Rush Limbaugh vs. hope
February 19, 2008 — wickleI only listened to part of Rush Limbaugh’s show this afternoon, and that’s just as well. I listened to him talking about hope, and arguing with one of his listeners — a devoted and excitable fan who desperately wanted Limbaugh to understand that hope is not a bad thing, and certainly not a bad word.
This, by the way, illustrates the real problem that people of faith are going to have with unbelievers, even within the Republican party or conservative movement.
To Rush Limbaugh, “Hope is an Excuse for not Trying.”
Today, he was talking about a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche, “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.”
Before I go too much farther, let me give you an insight into my personality: If I ever find myself agreeing with a philosophical point of Nietzsche, I evaluate my position again to see what I’ve got wrong. A self-described immoralist who pronounced that “God is dead,” he’s not one of the intellectual heavyweights I want on my side in any argument.
Mr. Limbaugh’s view of hope is sitting around wishing that things were different. This, by the way, is a perfectly appropriate point of view for a materialist. Given his point of view, Mr. Limbaugh should look at the world this way — and he should look at hope this way. I’m not even terribly surprised that a postmodern philosopher such as Nietzsche is one of Limbaugh’s sources.
After all, Rush Limbaugh demonstrates nothing on his show as much as the fact that he is a determined materialist. He looks at the world as a product purely of individual efforts, and that emotions are not particularly productive. Nor is there any way under his view to look at a transcendent concept such as hope.
To Nietzsche, hope was an evil because it leaves people thinking that life — or eternity — can be better than it is. (Of course, Limbaugh would agree with that if he actually understood Nietzsche, but I doubt he’d read much more than that one sentence.)
To the Christian, hope is tremendously important. It is, after all, what life is all about.
Friedrich Nietzsche, with Rush Limbaugh’s endorsement, calls hope the worst of evils. I give you some other thoughts on hope:
(All references from the New International Version and copied courtesy of BibleGateway.com):
10God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this case, hope is listed as the goal of filling you up with joy and peace. I would argue that that makes hope rather a valuable thing.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Yes … hope is subordinated to love. But if it’s one of the three things left of value, and subordinated to nothing but love, then that gives it a pretty high place among priorities.
3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Endurance is inspired by hope? Wow … what an interesting idea!
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.
Faith and love spring from hope. These, along with endurance … I think that hope is a very important thing, here.
Of course, I realize that Mr. Limbaugh’s biggest problem with the word “hope” is that liberals say it. However, I’m not willing to let his knee-jerk reaction come out against a good and important virtue …
Especially not since so many Christians take Limbaugh’s views seriously.
February 19, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I don’t like Rush and a minor pox upon you for making me go to the link. I think he makes the point in his narcissistic manner that would’ve been better put as such. Don’t put your hope in man or words. I don’t think he’s up to putting his hopes where you do and that speaks well of you. So you keep hope going strong Wickle and never mind the pox. I hope you stay well.
February 19, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Sorry … I probably should have put up a warning that it is a link to Limbaugh’s site.
Thanks for your kind words.
My biggest problem with Limbaugh is that he is a narcissist and claims to be something else. That’s also why he doesn’t understand words such as “moderate,” “non-partisan,” or such.
February 19, 2008 at 8:35 pm
It’s absolutely unbeleivable that you didn’t even listen to what Rush had to say. I listen (that means using your ears) and he agreed that hope is good if God is involved. It amazes me that you are writing about him yet don’t listen to the whole show or point.
BTW Nietzsche was a genius its seems you haven’t read enough of him. God is dead!
February 19, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Actually, having listened to several years’ worth of Limbaugh, I have learned several things, among them:
- Any mention he makes of God is vacant lip-service.
- He inspires people to insult others with little or no information, such as your comment.
And, yes, Nietzsche was a genius. That doesn’t make him any less wrong. God is very much alive.
February 19, 2008 at 11:35 pm
What Rush said bothered me in that he tried to discredit hope, making it out to be a insubstantial believe in nothing. It was almost as if he thinks it is fluff and unnecessary in life but to give us empty excuse for either not doing something or believing in something without doing anything toward making it happen. What hope is, contrary to what Rush might think, would be the ability to hold belief that something can change for the better while providing an invaluable source of inspiration and motivation to work toward that change. Hope is not a pointless ideal of the lazy who don’t want to make things happen. It is the source of will in all those that choose to do something. Hope is what drives humanity. Without hope for a better tomorrow, which pushes people on every day to try and do better and improve themselves, their lives, and the world, we would be nothing. Hope is indeed second only to love, and in no way is it insubstantial. Rush tries to make the very idea of hope sound taboo and insults Obama for using the term. Whatever Obama’s eventual actions, should he become president, it’s the process of hoping that he will make a good leader, that he will make positive changes, and that the country will become something better that is driving he and those around him. I don’t believe that is an empty ideal. It would seem that hope is very powerful, and it has more depth than a quote from Nietzsche can define. Next Rush will be picking apart the meaning of love because it is distasteful to him. Ironic that someone who is supposed to stand for conservative ideals can’t even grasp the simplest of concepts such as hope. Hope is essential to the very human process of existence. It’s the fuel of life and what makes us want to be better. With our without God, hope remains steadfast. That is why it stands before even faith, and in faith, we also find hope.
So Rush, begrudge us our hope. I’m only sorry that you have none. For why would you want something so pointless as this? Your world must be truly dreary.
February 20, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I never understood Rush (not that I tried too hard) until I learned in a theology class (of all places) that one of his major philosophical influences was Ayn Rand. Now it makes sense.
February 20, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Ayn Rand … yes, … that does explain a lot.
February 20, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I don’t think you understood what he actually said in his agrument with the caller. When the man from Hattiesburg define hope as a theological virtue, call on hope when you have exhausted all you can do and put it in God’s hands, Rush agreed with him. What Rush was upset with is the messianic aspect of some of Obama’s followers who seem to imply that hope in a public official is all you need. Put another way, don’t look to government for your needs, start with yourself. Also, persevere with your efforts. You don’t realise how much you can do.
February 20, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Yes, I understood. I disagree with his definition of hope.
He defined hope as “sitting around hoping for things to get better.” His own website, to which I linked, defines hope as a vice.
I didn’t misunderstand him, I disagree with him.
February 22, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I actually agree with Nietzsche on some topics, but not this one. You are right that hope is much, much, more than wishful thinking. Christian hope gives us a reason to wake up in the morning and do the best we can.
February 23, 2008 at 12:16 am
Since I am the mother of very young children, instead of discussing the ideas of genius philosophers I’ve decided to highlight the thoughts of the most creative animator of vegetables- Phil Vischer. The Veggie Tales episode “The Easter Carol” looks at the question of what our world would be like if we did not have the hope that Easter brings us. Just because it is written to be understood by children does not mean it is not profound.
February 24, 2008 at 10:44 pm
“Remember, ladies and gentlemen, when talking about hope, you can talk about the theological: faith, hope, love, charity, that type of love. We’re talking earthly hope, and earthly hope is simply an excuse, ladies and gentlemen, for not trying. Make no doubt about it.”-Rush
Hope-Rush has taken on himself to give the word two meanings? Depending if you’re a Christian or a non-Christian. Well, the truth is there is only one Hope, and it’s a Christian thing. When Rush talks about “earthly hope”, he isn’t using the right word. What’s the right word then? Maybe “laziness”, maybe “desire”, maybe “despair”, or maybe what he’s talking about is a mix of those three. Anyway, I think he has the right idea about “Theological Hope”, but I think it is a dreadful mental error to call it “Theological Hope”, and thus create two definitions. Calling a giraffe(hope) a squirrel(laziness,despiar,desire) only confuses people and leaves them doubtful of what you’re actually talking about.
March 4, 2008 at 1:38 am
Hope a belief allowing man to rely on a positive outcome. When Nietzsche was talking about hope it was a reference to the worst possible evil mankind would know. Hope is the bane of all things humanity could rely on. Hope has been around long before Christianity. The Greek’s knew of the horror Hope would plague upon the world. Pandora’s Box; around 7th -8th century BC [Before Christ]. When Pandora opened the box (which was more likely a jar) she released all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining— leaving only hope inside. She left hope for it was the worst evil and mankind would have no defense. Of course that interpretation is always under scholarly debate, but that was Nietzsche’s view. And the full quote ‘God is dead’ is a widely quoted and sometimes misconstrued statement the full quote is based on nihilism: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
March 10, 2008 at 10:49 pm
[...] couple weeks ago I wrote about Limbaugh’s issue with hope, and today he was upset about people questioning his integrity. He has called for Republicans to [...]