Hope
Alexander Liss
It is often said that people support
demagogues promoting socialism, because they are given a glimpse of hope in
their difficult lives.
Note that demagoguery of socialism does not
have the same effect in many religious groups; they are immune to it.
It is interesting that the hope is brought
as justification of illogical decisions. The hope is not logical - everyone in
the future is facing the death, hence there is no bright future in rational
terms.
The shocking truth of end of life could be
mitigated with reinforced by culture and religion expectations of afterlife
(with various degree of detail of the image of afterlife). However, this is not
enough to make hope a part of a logical schema. People get weaker with age; the
possibility of hitting some adverse event in life is growing with the length of
life, etc.
Hope is essentially not logical phenomenon.
Still, it is crucial to have the hope to function
effectively. People without the hope are broken people, they cannot fight for
better life of themselves and loved ones, and they even cannot maintain the quality
of their life. They are susceptible to control and manipulation.
Hence, one needs to have some foundation, which
allows maintaining the hope, as an illogical as it is, without looking for some
external support for it.
A healthy form of religion provides such foundation.
One, who does not have such foundation, sooner or
later becomes a victim of some primitive form of religion or a cult, which
“gives” the hope. It “gives” it in a form, which is convenient to those, who
run this religion or cult.
Socialism is a primitive form of religion, and hope
based on the belief in a leader or in an idea, is a part of it.
Falling into such primitive form of religion is a sign
of psychological defect developed into an illness.
Being a part of a group following a healthy form of
religion prevents such development of defects into illnesses.