The Desert of Despair

and the mirages of spefurtum

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.

〰 Søren Kierkegaard 〰

Tim de Groot on Unsplash & Antoine de Saint Exupéry

The Quicksands of Despair

There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,

trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.

〰 Aldous Huxley 〰

Despair is a land where all seems lost. Desert is a space to get lost in. Sometimes the two are a perfect match, depending on perspective and prospects of survival.

“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…” Antoine de Saint-Exupery recalls in his famous encounter with an elfin monarch from another tiny star.

For those of us unfamiliar with vast open landscapes, made mainly of sand, rock, and dust, with no visible water sources and sparse vegetation, deserts look rather barren and scary, given the scarcity of resources for survival. Desert is just a wasteland, a bleak, arid, and dangerous environment, stripped bare of all the safety, support, and prosperity of life as we know it.

“Beautiful wasteland is me,” Karen Matheson of the Scottish band Capercaillie sings in the refrain of the song with the same title.

I embraced my father's warnings
And studied in your schools
To justify your theories
And convoluted rules
Travelled to the corners
Where everybody knows
My country's been wearing
The emperor's clothes

Beautiful wasteland is me
Beautiful wasteland is me
(from Beautiful Wasteland by Capercaillie)

How can anyone find beauty in the inner desert of despair?

Landscapes of despair is a metaphor coined by Michael Dear and Jennifer Wolch. These two American geography professors published Landscapes of Despair in 1987. The book describes the living conditions of people with severe mental illness, forced to move from health care institutions to homelessness in urban deserts of the US.

Henry David Thoreau had a more radical view when he declared that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” His book Walden, or Life in the Woods was first published in 1854, that’s 1.3 centuries before Landscapes of Despair was conceived.

Thoreau observed that “what is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country.”

He wasn’t referring to mental health patients or urban deserts. He was writing about a collective mental state pervading American society in the 19th century.

“A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind,” Thoreau wrote, shattering any illusions of an ‘American golden past’.

‘Landscapes of despair’ can be depicted as the ‘natural habitat’ of homeless people living with serious mental and/or physical struggles in extreme poverty on the fringes of the wealthiest countries in the world right now.

Humans forced to navigate an environment lacking in social support and stripped bare of the structures of indigenous communities, left to their own devices in an urban desert. People who survive from one day to the next, negotiating harsh welfare policies, with little hope for a hidden well.

Meanwhile, Thoreau’s quiet desperation that keeps ‘the mass of men’ in the woods is the natural habitat of our inner landscape. It can pop up in unexpected places, cover scary stretches that never seem to end. We can get lost in those deserted zones, and keep running until blue in the face and heart, or buried in quicksand.

Abhishek Singh on Unsplash

Despair as a Speed Dial to Success

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul

〰 Emily Dickinson 〰

American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) knew the difference between despair and the emotional vibration of fear when she wrote her poem The Single Hound.

THE DIFFERENCE between despair
And fear, is like the one
Between the instant of a wreck,
And when the wreck has been.
The mind is smooth,—no motion—
Contented as the eye
Upon the forehead of a Bust,
That knows it cannot see.

Dickinson must have been well aware of the subtle distinctions between despair and desperation, and how these states of mind relate to speed, success, and prosperity

Despair [from Latin de = without + spes = hope or sperare = to hope] is used in English since c. 1300 in the sense of hopelessness, loss of hope. The older native word with the same meaning was wanhope (= vain hope, delusion)

Desperation [from Latin de + sperare] is used in English since late 14 c. It overlaps with despair in the sense of hopelessness, loss of hope.

Being desperate can further include being reckless from despair; without care for safety; without regard for consequences; beyond hope of recovery; irretrievable; being capable of taking extreme risks.

A desperate state of mind can be either active or passive.

The Century Dictionary describes the subtle difference between despair and desperation as follows: Despair means a total loss of hope, thereby it “naturally destroys courage and stops all effort, but may produce a new kind of courage and fierce activity founded upon the sense that there is nothing worse to be feared. In this despair is akin to desperation, which is an active state and always tends to produce a furious struggle against adverse circumstances, even when the situation is utterly hopeless.”

The Latin original sperare describes the activity of Spes, the Roman goddess of hope. Spes is associated with the capacity to ensure blessed conditions, a successful outcomes, and overall prosperity.

Esperar + esperança ~ the common Portuguese verb and noun for hope ~ also carry the meanings of expectation and waiting. Variations of esperar and its noun can be found in other Roman languages too.

Esperance ~ the English equivalent, used in the past in the sense of hope, expectation ~ has become obsolete.

Sperate ~ hoped for, not hopeless (opposite of desperate) is used in legal terminology.

Sperable ~ that may be hoped for, giving grounds for hope ~ is now obsolete.

Further English words related to the family tree of despair are speed, prosper, and prosperity:

Speed (v) [from Old English sped = to succeed, prosper] from c. 1200 used in three meanings ~ (1) to advance, get on rapidly; hasten in doing something; (2) achieve one’s goal, accomplish one’s purpose without delay. (3) to act or move rapidly; hurry; be quick. (German cognate ’sputen’).

Speed (n) [from Old English sped = success, prosperity] (1) advancement, a successful course, opportunity; (2) prosperity, riches, wealth; luck, good fortune; (3) zeal, haste; velocity, quickness, swiftness; (4) substance, diligence.

Prosper (v) [from Latin pro = for + sperare = hope / prosperare = to cause to succeed] to succeed, be successful, flourish, thrive, advance in any good thing, promote the success of, advance in any good thing (related to a person), making good progress in the pursuit of anything desirable.

Prosperity (n) good fortune, wealth, success in anything good or desirable, flourishing or thriving condition, good fortune in any endeavour or project.

Given the fact that esperance (= hope, expectation) are in themselves inactive states and involve waiting, the “new kind of courage and fierce activity founded upon the sense that there is nothing worse to be feared” ~ which may be triggered by desperation ~ can potentially speed up the progress towards prosperity (given appropriate conditions and resources).

Dominik Hofbauer

Theft of Hope in Seasons of Despair

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

〰 Charles Dickens 〰

Hope, in the Christian tradition, is one of three virtues. The other two are faith and charity.

Hope is defined as “a combination of the desire for something and expectation of receiving it. The Christian virtue is hoping specifically for Divine union and so eternal happiness.”

In the same vein, Catholicism considers despair an ‘unforgivable sin’. Despair ~ so the argument goes ~ is not an emotional state but an ‘act of will’.

Therefore, when experiencing despair, you’re not trying hard enough, or you’ve got a weak will, a lack of connection with God via hope. And loss of hope ~ which amounts to loss of faith ~ equals heresy, which is unforgivable.

While I understand the argument in theory, I feel for the homeless people struggling in the landscapes of despair of contemporary Western civilisation (and all over the world). They have fallen through the gaping holes of a rotten network of social support, which lacks charity and therefore doesn’t deserve hope or faith.

Humans are battling physical and/ or mental health, are forced to sleep rough and don’t know where their next meal comes from… no wonder they run out of hope and faith. Who wouldn’t?!

A despairing state of mind in such circumstances is not ‘an unforgivable sin’. It’s fairly normal*. Even Mother Theresa struggled with being torn between the sins and virtues of the religion she’d been called to serve.

(*According to the Christian doctrine, sin is normal ~ and all sins are forgiven through Jesus ~ at which point the notion of ‘unforgivable sin’ no longer makes sense… )

Hope (v) [Old English hopian] is to have confidence in the future, to expect beneficial outcomes, to trust that whatever happens is in your best interest, according to God’s will.

Hope (n) in its original meaning is a state of mind which nurtures positive expectations, trust in a higher divine power, and an optimistic outlook on life no matter what happens in the mundane drudgery of life.

In Greek mythology, Elpis ~ a goddess of Hope equivalent to the Roman Spes ~ added her wedding gift to the contents of Pandora’s jar. Hope was the only gift to mankind which remained in the jar after Pandora made the fatal mistake to lift the lid and release a whole pile of misery and suffering into our world.

Was the gift of Elpis a blessing or a curse? ~ the question that puzzled the Ancient Greeks is still open.

The act of hoping goes hand in hand with expecting and waiting, as embedded in the old word esperance.

In the absence of human connection with divine powers ~ whether Spes, Elpis, or any godhead of any contemporary religion ~ hope has become synonymous with delusion, trickery, manipulation, and self-deception.

A utopian ‘hope’ in expectation of being taken care of by the ‘higher powers’ of governments, antisocial systems, and human top dogs for whom charity equals accumulating obscene wealth, has flipped from virtue to vicious cycle.

Here is Hope ~ captured in mid-flight by Arab-American poet Yahia Lababidi:

Hope’s not quite as it seems,
it’s slimmer than you’d think
and less steady on its feet.
Sometimes. it’s out of breath
can hardly see ahead
and cries itself to sleep.
It may not tell you all this
or the times it cheated death
but, if you knew it, you’d know.

with thanks to

Philip Harris

for sharing two poems from Lababidi’s new book Palestinian Wail)

Ben Wicks on Unsplash

Wild Courage and Mirages of Spefurtum

When there’s no sign of hope in the desert,

so much hope still lives inside despair.

Heart, don’t kill that hope.

〰 Rumi 〰

False hope is the equivalent of a mirage. A delusive impression on a despairing human mind. A Fata morgana in the desert of despair. Such false hope needs a new name to distinguish it from true hope. It might be called pseudosperation, or hopetheft, or its Latin equivalent spefurtum.

Individuals, institutions, and social structures that offer fake hope to people, with no intention of fulfilling the expectations of their credulous followers, are not only committing intentional acts of deception. They are stealing and abusing the hope of individuals who are investing their godgiven virtue in goodwill and trust.

In this light I suggest spefurtum as a new and more accurate word to replace hope in any fraudulent or delusive context.

Spefurtum [from Latin spes = hope + furtum = theft] is a neologism to show up the hopetheft committed by institutions or individuals with no intention to fulfil the expectations of the hopefuls. The confidence in the beneficial outcome, commonly associated with hope, is therefore misplaced and abused.

Spefurtum is any form of pseudohope that raises false expectations. Spefurtum can be instilled intentionally and by deceitful means through verbal persuasion or manipulative actions. It can also be raised by individuals within themselves, in which case it overlaps with wishful thinking.

Spefurtum saves the word hope from verboklepsy (= identity theft of words) and restores its true identity. Pseudohope can be a synonym for spefurtum.

We live in an era where humans are called to find divine truths within themselves.

Spes is no longer a deity to be worshipped in a temple. The Ancient Greeks already viewed Elpis with suspicion and dismissed a ‘cult of hope’ as delusive. Divine trinities offering pseudohope are sinking into quicksand.

When hope seems lost, remember that everything you are looking for can be found within. Remember that despair “may produce a new kind of courage and fierce activity founded upon the sense that there is nothing worse to be feared.”

When pseudohopes are peddled on billboards, TV screens, social media, and at every street corner, like drugs to numb the misery of life, ‘hope’ is no longer a virtue. It is an addiction. The condition might be called spefurtomania.

When hoping is an addiction, despairing becomes the antidote.

WHEN VULTURES OF HOPE 
close in on my field of vision   
in a man-made desert 
parched by the gods 
of money tech and power  
inner wisdom beckons 
the afore-bidden Fruit 
of Knowledge to pick 
out forlorn esperance 
as an obsolete mirage 
to forsake futile 
hope and expectation 
and dowse a hidden well

WHEN SNAKES OF DESPAIR
slither around my heels 
sink me to my knees 
tempt me to drink the divine 
will to live my life 
every drop of clarity 
quenches the thirst
of my soul to summon
the wild courage of despair*

* “the wild courage of despair” is a line borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

〰 Mary Oliver 〰