The beginning days of 2026 are consumed with commentaries about the events of the past year and hopes for things to come. Dr. David DeSteno, a research psychologist, observes that more than 50% of Americans are expressing disillusionment concerning the possible progress for major global challenges. This disillusionment signals the risk of feeling hopeless.
Where is the hope for peace when Donald Trump orders a military mission involving 150 aircrafts that worked to dismantle Venezuelan air defenses so military helicopters could deliver troops to Caracas, the country’s capital? There was significant resistance, with 40 Venezuelans killed, including civilians as well as military personnel. Where is the hope for justice when U.S. forces kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife? Where is the hope for freedom from piracy when Venezuelan oil tankers are threatened and seized? Where is the hope for an end to colonialism when the U.S. president says, “We are going to run the country (Venezuela) right″?
There is little or no hope for America when the president scorns U.S. ethics, makes a mockery of international law, and seeks to use the office of president to enhance his own wealth. He has proven unfit to be the President of the United States and has destroyed faith in the role of the executive branch of the government. In essence, he has abdicated his presidency and taken with him his appointees to leadership positions in the government. The executive office is peppered with pseudo leaders who have abandoned the American vision. “Truth, justice, and the American way” have been relegated to the 40s episodes of Superman.
In order to avoid being overwhelmed by the hopeless situation in the executive branch of government, we might take guidance from the oppressed Palestinian Christians. There is wisdom in their proclamation, A Moment of Truth: “hear our cry of hope in the absence of all hope.” The experience of powerlessness under occupation seems to have destroyed any
hope of obtaining freedom. However, their helplessness is not hopelessness.
DeSteno for the New York Times quotes the words of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, “Freeing hope from our egos frees us from despair. To hope is to do good without expectation that we can make it so. It is to resist the darkness daily, whatever may come.” He continues, “it’s unwise to base hope on the belief that if we just work hard enough, we can reach any goal. The Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas cautioned that a feeling of hope that rests on trust in our own power is often misguided.”
In summary, there does exist hope that not only eases despair, but also motivates action. The old adage “hope springs eternal,” coined by Alexander Pope in An Essay on Man, reminds us, for example, that a hoped-for goal of transforming the office of the presidency into a place of honesty, solid ethics and virtuous action does not need to be dismissed as hopeless. Nor does ending the current wars raging in and among nations. Yes, it may seem to be impossible to maintain hope for a transformation of the presidency and international relationships in this New Year. Yet, hope lives on for ourselves and our neighbors. We may find hope in people’s aspirations to do good. And then, perhaps in some future year, the powerful will follow the people’s lead. “Hope springs eternal.”
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds
Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.