the.com/despair
the brain's smoke alarm screaming that hope, somewhere, was once installed.
means The complete loss or absence of hope, often paired with a sinking conviction that things cannot get better.
from From Latin 'desperare,' literally 'to be without hope' — 'de-' (away, without) plus 'sperare' (to hope), which comes from 'spes,' hope itself. It reached English through Old French 'desespeir.' So buried in the word is its own opposite: you can only despair of something you once hoped for.
- latin root
- De-sperare: literally to be without hope
- deadly sin
- Medieval church ranked it among the gravest
- kierkegaard
- Called it 'the sickness unto death'
- physical toll
- Chronic despair measurably raises inflammation markers
- hidden flip
- Requires having cared enough to lose
the great depression — us unemployment reached 25% in 1933, causing widespread economic collapse and homelessness
the holocaust — nazi genocide killed 6 million jews and millions of others, 1933-1945
the lost decade japan — japan's economy stagnated from 1991-2001 after asset bubble burst, creating mass unemployment