We Have To Grow To Reach Social Justice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On one hand people are coming out to the streets demanding equality and justice, certain that they can achieve it. On the other hand, we call these demands utopian and unrealistic. How can we let them understand that what they desire cannot be attained by force, but only through upbringing, unification, and mutual guarantee?

Answer: To them social justice means looting the cashboxes of the rich and giving out the contents. “We’ll pounce on the tycoons and finish them off.”

But we say, “No, first you have to understand the reason for what is happening.” Global tendencies are unraveling right before our very eyes and the problem here is not just stratification into the rich and poor, but a multi-faceted crisis. So let’s understand what this crisis really is. You see for yourselves that you won’t achieve anything through revolutions or by artificially distributing the resources. Real examples of this are modern Egypt, 20th century Russia, and Israeli kibbutzes. You will never achieve success by disrupting the natural flow of things.

Therefore, our answer is unification, especially if the issue at stake today is social justice and fairness. But how can we unite? Let’s study this question, and let’s learn to do it correctly. If our initiatives are aimed at justice, equality, and general balance, then is it possible to realize this without unification of people? In this case the means does not match the objective we have set.

Do you want to make everyone equal? First bring your desire, your foundations into concordance with this. Otherwise you and your group of a thousand people just want to establish your own social justice, but there is another group of two thousand people who have their own idea about justice. New groups are continually springing up, and the process is joined by the army, the government, unions, and tycoons, while in the meantime the enemies are shrewdly crawling up to the boundaries, and they have their own idea of justice.

So how will all of this end? What do you want to do? Can you attain the goal without balancing out all of the contradictions, without attaining mutual guarantee? Is it possible to build anything solid until everyone understands that they depend on one another and have to support one another? Only within this mutual guarantee will we reveal justice.

We cannot just give out money to someone. Is that just? There has to be a social consensus, a general agreement. And therefore, we say: First of all, we have to start a discussion, take each other’s interests into account, and unite. Mutual guarantee is what we need. If we attain it, then we will be able to keep going. But before we do, there are only conflicts and mutual deception ahead for us.

Question: I agree, this sounds logical. However, the notion of mutual guarantee still seems abstract. It’s unclear how to implement it….

Answer: That means you still aren’t able to convince people that without this condition, it is impossible to address anything else. You have not discerned this for yourself yet and have not demonstrated it to others as an indestructible foundation without which we cannot build anything.

Let everyone try to prove you wrong; you still have to accept only this condition: that we won’t manage without total mutual agreement on the fact that every person depends on everyone and everyone depends on every person. When we all agree with the general principles, then we will be able to find the right solution.

No matter what we desire—be it social justice, equality, mutuality, or unification, this is possible only on the condition that we all get together at a round table, that the whole nation sits down around it and reaches all-around agreement. Without this, we won’t budge an inch.

People will say, “But that’s impossible!” But how do you know: No one has tried it yet. One way or another, without this, only dictatorial methods will work.

In reality this is impossible only because we lack upbringing or social influence. This is what we have to form.

If the critical condition for future prosperity is impossible to fulfill today, that means we have to work on dissemination, explaining to people what mutual guarantee is and how to attain it. We have to involve the mass media, use every possible channel of influence, and show every person that this is the most important thing for us. This is integral upbringing, by virtue of which we will attain agreement, unity, and mutual understanding, and then we will take the next steps.

We must gradually build the phases of the path, showing people that it is impossible to act otherwise. Without the initial period of upbringing, it is impossible to go on to realizing the mutual guarantee because people must be internally ready for it.
[57112]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/11, “Peace in the World”

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