I don’t sell hope.
Instead, I provide people with advice on how to overcome obstacles. In addition, I listen to advice from others on how to overcome obstacles.
Let’s me give you two examples:
- A woman wants to lose weight. She can listen to a self-help guru, telling her to “just believe in herself.” Or, she can listen a personal trainer that provides a comprehensive fitness plan: a man willing to kick her ass every day with rigorous training. A man willing to push her to greatness, to fight through pain and sweat. The first individual is providing hope; the second is helping her to overcome an obstacle.
- A man wants to become rich. He can listen to an enthusiastic speaker, telling the audience to “reach for the stars.” Or, he can read from the wisdom of millionaires: i.e. The Millionaire Next Door, The Art of the Deal, etc. Books that take away time from his pleasure-filled weekend. Books that force him to re-examine his wasted life. The first individual is providing hope; the second is helping him overcome an obstacle.
You get the point.
I refuse to be a “hope dealer.” I don’t sell the crack of platitude, the needle of self-help. I don’t peddle the cliche. I’m not here improve my self-esteem by telling pretty lies. I don’t need the Facebook likes or Retweets. I prefer the truth.
I refuse to sell a Pollyanna principle. Rose-colored glasses are too small for my face, too blinding for my vision. I’m not here to misdirect or to obfuscate. I don’t need a book deal, a record contract, or a tenure-track position. I speak the truth.
May the children of tomorrow hear my cry! And may they say one thing alone – he was a man that spoke the truth. He broke the chains in Plato’s cave, he pointed to a naked leader and yelled: “The Emperor wears no clothes!”
What can I say? Nothing more than what Nietzsche already gave us:
“…it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book — what everyone else does not say in a book.”
I prefer to help one person than lie to a thousand.
Major Styles 
Hope is being peddled alongside the incessant candles and flowers in Manchester. But these snowflakes have no understanding of the quote” Hope has two daughters, anger and courage” Google it!
This whole #Prayfor(Fill in the blank for the locale of the latest Islamic bombing) would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that real people are being killed.
On a side note, I know very few liberals who travel to Egypt, Saudi Arabia…or even Turkey for that matter. You would think that for all the excuses they make for Islamic terrorists that they would at least burn a couple grand to visit Amman. But I guess that distance makes something less real.