I was going through a website detailing the lives of people living in concentration camps during WW-2. I came across this para from a guy in Auschwitz Concentration Camp which was supposed to be the most notorious camp of the type. The para goes...

"Despite the madness of war, we lived for a world that would be different. For a better world to come when all this is over. And perhaps even our being here is a step towards that world. Do you really think that, without the hope that such a world is possible, that the rights of man will be restored again, we could stand the concentration camp even for one day? It is that very hope that makes people go without a murmur to the gas chambers, keeps them from risking a revolt, paralyses them into numb inactivity. It is hope that breaks down family ties, makes mothers renounce their children, or wives sell their bodies for bread, or husbands kill. It is hope that compels man to hold on to one more day of life, because that day may be the day of liberation. Ah, and not even the hope for a different, better world, but simply for life, a life of peace and rest. Never before in the history of mankind has hope been stronger than man, but never also has it done so much harm as it has in this war, in this concentration camp. We were never taught how to give up hope, and this is why today we perish in gas chambers."

To think about the plight of the people living there is a bloodcurdling experience in itself but to think of the really important ideas that come up from these experiences is another. Dont we all live on that thin string of hope that binds us to what we want to achieve. Had it not been for hope, would I have ever thought of becoming an MBA and spending 2 more years of my life studying? It is just the hope of making it big after doing this course that i am actually doing it. Same can be said for everyone in this world.....cant it?