810
transition to death, is the core truth-value underpinning our ambivalent approach
to life-after-death, and death-within-life, the crucial calculus crushing in upon the
Anthropocene and our unique psychological imperatives, social duties, and moral
responsibilities thereof: the essence of personal hope within global crisis, not hope
for death, clearly. We persist in our optimisms, for every fathomable reason.
Psychologists attempt to measure hope by breaking it down into various domains.
9
Brian Albuquerque writes that “subjective well-being (SWB) as defined as ‘a person’s
cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life.’”
10
But note the lens through
which psychology attempts to define well-being: it is the person’s well-being. Even
the most ardent, deep eco-psychologist is ineluctably starting from an anthropogenic
centrality, speaking the language of human patients. We all accept the common currency. It’s getting beyond that barter system almost entirely oriented to the Self that
is the colossal sticking point, even as we attempt to extrapolate the modalities of Self
and its well-being into broader contexts—the health of Democracy, of civilization,
the staying power of courtesy, integrity, all of the virtues that our metaphors have
gathered from our observations over long lives surrounded by birdsong.
93.2 The Psychoanalysis of Belief Systems
Confessions of hope betray hidden personal fears and group pressures: homework
versus an expanding universe. All those motivational speeches on battlefields
throughout history—General Eisenhower preparing troops for the invasion of
Normandy, June 6, 1944; President Lincoln speaking to the Ohio Regiment, August
22, 1864; General George Washington to his “rebellious and doubtful army, March
15, 1783”; St. Bernard invoking enthusiasm among his troops for the Second
Crusade in 1146; or Pericles urging his fellow Greeks to go to war against the
Spartans.
11
Then there is the 28th President Woodrow Wilson presenting The Treaty
of Paris to the United States Senate, July 10, 1919, in which he hailed American
“spirit,” “vision,” “the light.” “America shall in truth show the way,” he declared.
12
9 See “What Exactly is Hope and How Can You Measure it?” by K. Hanson, October 24, 2009,
Positive Psychology, http://positivepsychology.org.uk/hope-theory-snyder-adult-scale/. Accessed
February 10, 2020.
10 Citing Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2002). “Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and life satisfaction,” In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Ed.), Handbook of Positive Psychology.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p.63; See Brian Albuquerque, “What is Subjective
Well-Being: Understanding and Measuring Subjective Well-Being,” Positive Psychology, January
16, 2010, http://positivepsychology.org.uk/subjective-well-being/. Accessed February 10, 2020.
11 See Business Insider, “Team Mighty, We Are The Mighty,” June 2, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/16-of-the-best-excerpts-from-the-greatest-military-speeches-ever-given-2015-6.
Accessed February 10, 2020.
12 See Address of the President of the United States to the Senate…July 10, 1919, Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919. Reprinted as “An Address to the Senate (July 10, 1919),”
in Arthur S. Link, ed. et al., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 61, June 19–July 25, 1919,
93 Ecological Idealism
transition to death, is the core truth-value underpinning our ambivalent approach
to life-after-death, and death-within-life, the crucial calculus crushing in upon the
Anthropocene and our unique psychological imperatives, social duties, and moral
responsibilities thereof: the essence of personal hope within global crisis, not hope
for death, clearly. We persist in our optimisms, for every fathomable reason.
Psychologists attempt to measure hope by breaking it down into various domains.
9
Brian Albuquerque writes that “subjective well-being (SWB) as defined as ‘a person’s
cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life.’”
10
But note the lens through
which psychology attempts to define well-being: it is the person’s well-being. Even
the most ardent, deep eco-psychologist is ineluctably starting from an anthropogenic
centrality, speaking the language of human patients. We all accept the common currency. It’s getting beyond that barter system almost entirely oriented to the Self that
is the colossal sticking point, even as we attempt to extrapolate the modalities of Self
and its well-being into broader contexts—the health of Democracy, of civilization,
the staying power of courtesy, integrity, all of the virtues that our metaphors have
gathered from our observations over long lives surrounded by birdsong.
93.2 The Psychoanalysis of Belief Systems
Confessions of hope betray hidden personal fears and group pressures: homework
versus an expanding universe. All those motivational speeches on battlefields
throughout history—General Eisenhower preparing troops for the invasion of
Normandy, June 6, 1944; President Lincoln speaking to the Ohio Regiment, August
22, 1864; General George Washington to his “rebellious and doubtful army, March
15, 1783”; St. Bernard invoking enthusiasm among his troops for the Second
Crusade in 1146; or Pericles urging his fellow Greeks to go to war against the
Spartans.
11
Then there is the 28th President Woodrow Wilson presenting The Treaty
of Paris to the United States Senate, July 10, 1919, in which he hailed American
“spirit,” “vision,” “the light.” “America shall in truth show the way,” he declared.
12
9 See “What Exactly is Hope and How Can You Measure it?” by K. Hanson, October 24, 2009,
Positive Psychology, http://positivepsychology.org.uk/hope-theory-snyder-adult-scale/. Accessed
February 10, 2020.
10 Citing Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2002). “Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and life satisfaction,” In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Ed.), Handbook of Positive Psychology.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p.63; See Brian Albuquerque, “What is Subjective
Well-Being: Understanding and Measuring Subjective Well-Being,” Positive Psychology, January
16, 2010, http://positivepsychology.org.uk/subjective-well-being/. Accessed February 10, 2020.
11 See Business Insider, “Team Mighty, We Are The Mighty,” June 2, 2015, https://www.businessinsider.com/16-of-the-best-excerpts-from-the-greatest-military-speeches-ever-given-2015-6.
Accessed February 10, 2020.
12 See Address of the President of the United States to the Senate…July 10, 1919, Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919. Reprinted as “An Address to the Senate (July 10, 1919),”
in Arthur S. Link, ed. et al., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 61, June 19–July 25, 1919,
93 Ecological Idealism