you pretend your happy, you'll start to believe it true. It's better to fake a smile, than to fill the world with woe... So just pretend you're happy, and nobody will know."
Thank you so much for this. The last week has been rough for me personally, and I’m general things have just seemed very dark. Thank you, I needed a reminder that it’s only over when we say it is.
A certain level of nihilism seems necessary and even healthy given the scale, scope, and number of crises we seem to be dealing with, but I agree that the joke of casual acceptance of annihilation is getting old. It's overused and unproductive, like the old "is it 5-oclock yet?" at the office... No, Steve. It's only 11am and I'm waiting on those reports so I can do my job.
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If you swap "annihilation" with "disruption of food chains that 8 billion depend on to feed themselves" does that make a difference to you?
Because while I don't believe in total annihilation, I believe that many people will die due to that. Enough to potentially interrupt the globalised infrastructures that allow everyone to own a phone. I'm not joking here. And because this is larger than I can really influence, casual acceptance is more or less all I can to do to relate to this believe.
i also get irked at the current “hot trend” of apathy/nihilism/hopelessness etc. because i think while things super suck in the short term: the world is so much better! i know john often points out that good news is slow which i often come back to when all the bad news is happening so fast. yes things are not great right now. but based on how we were 100, 50, 10 years ago? it’s so much better. i also like to keep in mind that attacks from people in power are because they know things are getting better. it helps them when things are bad. so we keep moving forward, revolting (at times) by being ourselves, and knowing that good news feels like a drip but is actually a tidal wave
My first though in seeing the title was: No, it is not all hopeless. I believe that there is hope because as long as there are good people on this planet like Nerdfighters, there will always be hope. So thank you all for giving me hope. DFTBA
Thank you for the peptalk Hank, I really needed that! Love you!
I suffer from depression and OCD, and I’m at a point where I’m not entirely confident in my own sense of hope anymore-like, I find myself falling into hopelessness not for any particular reason other than an inability to trust hopeful thoughts over unhopeful ones, and confirmation bias tells me over and over again that it is in my own hopeless moments that I am thinking most clearly.
99% of the time, I simply hope that I am wrong, and that others like you and John are right to hope. But, I’m afraid that there have been 20x fewer bugs hitting my windshield now than when I was a kid, and that terrifies me.
Truthfully, I find comfort in the hopelessness. I want to give up because I have been fighting for very long and am very tired - and though I won't give up, I hold on very begrudgingly. Perhaps this is coming from a place of chronic pain, depression and disability, but "isn't it hopeless anyway?" is the general vibe I seem to be having... it was almost jarring to witness your optimism Hank.
Finding something that makes me say, "That gives me plenty of hope," is basically how I get through any given day
I'm honestly so happy to hear about discussions of the future, especially the distant future. Lately, I've had this strange feeling that the future will stop in around 30-40 years and time will just vaguely end, and this is largely due anxiety around the climate crisis and this weird general consensus online that we're close to the end of all things. I don't even know when this became an unquestioned, unconscious belief of mine, but the more I become aware of it, the more I tire of it, and the more I want to become educated to develop a realistic, pragmatic perspective. Reality is not so one-note as to not offer any signs of growth and joy along with destruction and despair.
i think giving in to hopelessness is only happening on the social internet. tell me i’m wrong.
All the deaths from suicide and overdoses are definitely signs of hopelessness to me.
Gonna copy paste comment I just posted: Truthfully, I find comfort in the hopelessness. I want to give up because I have been fighting for very long and am very tired - and though I won't give up, I hold on very begrudgingly. Perhaps this is coming from a place of chronic pain, depression and disability, but "isn't it hopeless anyway?" is the general vibe I seem to be having... it was almost jarring to witness your optimism Hank.
@@Karishma_Unspecified Hello fellow human. I feel a bit hesitant to share my story because it's bleak and is probably something you've heard before, but your comment resonated a lot with me.
You're wrong. Every day I struggle with the desire to kill myself versus the pain I will cause my loved ones if I do.
@@necordektox879 Sounds like a thought loop I've been in before? Do you want to talk about it? I recognize I am a random stranger, so if the conversation ends with this conversation, I still wish you well
Hearing someone say it allows me to breathe a bit lighter, Hearing you say it Hank, gives me hope!
I've never really liked the "we're all doomed, let's just give up" kind of jokes that a lot of people make. I've never found them particularly funny and I've always felt like they're more harmful than most people realise so I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in that opinion.
Being in Moscow without the resources to leave, with two kids, scared into submission, utterly appalled at the slaughter done in my name - I needed this. Thank you, Hank, for helping me over the last decade to grow into a person that still hopes, that still wishes, that still sees a future, even in these dark and stupid times. Whatever change I’m able to bring into the situation here, it will be in your name also.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! You gave me back the hope.
I've always taken the stance of Clarke's third law "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Without the ability to time travel and my average understanding of certain aspects of phone technology I'll just say its "Magic". So in the future we might just have more magical devices and inventions that make life easier and more difficult.
Giving into hopelessness isn't 'the fun thing to do'. It's the way young people are coping with the world getting constantly worse, and the prospect that they might not have a future. Calling it 'the fun thing to do' trivialises a very real issue: the fact that the only way people are able to deal with the crushing weight of the future is by making jokes, because if they took it seriously it would destroy them.
'Holding on to hope' is a lot easier when you have plenty of money in the bank, and you know that none of these issues will actually affect you or your family all that much.
there were a lot of times in history where the future looked much worse, i.e. during world wars or plagues that killed tens of millions etc. etc. The crushing weight of the future is only crushing because of perspective this is by no means the worst the future has ever looked. So what hank is saying is very valid because it's not objectively hopeless, not in the slightest
You know Hank, it's comforting when someone like you, who at least seems like a voice of reason in the noisy, chaotic room right now, is inspired by hope and by science. It gives me hope. So thank you.
ive had so much fear and anxiety about the future, I've nearly gave in to hopelessness many times. Thank you hank. i really needed this so much
I don't think the comparison between the hard to imagine development of phone technology and the solutions for saving the planet is a very good one.
Getting people to work in small groups to develop powerful tools is a difficult task and it's genuinely impressive what humans can do. Getting large groups of people to do anything that doesn't involve harming or killing another large group of people I would argue is impossible. (unless you trick them into it, which only gets you so far)
It's hard sometimes to not give in to hopelessness when a certain group of people are pushing my state in a race to the bottom, especially with a certain recent pregnancy bill floating around.
Yeah since pregnancy was legalised the worlds gone to shit
"No one is acting like they are hopeless, and that gives me hope". I needed to hear that, just didn't know it. Thanks!
"A shockingly useful rectangle" is the best descriptor of a smartphone.
I think 200 year from now we'll have moved onto something different. I don't know if it'll be implanted stuff, but definitely something that modern people wouldn't recognize as a phone, much like how modern phones aren't at all visually similar to phones from even 20 years ago.
Something I'd also be interested to learn about is how the usage changes. You look at predictions of the future a few decades ago and the common prediction was video calling. Now, we definitely do a lot of that, but no one predicted how ubiquitous text-based communication would be. I text and email far more frequently than I video call, so what else will change in another few decades?
200 years later: "Holocasting is cool and all, but I still mostly use mindlinking."
Thank you Hank! I hear the hopeless "joke" far too often and it grinds on me so much as I do believe that humans will persevere in the face of it all.
On a side note: I do feel that "Great Man" history often biases us towards the thought of one person actually having the capability to end the world where there are so many people & forces in opposition to that.
My take-away:
Engaging in hopelessness might be pleasing in the moment but it's not the solution to our long-term problems
I've been watching your and John's videos since I was 11 years old (I'm 22 now), and both of you have been touchpoints for the way I look at the world as I've become an adult. But -- growing up being told on a near daily basis that climate change was going to cause irrevocable, untold damage on the world and simultaneously watching (what felt like) nothing be done about it, then being a high schooler/college student from 2016-2020, and then entering the adult world during this pandemic, I've kind of felt hope be beaten out of me. Every time I raise my head up for the future, another crisis beats it back down again. Earlier this year, I realized with a kind of sinking acceptance that I no longer believed that things would get better. I just don't. I struggle greatly to believe that my children or my grandchildren would have a higher quality of life than I do now. So watching this video and seeing you, who have been one of many beacons toward which I guide my beliefs, believing that things will be okay, makes me challenge whether my thinking is correct. And I just don't know. I wish desperately that I could see the future as you see it, but I don't know how.
As someone who just got out of a depression episode and finally felt like myself this past 10 days. This is beautiful to hear. Thank you.
I just wanted to drop a book recommendation on climate change: Amitav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse has been really enlightening for me about the geopolitical causes of climate change and why transitioning away from oil is so hard. Ghosh was born in India and has interviewed many climate refugees, and I find that his point-of-view resonates with me more than a lot of Western-focused ideas about climate change.
I love when you and John speak on this topic. I have crippling anxiety/depression and it's very difficult to coexist with the "haha it's funny that the world is ending and there's nothing but suffering" vibe that seems to get thrown around constantly on social media and in real life. It's so good to hear an environmentalist consistently talk up the concept of humanity and its future. Thank you!
"calling it a phone is like calling it a flashlight" that is an outstanding quote.
The P4A digital art bundle has SO MUCH STUFF
right? i mean, it’s completely part of the reason i love my “phone”
SO MUCH STUFF
and some of my stuff
@@tmntallthewaydw
I feel like when we give into hopelessness and think things are inevitable, we act like they are and we dont fight against those things. War is only inevitable if you don't think peace talks can be hopeful, climate change is only going to get worse unless some people are optimistic enough to study the right stuff to come up with a solution. Like standing up and saying this is happening but i dont want it to is kind of the only way to stop it.
Solutions are there. There are just more roadblocks. Progress is there. There just might be too little time left for it to be meaningful. Things are not inevitable. But past patterns imply that evasion is highly unlikely.
Hank, your fierce opposition to hopelessness brought a smile to my lips. A betrayal indeed. Thank you.
A major plot point of loads of sci-fi/fantasy is that humans continue to fight even when we are hopelessly outmatched. That kind of desperate courage is part of what makes us human, in spite of all our flaws and fears.
I've actually found if you give into hopelessness enough, you come around to a new almost hopeful place. I am pretty firmly in the despairing, all is meaningless camp. On the other hand the very same things that give that despair bring a structure and purpose to your life just by choosing to fight the hopeless battle. Trying to be cheerful never worked for me, temperamental, but turning the horror and sadness inside out and wearing it as a funny hat has done wonders.
Yeah, we’re definitely not in the darkest timeline. We may be in the dumbest timeline, but not the darkest
i like this sentence a lot
@@tmntallthewaydw Oh my gosh, I love your username!!
2 years on, still love your message!!!
I try so hard to retain hope even when times are bad. I'm currently in my worst financial situation of my life, and facing eviction. I lost my job due to Covid and haven't had steady income since. It's so very hard to keep hope for myself much less the human race, but this video helped a bit. Thank you, Hank.
There's a depth to the "Trolley Problem" that reached the end of the discussion regarding the design, its architect, user who use design, and those who aren't aware of placing themselves in the design. The Design is needed to revise....or just bottom-up an overall design that best works for humans to be in that system.....Or perhaps, we should live without the design. Nature as it is.
Yes
thank you for sharing your nugget of hope Hank 💜 I’ve always tried to be an optimist and prided myself on it, but these last few years have been exhausting. I need that reminder every once in a while. Things don’t all suck, not everyone has given up yet, and we can make things better
Thank you for laying all of this out. It's hard for me to access optimism as much as I want and need, and seeing other people manage it helps me figure out the hand-holds.
Calling it a phone is not like calling it a flashlight lol.. Yes the phone can do all sorts of other stuff, but I bought it for the phone function specifically. Also these little computers are an upgrade to devices that were *only* handheld phones initially, so they were very accurately named before they evolved.
If there's anything I've learned as a nerdfighter, it's that the answer is no ♥
I love this comment because it's so true. This is one of the few places where I can find some kind of joy when it feels like I'm wading through the darkness. And it's also a place that often makes me believe that there still are a lot of good people in this world, who can help us to get out of all those disasters we already have to deal with and the challenges that still await us. And those things make it feel like there might be something worth fighting for, both for myself, and the world at large :)
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As someone who has been struggling to hold onto hope for years this is the exact type of video I need.
I agree with you, Hank, 100%! Uncertainty is hard, but giving into despair is harder in the long run.
I was one of the people who said something to the effect of "there won't be people in 200 years," and I was not at all joking. I also don't think it's funny. I just think it's true.
I have held very strong anxiety about civilization marching toward the tipping point for climate change for many years, with scientists constantly saying "ummm, we are running out of time...hello?" I was constantly dumbfounded by how few people seemed worried or on the flip side by how many people would shut down a conversation about it because it was too negative.
And then I watched my country fail spectacularly to handle COVID, a comparable simple problem to solve. We didn't just not fix the problem, a huge segments of the population and especially the political and corporate world, seemed to do whatever they could to make it worse. I saw all this and realized I had been deluding myself into believing we would stop climate change. I never joke about it. I don't think it's edgy. It causes me enormous despair and panic to the point where I can't think about it very often cause all I am doing is hurting myself.
So now I am one of those people who avoids the subject some of the time. I see a lot of people saying "I really needed to hear this," but I don't feel any better. Because I never am presented with information that shows a meaningful change is coming. Or at least not coming in time. I am really not a pessimist I just need to see information to base the projections on and none of that information indicates a positive trend is just over the horizon. I would LOVE to see that.
I agree with this. Even if I just focus on Local/City issues, things look bad and don't seem to be getting better.
My city and county governments are consolidated, and the Mayor/President that got elected recently, actually lost the election to the main city, but won the election to the smaller towns in the county, which lean heavily conservative.
Since being elected, the MP and a Private Anti-Tax group have demolished taxed funds for Libraries and Public Education. To put those funds into 'Drainage' because this area floods frequently. There have not been any major improvements to the drainage system since that money was taken out of the education system. We recently voted (and succeeded, thankfully) on another budget renewal for the Libraries. Had that renewal failed, multiple libraries in the county would have closed. The Private Anti-Tax group still has seveal mud-slinging campaigns through social media to get the libraries closed.
So Sure. Optimism! Yes! Good! But I am struggling to find the proof that mine and the efforts of others like me are even making a dent. Maybe they actually are. Maybe that One Vote to renew that library tax is one of many victories. I'm not going to give up the fight, but I am getting really tired of fighting.
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I was really confused when Hank said we will have highly advanced technology in 200 years. He knows how dependant technology is on well working infrastructure. He knows about the big imminent disrupting factors to all infrastructures. He knows how terrible many parts of the world were at handling the past crisis. I don't know how he extrapolates these points into the future and arrives with confidence at a point where people will manage the climate desaster and prosper throughout it.
Personally I think the human population won't be gone for a while unless nuclear desaster occurs. But wow, we're in for a hellish ride regardless and I'm not joking either when I say I believe that.
@@ruolbu I think that the answer may be some combo of feeling viewers want optimism and that he can't bear to feel any other way because it is protecting his mental health. Just a guess.
@@thedavescloop If that's the case then maybe you should examine your own mental health because trust me you are not helping yourself
@@j-skullz I have. And I know. Therapist agreed that the problem was not at all in my head, nor was my assessment inaccurate or exaggerated. The focus was to become part of the problem: to try not to think about it and stick my head in the sand to protect myself. It only works occasionally.
This - Hank managed to articulate what's been bothering me lately!
I'm tempted to send this video to my friends, but I don't want to delegitimize or attack them for how they're feeling or processing. I get that with what's going on in the world, that it can be scary and overwhelming, but I am also getting tired of jokes about WWIII and this general feeling of hopelessness, or rather, it's turned into a game of who can be the one who figures out how the world ends.
I feel like this talk is really popular right now amongst my peers - we're all at University, watching with increasing skepticism of the world around us. I just want to help, ya know? I don't want to feel doomed.
Thank you for this. I feel like life might be difficult and unrecognizable to us now in 200 years, but somebody will still be there. Many people before us have lived through their own unprecedented times, and their apocalypses, and we're here. I'm trying to cultivate more hope within so I can share it with students, and this helps a lot.
"people rarely act like it's hopeless and that gives me hope"
I mean, the problem is we work hard and it doesn’t solve the problems. We’ve known what the problems are for 100 years and people have actively hidden the problems and made them worse. I just don’t see a justification for hope at the moment. I won’t act like it, because it is a betrayal, but I have assumed that there is no hope for a while now
@Hank, hate to break it to you but the phone you’re holding truly did exist 15 years ago. The iPhone came out in 2007. It’s hard to believe that 2007 was more than 10 years ago.
Sometimes when I watch your videos I find that you are telling me the things I didn't know I needed to hear. But I'm so grateful you are saying them
The number of people who could end my life without ever meeting me, or even knowing of my existence is growing daily. That is where my hopelessness lives.
To be clear, I'm doing both things. Like, I don't rationally think that we've got a good chance. It would require the sort of society we simply don't have. But I'm still going to ACT as if we're going to make it because the alternative is stupid.
I generally love your insights. I also think the chance that we end - everything ends - is higher than you seem to. The fact is that we are currently living in a world where for us to make it to the next stage of humanity a whole lot has to go right and our shortsightedness and tribalism are playing against us at every turn. There's a whole lot that can and probably will go wrong and much of it has a chance to spiral.
I consider myself an optimist, but if you haven't read Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" Wired, April 2004 or Nick Bostrom's Super-Intelligence, you need to. There are just times when the past isn't a good guide to the future.
All that said, I don't think that assuming we're in a bad place and things can get worse is an argument for fatalism. I think we ought to try and improve the world, that we ought to try and make it through. I just don't think that we should assume that we're going to get there, especially without being honest about where we are, and more especially without trying.
Exactly what I needed right now.
When I see people saying we are all doomed I always say we are only doomed when we give up - as long as we fight, we are never doomed. There is always hope as long as one person still hopes.