Everything Is F*cked: A Book about Hope 

By Mark Mason

This book flection is written and narrated by Leigh Martinuzzi 

Mark Mason is a blogger, author and entrepreneur. Having not read any of his previous work and only hearing him speak here and there I was a little sceptical about the contents of this book. The tittle I thought may have just been a hook into a time warp of purposeless information. I was wrong! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how Everything Is Fucked and our desperate search for hope. 

Hope – a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

It seems like hope is much aligned with desire. We hope that we will earn more money, be more successful, fitter, attract better-looking mates, win the loto, get the weekend to enjoy with family, find a gold coin under the pier and so on. There is an almost always underlying feeling of hope. Is it desperation? Perhaps not always, often hope is mild and muffled by our constant busyness. If things are dire, hope may be more prominent. In day to day life hope exists.

I’ve thought a lot about desires recently and even written an article about it. To avoid repeating myself take a read yourself here. In a nutshell, our constant desires put us in a never-ending race of wanting more. Sometimes we achieve what we desire and sometimes we don’t. When we do we are momentarily satisfied until the hunger for more re-emerges. The more we desire, the more we achieve, the more we desire. Hope for something else comes about. If we don’t reach what we desire, our hope becomes stronger. In both cases, the chase is a cause for much of our underlying pain and suffering. It is unnecessary.  

I strongly believe that desire is sufferable. Hope is what takes us away from enjoying the moment to moment existence of our life, for all its pleasure and pain. Mark Mason clarifies much of this beautifully and reinforces my thoughts about life’s web of desires and their pursuit. Explained using tonnes of psychological research and timeless philosophical wisdom Mark brings clarity, directness and a bit of humour to the core of what I believe to be a very important topic. 

Why I feel its important? As Mark highlights, the world has never been a better place to live. For many of us the quality of life has improved well beyond belief. However, there is a deep sickness lurking. Depression, suicide, drug problems are rife and there is this greedy hunger for success, money and fame that seems to create a little turbulence and unease amongst society and our various cultures. Despite how good things are there is an underlying suckiness about life and the side-effect of this, for most of us, means that we are missing out on life. 

Of course, we are not really missing out, we just think we are. This ever-persistent pursuit of desires and this suckiness that makes us feel like we are missing out creates a stronger burning feeling, carving for hope. Hope is not what we need. I think I’m on the same page as Mark when I say this but hope is bullshit. 

Life is in this moment and we need to savour all the joy, peace, luxury, greatness, pain, suckiness and suffering of every single moment. That is life. That is important. We will all at some point die regardless of any hope we may have of living forever. So why not enjoy what is now. Hope is not a good strategy for business, and definitely not a good strategy for life. 

It is best not to live in hope. Not to live being consumed and pained by our desires. Not to abandon the present to live within a space of what isn’t. A preconceived and false reality. No, it is best to live with virtue and virtue is discovered not by being wisped away by dreams of hope but by being clear and present with what is now. 

I will wrap this up with a few words by Mark. 

So, instead of looking for hope, try this: 

Don’t hope. 

Don’t despair, either. 

In fact, don’t deign to believe you know anything. 

Don’t hope for better. Just be better. 

Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined. 

Be a better human. 

Perhaps then we will note only realise but finally embrace the Uncomfortable Truth: that we imagined our own importance, we invented our purpose, and we were, and still are, nothing. 

All along, we were nothing. 

And maybe then, only then, will the eternal cycle of hope and destruction come to an end. 

If this book sounds of interest you can purchase Everything Is F*cked: A Book about Hope here.

Please leave your thoughts, comments & questions below.

Peace, passion and purpose…

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