The irrationality of hope?

By and large, we tend to believe that things are true based on evidence. We wake in the morning, the sun is already shining with not a cloud in the sky. This is the third day in a row. Every other day before the day has turned out to be warm and wonderful. There has been a trend of warm sunny days. Each has started the way this one has. We believe today will be the same, for we have some evidence. On another day, some months later, the alarm wakes us to a chill in the air. Peeking through the curtain it's clear the wind is blowing hard. The tall trees are bending. As you open the door to let the dogs out an icy chill grips you. The sky is gunmetal grey, full of snow. On this day to believe it will be warm and sunny is foolishness. It is irrational. Of course, based on the evidence of previous years, we can be pretty sure that there will be warm and sunny days to come, but not for a few months more. In winter to hope of spring is not irrational.
But, what of hope for a better world? For the last few hundred years, in the developed world, we have grown used to things getting better. Governments have based policy on it (borrow now for the better future will pay off our debts). Individual families have based their lives on it (borrow now, and future higher income will take care of the mortgage). In recent years we have encouraged our young people to take out large education loans (the job you are bound to get will take care of the loans). This way of living seemed rational based on past trends. But, as a culture we are wobbling—tottering on the brink of a steep and slippery slope. That the future will be better than the past is beginning to seem more irrational.
I am speaking of the "middle class." There has always been an "underclass"— a substratum of society we don't speak about in polite company. For them the future has never looked bright. More are joining this large group.

Data released a few weeks ago, for the USA, tells us that 49.1 million people are living in poverty. That's the highest number since the government began tracking the figures 52 years ago. (Huffington Post Article)

Still, I hope for a brighter future for the world. I am not thinking of evidence based beliefs, but rather an irrational hope with no evidential base. I make no argument for it. Like Goodness, Hope simply is. It is a deep intuition. Hopelessness gives way to despair and despair crushes the human spirit.

Hope arises deep in the human spirit and makes the unbearable bearable. 

What would a better world look like? Jesus told a story in which he said:

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

That would be a better world. The hungry and thirsty, strangers, the unclothed, the sick, and the incarcerated all cared for. That is not the world we live in. It is not the "better world" that Wall Street seeks of mere increased materiality. It is a better world of justice and fairness, and love and kindness—a world of loving relationships. 

But to hope is not to daydream. To hope is to intuit the future and work toward it. To hope is to choose to act.

+Ab. Andy