"We are by nature messianic. We cannot not be, because we exist in a state of expecting something to happen. Even if we're in a state of hopelessness, a sense of expectation is an integral part of our relationship to time."
- Jacques Derrida
It was statements such as this that inspired me to reexamine the philosophy of Derrida, whom I once took, because it was common knowledge in my circles, to be an enemy of truth--really the enemy #1, whose lies and deceptions I would uncover and expose to the light of truth that I had in my possession. In other words, my true philosophy.
I can credit Derrida, among others, with helping me to see that what I lived was not the virtue of hope, but a sense of optimism that I held the secret in my certain philosophy. My hope was in myself; it was a hope that could never be a virtue, let alone a theological virtue. Strange it was the an "atheist" showed me the fragility of all things human, and that if I were to have hope in anything, it would have to be in something radically other than myself, something undeconstructable.
Derrida believed there were some things that could not be deconstructed, such as friendship, justice, and the "name of God." I believe that in the end, when we speak of friendship, justice, and the name of God, we are speaking of the same thing, and it is in that that we can have hope.