2026 – THE WAY I SEE IT

Alok Mukherjee, © January 3, 2026

Dear Readers and Supporters: This is my first blog post of 2026. It is a somewhat delayed reflection on the new year, relevant all the same! The piece was first published on January 4 in the wonderful online publication, Countercurrents, from India.

We are the hollow men

T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”

The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.

Antonio Gramsci

The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.

Hannah Arendt

January 1, 2026 – my “Happy New Year” message on social media, and to family and friends:

Some responses:

“Amen”

“2025 is probably the darkest time.”

“I agree, very well said.”

“Yes, indeed, Alok.”

“Alok, given the events of today [January 3], you are right. We are living in a completely upside down world and may god help us.”

And an extended conversation with a good friend and comrade (GFC):

GFC:  Well we have Mamdani to celebrate!

Me:    Do we?

GFC:  Yes! And a similar Mayor in Seattle also sworn in yesterday.

Me:    I don’t live in the US and election of a couple of mayors will make no difference to the behavior of those US institutions that are threats to the world – the President, the Congress, the CIA, the Military, the billionaires, especially the Zionists among them, etc etc etc. Nor, finally, will it make any difference to quality of life or politics in Canada!

GFC: But but but . . . what happened to “Humanity will not only survive, but prevail.” [Reminding me of my quote from Southern US novelist William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech of December 10,1950 in Stockholm. The full passage from which this sentence is reproduced, a bit inaccurately, is cited at the end of this blog.[i] Ironically, I had quoted Faulkner’s line to express reassurance in humanity’s future during these dark days!]

If we don’t have hope what will happen? Mamdani has a tall order to take on the millionaires and the Zionists. He is off to a good start.

Me:    I wish Zohran all the very best. His election as well as of the person in Seattle is great. I hope to the bottom of my heart that they will succeed, will not go the way of Bernie Sanders, AOC, Obama etc., won’t be killed and will prevail. But, but, but. What does it mean for the world, or, even, for us next door? My hope does not come from little blips in USofA. It comes from how the Global South is changing and asserting. It comes from watching the decline of the imperial, colonial powers with hegemonic hopes.

Big contests are happening; they will get bigger. There will be big contradictions. Those who cling to orthodoxies of one stripe or another will be swept away. I look forward to it.

[This exchange ended at 10:45 pm of January 2. But I couldn’t sleep and continued as follows at 2 am of January 3.]

Me:    It is almost 2 am and I am wide awake. Why? Because I don’t have hope. I wish all the best to Zohran, and I very much hope our children and grandchildren will have a world in which to grow up and prosper. But I am terrified from the way the morons, monsters and moral zombies who rule over us are acting.

What are we doing really to leave a good world for our children and grandchildren? I am happy for Zohran, but it is not enough. And it’s beyond you and me. So, I am up.

[Well, I did make an effort to catch some sleep. My next message was at 7 am.]

Me:    Maduro captured. US troops on the ground in Caracas. Should we still celebrate local wins?

GFC: Yes, following since 5 am. [Obviously, neither of us were in the frame of mind to get much sleep. Besides, years ago, my friend had spent a good bit of time in Venezuela, as a staffer in the President’s team. My last message at 4:20 pm.]

Me:    So, like in Iraq, in Venezuela the US goons, thugs and murderers blew up Hugo Chavez’s mausoleum.

Finally, the day’s last post and a short exchange with a dear old friend (DOF) from my university days:

My last post of January 3, relevant to this piece, came at around 7 pm, when I made the following remark on social platforms as a reflection on the past years’ events leading up to the illegal, criminal action in Venezuela on US President Donald Trump’s orders. The so-called liberal, democratic western world has either kept its voice muted or cheered Trump on. It is a safe bet that except another passionate, seemingly angry, and concerned bout of handwringing and speech-making in the UN Security Council, nothing much will be done by the world that calls itself the guardian of civilization, human rights, democracy, rule of law, etc. I use the phrase “monsters, morons and moral zombies” to refer to the leaders of this world. So, the post:

Peace is but an occasional episode in between wars. The so-called Rules Based International Order (RBIO) was the product of the most recent interregnum that began after WWII. The demise of RBIO coincides with the end of this interregnum.

DOF:  I totally agree! It started more than 4 years ago and now it has just gone to the next level.

To conclude:

I apologize for my inability to be light-hearted and wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

To do so would be to lie.

The world today is not a healthy, happy and prosperous place. Nor is it a place of peace. Genocide goes unchecked. Those mandated to stop it are threatened, bullied and sanctioned. Those doing these and their friends and allies are enabling the genocide with money, arms, suppression of domestic dissent, extensive surveillance against their own people, other means. An avalanche of bad faith, untruth, grift, racism, and power hunger; of ignorance and incompetence; of blatant corruption, inequality, uncaring for the poor, the unhoused, the vulnerable; of coercion, excessive use of force, criminalization of ordinary expressions of dissent, mass scale surveillance, and intrusion in people’s personal lives marks the global social-political-economic order. Our leaders, never as unpopular among their peoples as now, lack honour, honesty and moral courage; we, the people, neither trust them nor the systems they control.

The liberal democratic order has become illiberal.

But what concerns me the most is this: people like us, who live far from the zones of conflict, whose lives are not in imminent danger, are nonetheless extremely disturbed, not at peace, not as productive as we could or should be, not enjoying a feeling of safety and belonging, etc.

I do not exaggerate.

I have heard many, many reputed, respected and recognized experts, scholars, academics, activists and media people say how they are mentally and psychologically affected negatively, how they find it hard to concentrate and focus, how they are less productive than they normally had been, and so on. It was re-enforcing and reassuring to know, hearing them, that I was not exaggerating or that my difficulty being productive and at peace was not an exception but, in fact, a common condition.

And, yet, the monsters, morons and moral zombies who rule over us either have no awareness of or no concern for the damage their actions are doing to those in whose name and with whose money they exercise power.

I see no prospect that 2026 will be better than the year we left behind. The prospects for any hope for things to get better are, indeed, “dim.”

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[i] Excerpt from William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for Literature banquet speech, Stockholm, December 10, 1950:

I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.