‘Either we have hope within us or we do not,’ Czech President and poet Vaclav Havel said in 1990. ‘Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. It is hope, above all, which gives the strength to live and continually try new things.’
The distinction that Havel makes between hope and optimism provides the definition of Hope that propels The Web of Hope. Optimism is a projection into the future, a conceptualisation about how we would like things to be. Hope is about the present moment, about pure intention, about working for something simply because it is ‘the right thing to do’, with no attachment to the result of our actions. This non-attachment forms a core concept in eastern philosophy.
Hope, a simple four-letter word, resonates within us more powerfully now than at any stage in human history. It has become the human quality most essential to our future as a species because, without Hope, none of us would even believe in the possibility of a different world, let alone work towards it.
We need Hope to ‘go viral’. Although we tend to associate viruses with death and disease, there is much we can learn from the effective way nature spreads infection. Similarly, the efficiency of the terrorist network has much to teach us about building our own positive network of ideas, about consolidating progressive work from around the globe, accelerating the move towards critical mass.
Robert F. Kennedy believed that ‘each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the life of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples, crossing each other from a million different centres of energy, build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’
The ripples are growing and the web is expanding. Like the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the demise of communism and the end of apartheid, we know that significant change can occur very quickly and that together we really can make a difference. To quote our 999 Consumer Ambassador, Web of Hope patron, UK TV chef and champion of ‘real food’ Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, ‘the potential is mind-boggling’ and we can all play our part in ‘something amazing’.