Hope and illusion at humanity’s crossroads

As 2025 draws to a close, some countries are ending yet another year amid the smoke of war. All people seek peaceful and prosperous lives. Around a family dinner table, laughter and humor rarely fade. Children bicker, a father may frown, and a mother may grow irritated, yet a family that weathers such daily commotion together remains, at its core, harmonious. A neighbor who stops by with a simple dish watches the scene with quiet envy and leaves with a gentle smile.

As Christmas approaches, city streets are filled with people who are busy and lonely. Glittering streets and flashing shop windows often deepen that loneliness, intensifying feelings of isolation rather than easing them. Even so, hope for the future persists in the form of quiet longing, helping people endure. There were times, and soldiers, who clung to such hope while shivering in the cold of dark trenches. The belief that something might change with the sunrise or by the next day may have amounted to little more than an irrational illusion. Still, the resolve to hold on to hope has repeatedly proven to be the force that nudges the world toward a better tomorrow.

Elsewhere in the world, another illusion takes hold. It is the belief that by cursing, eliminating or taking revenge on something, a more peaceful, stable and just society will somehow emerge. Soldiers in frontline trenches harbored such thoughts. So did people raising glasses at lavish tables, and others voicing the same sentiments while standing in dark alleys.

The moments of happiness people dream of are largely the same, but the paths chosen to reach them differ. So do judgments about what obstructs happiness in the world and how those obstacles should be removed. These differences in approach give rise to social anger, riots and war. Amid the destruction they unleash and the pain that accompanies the erosion of humanity, some cling to modest dreams, while others surrender to delusional rage. Today, the world is witnessing a surge of impulsive anger and violent illusions. The year 2026 appears poised to become a testing ground for humanity.