Definition of Lost Cause

Some ideals and projects are noble and lofty, but at the same time they seem unattainable. To refer to them we speak of lost causes. Any proposal that has a chimerical or utopian component can be considered in this spectrum.

If someone claims that he is fighting for world peace, it is likely that a interlocutor I replied that his proposal is a lost cause. With this statement a message is conveyed: world peace is something desirable, but it is very likely that it will never happen.

Sometimes the label lost cause is used to refer to ideals of the past that in their time they were defeated and therefore it would not make sense for them to be raised again in the Present.

Certain issues that seemed lost and were finally conquered

For thousands of years, humanity has faced epidemics with ineffective weapons. Prayers and prayers were not helpful in overcoming devastating diseases such as cholera, plague, or malaria. The study and investigation This type of illness initially seemed a lost cause.

However, the tenacity of some people and the need to provide solutions to problems caused a radical change and this type of disease gradually disappeared.

In the United States the population Afro-American origin was subdued and marginalized for centuries. In the early 1960s Martin Luther and other leaders launched an intense campaign to denounce this injustice and to win civil rights for African Americans.

In the first years of protest activity it seemed that it was impossible to achieve full equality rights, but finally a change was achieved in the legislation and blacks in the United States were recognized as citizens with all rights.

The need for utopia

It is said that a draft it is utopian when it is highly unlikely to become a reality. The defense of utopias is presented as a lost cause, as a futile struggle. However, the Utopia it is a longing of the human soul that can inspire men to seek solutions where apparently there are none.

The label of "utopian thinkers" was applied to all those social reformers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who proposed a model of a fairer and more equitable society. Many of his proposals tried to be applied and were unsuccessful, but others have become realities in many territories of the planet (most of these thinkers defended the education universal and at the time they were contemptuously accused of utopians).

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