In recent decades, museums of illusion have become a true trademark of world tourism – no matter where you go, you can always visit one. Paris, Vilnius, Barcelona, Vienna, Krakow, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Osaka, Shanghai, Cape Town, Nairobi, Sydney… Just listing these cities would take up almost the entire content of this text. And in this industry, there is a certain sign of our times – people increasingly want to escape from reality, from computer games to corresponding museums…
If we look carefully at the situation, we will see that our entire life now passes in a museum of illusion. Ukrainians, or at least the vast majority, were under the illusion that Russia would never attack Ukraine, and this belief continued to astonishingly shape their perception of reality, or to be more precise, antireality, even after the occupation of Crimea and Donbas. Putin continues to live under the illusion of inevitable victory over Ukraine, and I don’t know if he gave up in these four years on the belief that Ukrainians dream of the arrival of Russian troops.
In 2014, Putin, commenting on the possibility of deploying his troops to Ukraine, said, “let some of the Ukrainian military try to shoot at their people, – Russian military will stand behind the people, not in front, but behind”. And I wrote an article about this, in which I talked about the readiness of the Russian president to use Ukrainian women and children as a human shield for his army.
So, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation turned to the corporation on whose resources my text was published, accusing me of slander and manipulating Putin’s words: saying that he meant that women and children themselves would wish to stand in front of the Russian army! And of course, I regarded this claim by Russian diplomats as blatant mockery. But later, when I saw how Putin planned his “blitzkrieg” and parade, I realized that they might not have been joking – they simply lived in “their” reality.
But let’s return to the world of illusions. Trump lives in the illusion of agreements with Putin and mutual profits. I don’t know if Zelensky still lives in the illusion that he can convince Putin of something during a personal meeting, but the fact is that he imagined the beginning of his presidency in this illusory light. Ordinary people in many countries of the world massively and confidently vote for crooks and scoundrels who paint them beautiful pictures instead of offering political programs. Why then visit the museum of illusions and spend money, I simply do not understand.
Thanks to the triumph of new information technologies and the skillful control of old adventurers over the algorithms of presenting information, people stop distinguishing illusion from reality. In 2019, during Zelensky’s triumph, many lamented that Ukrainians voted for a TV series, not for a political position. But in 2026, voting for a series looks almost like a triumph of common sense because a large part of people is ready to vote for a frame from TikTok.
You may ask yourself, what can a person of my profession do, except accept the challenge and compete on the new information field with an army of incompetent idiots who simply tell people what they want to hear so as not to leave the world of their own creations and own ignorance. And can I seriously hope to win in a world of self-obsessed billionaires and dumb “influencers”?
Of course, I intend to win. Moreover, I am confident in my victory. And do you know why? Because reality exists!
In a museum of illusion, a huge truck might come at you – and there will be no consequences. On the street, that is, in real life, you will not even leave a wet spot. In the museum of illusion, you – and yourself – will be convinced that Putin will not dare to attack us. In real life, our cities will be bombed, we will be killed and frozen. In the museum of illusion, Ukrainians will greet Russian tankers with flowers and dances, in real life they will kill them.
Do you understand now how illusion differs from real life? Yes, you understand. Ukrainians are one of the first peoples who are now forced to live in a completely real world, no matter what illusions accompany our lives. But do not doubt, soon there will be many such peoples.
I am confident in victory precisely because I know: no illusion can defeat reality. I know this not only from the time when I took up the journalistic profession but from the time I remember myself. I might be told that humanity has always lived by faith – and nothing. But let’s not confuse concepts. Faith acquires meaning only when it is accompanied not by words and parables, but by actions and a willingness to sacrifice oneself. If you do not trust me, mentally ask Jesus Christ, he will explain everything to you.
So if you feel lonely in the world of reality, do not be afraid. Illusion can never win, even if it is capable of electoral successes and revelries on social networks. Life will always win over both death and lies – that is why you should be on its side if you want to survive and not lose yourself.
Collage: Uğur Gallenkuş
