The clock has struck midnight. 2025 has passed, and 2026 has arrived. Firecrackers were already bursting in celebration.
If this is merely a ritual, like Deepavali, there is little to comment on. Otherwise, I find 2025 to have been a dismal year, weighed down by relentless odds—perhaps the worst year I have personally witnessed.
2025 can be summed up as a year in which human misery was amplified by three reinforcing forces: war, concentration of wealth, and religious divisiveness.
Wars: Armed conflicts in 2025 were less about decisive victories and more about prolonged suffering. Wars dragged on without clear resolutions, turning civilians into permanent collateral damage. Cities were reduced to ruins, displacement became normalized, and humanitarian aid struggled to keep pace with destruction. What stood out was not merely the number of conflicts, but the way endurance itself became a weapon—through blockades, attrition, and economic strangulation that hurt ordinary people far more than armies.
Concentration of wealth: While war and instability impoverished millions, wealth continued to pool at the top. Markets recovered faster than livelihoods. A small global elite benefited from financial instruments, technology, and crisis-driven profits, while inflation, job insecurity, and debt squeezed the middle and lower classes. The contrast became stark: luxury coexisted with hunger, and record corporate and individual wealth figures appeared alongside deepening inequality. The sense that the global economic system rewards capital over human effort intensified public resentment.
Religious divisiveness: Religion, instead of offering moral restraint or solace, was often weaponized. Identity politics hardened along religious lines, turning faith into a marker of exclusion rather than compassion. In several societies, religious narratives were used to justify violence, discrimination, or political control. Social media amplified outrage, reducing complex realities to “us versus them.” The result was an erosion of pluralism and a shrinking space for moderate, humane voices.
The deeper pattern: What tied these trends together in 2025 was a collapse of shared empathy. Wars were tolerated because they happened “elsewhere.” Inequality was justified in the name of efficiency or merit. Religious division was excused as cultural preservation. Misery did not stem from a single catastrophe, but from the normalization of suffering—when injustice became background noise.
In short, 2025 was not merely a year of crises, but a year in which humanity appeared increasingly comfortable living with them.
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*Singapore-based professional
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