Eight years ago today, Jay-Z released his album, “The Blueprint,” to rave reviews and fanfare. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and went triple Platinum.

Today, an older, more articulate Jay-Z is releasing “The Blueprint 3” to early fanfare and incredible hype. It will undoubtedly debut at No. 1 on the charts and go platinum.

Not much has changed in eight years. We’re still fighting a war on multiple fronts against an unknown enemy. We still take our shoes off at the airport. “American Idol” is still a network ratings behemoth, albeit with different judges.

Eight years ago, much of the country was afraid. Fear and intimidation paralyzed us into believing we had to attack first without asking questions, that being “American” meant sacrificing personal rights and not holding those in charge accountable, and that torture was okay.

And today, much of the country is still afraid. Afraid of succumbing to a Great Recession, afraid of health care reform that seems just too close to socialism, and afraid that our president not only may not have been born in this country, but may not be a Christian, either.

But something has changed.

We still enjoy listening to Jay-Z’s hypnotic beats and indulging in shameless reality television, and we are still, in large part, afraid of so much in the world. But it’s a different kind of fear.

Because it is a fear that has an army of resistant idealists who believe that yes, things are bad, but we can change that.

In the wake of those events eight years ago that shook the very foundations of our nation, a contingency of young and hopeful everyday Americans emerged from the rubble — a contingency that didn’t want to be stifled by hyperbolic fear.

It’s taken eight years to gain a voice.

Life, and the microcosm of contemporary politics, it seems, swings from side to side, much like a pendulum.

For the past eight years, hope was a ridiculous notion. If you even whispered of it, people would look at you funny.

But hope re-emerged last year, claiming a small victory last November.

Today, it is hope that makes health care reform — the kind that’s failed to succeed since the days of Teddy Roosevelt — seem possible. It is hope that is making us believe that our schools across the country can succeed, and that our students can learn and excel and compete with the best and brightest from any country around the world.

Barack Obama believes it.

“We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant ... But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”

We used to believe in an America where that was true.

Eight years later, I’ve regained that belief. I hope many of you have, too.

Reach Dustin at dustin.volz@asu.edu.