Читать книгу Peaceful Revolution - Paul K. Chappell - Страница 10

Whenever the world seemed dark and I wanted to give up, the three kinds of trust created light in the darkness. Like a telescope, realistic hope focuses these sources of light into a powerful vision, allowing us to see far. This telescope gives us the vision to see not only how the world is but how it can be. Without the far-reaching vision provided by realistic hope, nothing would ever change for the better. Without the determination created by realistic hope, our ancestors would never have survived.

Figure 1.1: Realistic Hope

As I mentioned earlier, the human mind is not only our greatest strength, but also our greatest weakness. In the struggle for survival, it is our strongest and weakest link. Almost all other organisms fight for life as long as their bodies allow, but we humans often give up long before that. No other organism takes premeditated steps to terminate its own existence.1 No other organism commits suicide out of despair. The will to live may decrease in wild animals held in captivity, but we are the only creatures who commit suicide while still possessing health and freedom. In the army I heard a saying: “A human being can survive for a few weeks without food, a few days without water, but only a few moments without hope.” A person with absolutely no hope at all would be depressed and suicidal. If we do not have at least a little hope, it is difficult to get out of bed in the morning.

Our large brains give us a significant survival advantage. Our imagination is an incredible ally in the struggle for survival that allows us to anticipate problems, implement creative solutions, and plan for the future. Like a bird’s wings, our imagination gives us the ability to soar, but it also creates the risk of falling. If a bird is flying high and the muscles sustaining its wings fail, it will plunge to its death. In a similar way, if we are faced with adversity and the muscle of hope sustaining the wings of our imagination fails, we will plunge into the depths of helplessness and despair.

Our imagination allows us to envision and create a brighter future, but we can also use it to dwell on worst-case scenarios. When our ancestors were hungry and searching for food, they could imagine not only the best but also the worst outcome. If you and I were in the wilderness, threatened by predators, drought, and starvation, succumbing to pessimism and hopelessness would be extremely dangerous to our survival. But if we were hopeful and maintained a positive attitude when confronted with adversity, we would gain determination and resilience, making our survival much more likely.

Hope is as vital for human survival as food and water. And it is not a coincidence that hope is an inherently joyful experience. When it is realistic rather than naive, hope always feels good, which in turn encourages the behavior that enables our survival. However, it is important to distinguish between realistic hope and naive hope. Naive hope gives us the illusion of joy while realistic hope improves our perspective in a way that gives us a more positive attitude. Naive hope sets us up for a big fall, for disappointment and pain; realistic hope gives us the strength to endure and overcome big falls. Naive hope is built on wishful thinking; realistic hope is built on the trust that comes from evidence and experience.

Similar to the trust that keeps soldiers alive, our ancestors also required realistic hope and the three kinds of trust to survive.

Trust in yourself. Our ancestors who lived on the harsh African plains were threatened by starvation, drought, predators, disease, injury, and death. There were no emergency rooms in the wild, and they had to surmount overwhelming odds to survive in these difficult circumstances. But when they were hungry, they trusted their ability to find food. When they were thirsty, they trusted their ability to find water. When predators threatened their tribe, they trusted their ability to protect their family. This trust was built on evidence and experience. No matter how bleak their situation might have seemed, the fact that they were still alive, and the fact that their ancestors had endured for countless generations, taught them to always have hope, to never accept defeat, and to never quit.

Trust in other people. Cooperation is necessary for human survival, and selflessness, sacrifice, and service forge the most indestructible bonds of cooperation. Early human tribes lived as families, and just as military units rely on cooperation and teamwork for their strength, so did our ancestors. Evidence and experience not only taught our ancestors that people could be trusted, but that they must be trusted if the tribe is going to survive. Every nomadic tribe that has ever been studied relies on cooperation and trust among its members for its survival.

Trust in your ideals. For our nomadic ancestors, nature was not an enemy to be conquered. Despite the many dangers of the wilderness, they trusted nature. They trusted in nature’s ability to provide for their needs as long as they respected its ways and never gave up. The fact that nature had provided for their ancestors for countless generations gave them abundant evidence that nature could be trusted.

Just as liberty is an ideal to us, living in harmony with nature was an ideal to our nomadic ancestors and many tribes all over the world. Just as we trust the ideal of liberty to improve our lives, our nomadic ancestors trusted that respecting nature would improve their well-being. The following two Native American quotes express trust in nature and the ideal of treating our environment not as an enemy, but a friend.

A Navaho proverb eloquently says: “I have been to the end of the earth. I have been to the end of the waters. I have been to the end of the sky. I have been to the end of the mountains. I have found none that are not my friends.”2 And in the words of Mohawk Peter Blue Cloud: “Will you ever begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet? From a grain of sand to a great mountain, all is sacred. Yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent. We natives are guardians of this sacred place.”3