Hope is an ontological need

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I was browsing at the library today and found this

Ignore my foot pls.

One of the first things I do when browsing books is look for authors I’ve read before.

Harnessing my own cognitive bias of “social proof”

(This is how I sell myself on my own education)

And I saw this in the back,

Not Helen, don’t know her.

But ahhhhhhh Margaret Atwood!

I’ve been watching Hand Maids Tale for the past few months to help me visualize project 2025.

Her work is deeply disturbing..

In a way, prophetic of Americas decline into fascism in its Christian-Nationalist flavor..

So for her to say,

“the most necessary ingredient of all: hope.. Truly essential”

It hit me..

Writing the article “Why Filipinos Vote For Trump” was incredibly stressful. A good stress that’s helping me grow. Increase my awareness. But still stressful.

So much respect to journalists man..

Choosing to stare oppression in the face,

The dark sh*t, bringing it to light.

Feeling the sacred rage as Fanon calls it,

And seeking answers for it all isn’t easy work..

I couldn’t sleep.

I forgot to eat and drink.

I was voraciously reading.

Violently digging for sources.

Writing with a fury (never done that before)

But my biggest takeaway after writing that piece is the need, within my own self, for hope..

To nurture more hope within, while I look at these shadows of humanity.

I realized in this work I chose of my own free will for whatever reason, hope is a skill.

Hope is a muscle.

It needs to be exercised.

I’ve spent the last 2 months deeply studying colonialism, imperialism, forgotten wars, and genocides of my people. Capitalist realism, post-modernity, and to top it off everything going on today in 2025 with the Trump Regime.

Wait.. hold on

What’s my spiritual equation right now?

Ahhh I noticed something..

I’m doing it again, this is what Daniel Kahneman calls the “negativity bias”.

I’m only looking down a negative tunnel..

Ok, well all this is terrible. 100%

But what are the alternatives?

Who are the people creating solutions?

Yeah, let’s add more of that into my info-diet..

I think of the moment in Tomorrowland when Casey changes the future-predicting doomsday by simply asking:

“What can we do about it”

When facing a lot of deeper truths of the world today, as Paulo Freire says,

“Hope is an ontological need”

I was digging so deeply that it change my entire being. I was angry. Sad. Sniffly. All the things.

That I realized, damn.. I need to find hope.

So here’s how I’m nurturing my hope muscle

  • Documentary: 2040
  • Pedagogy of Hope Paulo Freire
  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Paulo Freire
  • A new appreciation for the solar punk genre
    • Nausica Valley of the Wind
    • Princess Mononoke
  • Wakanda Forever (pan-African futurism)
  • Civilization IV game

And here’s the projects I’m working on that I’m practicing hope through.

  • Creating my own mental models and frameworks for Ai Ethics that might help others see a new perspective
  • Civilization design & Speculative design: Pan-Filipino and Pan-Austronesian futurism
  • Making this blog, where I can share my ideas. Somewhere. Anywhere. Where maybe it can be useful for others.
  • Writing “Why Filipinos Vote For Trump”
  • Writing “The Utility of Spiritual Development”
  • Writing “My Ai Ethics”
  • Using my social media with post-capital consciousness to share my ideas, to educate, and hopefully create practical frameworks

And more.

I’ll continue to add to the list overtime, as a living document of the hope I’m feeding.

What things are you doing to exercise your hope muscle?

~ Akino