I dreamt that I took part in a large research project concerning individual and collective behavior in face of adversity. The research showed that the greater the disaster that befalls an individual or a group, the greater the optimism about the future, and thus the greater the willingness to fight for it. This made a great deal of evolutionary sense, and it was therefore not surprising. The surprising bit of the research showed that the opposite was also true: the greater the wellbeing of an individual or a group, the greater the pessimism about the future. Under the circumstances, every threat only deepened the growing despondency and unwillingness to confront the threat. In early stages of human development such conditions were extremely rare, but economic development and the concomitant social development have created a new paradox. When I woke up, I realized that my dream smacked of my thinking a bit too much. I love to talk about my generation as most optimistic of all on account of World War II that just ended. All we had was optimism about the future. But the dream was still so exciting that I could not fall asleep again. I had to write it down as soon as possible lest I forgot any important detail.