Aren't there levels of hope, from reasonable expectations up to "beyond all possibilities"?! And is there not a hierarchy of goods attained while in this state of hopefulness? From those attained because we were hopeful (presuming this were possible) to those attained regardless of the expectation. I believe it is true that hope itself is not a weakness but rather the application of it is susceptible to overuse --- for example: "I sure hope we get home in time to see the Superbowl!" versus "I couldn't feed my children and I would have lost all hope if it were not for the kindness of strangers"...
Mundane references give "hope" a bad name I think. The same could be said of "love" I suppose, or even the simple acknowledgements we use from day to day. How might we respond if someone told us the truth when we asked them "How are you doing?" We might discover the real meaning of expectations and disappointments but better perhaps our potential for compassion...
The weakness then lies more in our lack of response to suffering...
More than becoming less humane we are becoming more predatory... consider that even government becomes predatory as it is either incapable of challenging or colludes with the merciless speculative aggregating powers that are destroying families everywhere on earth --- and the sustainability of life on earth for that matter! Mere hope cannot stop these beasts! ...
I do not believe human beings on the whole to be thoroughly trustworthy creatures. We are at root creatures after all... What is predictable is that we can be unpredictable. We can only hope that another's actions will incidentally favor us...
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