Writing Feedback / Corrupt Hope: An argument for fighting corruption [3]

Please vet the essay. I need an unbiased and honest criticsm, whether favorable or otherwise.

What sort of creatures are we? Let me explain through reasoned illustrations so that you can get an inkling of what I am driving towards.

A man of a young age knows many things. He knows that the world is round & for most of the part, in today's laidback world, life goes on in circles. An incident he goes through, an event, a social situation, in which he goes through highs & low; he learns a number of things. It is but a natural cognitive response to learn from past mistakes by thinking what he could have done otherwise. And these lessons are then applied in subsequent social situations so as to result in a more favorable outcome. This is a basic tenet of logical thinking, cold & calculated as it must be, though sublime in nature & often sub-consciously applied. This is the bare bones of our cognitive process in the social context, our thinking, through which we learn. Of course, this being the general factor, another specific factor comes into the equation; our upbringing, from childhood to this moment. Different people from different societies often interpret the same event in different ways; for example, a man comes from a society where he is encouraged to speak out, to question; then people from unorthodox societies will admire him for his boldness & intelligence, while those from an orthodox society shall disapprove because of his perceived insubordination to elders who must know better. (It will be an interesting experiment to find whether any intelligence could evolve in strict isolation, if there is no context for it to compare things to.)

Now we have a rough understanding of how our cognitive process works in a social context, & know that people learn & evolve. But, then, what do you have to say to an intelligent being who commits the same mistakes again & again, even after knowing that the outcomes might not be favorable? Why do they do that? Is it a hope that they will get lucky eventually & their persistence would be paid off? Or is it the cynicism of an escapist, that there might be one time that their dumb luck would falter, they would finally die? What can we call these people; are they fools, junkies, geniuses or just plain ignorant that they tempt fate? But what if such a person is so because he lives by some principle we all agree is a good thing objectively (like love or more, realistically, a world free of corruption), but when it comes to subjective experience, we do not think before desecrating it? Why is it that people start shaking their heads at such a notion but secretly admire it & desire it? Why are they so afraid to hope? Hope is not brittle that we dole it out in rations. In it fact, it is the strongest emotion we have. Think about it. All of your actions can be traced back to hope, except those of course which are common through all creatures. Why does a lover calls out to his lover? Because he hopes to be heard. Why do people follow someone with a radically different idea, that is, at the end, not so different at all? Because they hope to be free.

We are all mired in a marsh of cynical skepticism. We despair of corruption & yet indulge in it at the earliest opportunity. Though even the bribe-takers do not love it, they still take bribes as if they lost their spine & the deluge of corruption has washed away their sense of ethics. Honest officials, elected or executive, have the annoying habit of disappearing, dying, becoming overnight kings of corruption or becoming weak as a mouse, who is supposed to be wiser now that he has seen the predator's claw & teeth. But still, we all wish it to end. That this backstabbing, gloating & disdainful corruption stops. That their children who might not be as high and mighty as them, will not face the same hurdles of vice that others face. That they won't have to come home slumped in despair & death in their hearts, with shattered dreams. That all will be good & that every person will work together to achieve this goal.

It is this soulful & heartfelt dream we all should aspire for, not merely pay lip service to, against all odds. For what odds can stand in the way of a person who dares to hope & holds on to it tightly. And after all, we can always hope to hope.