Question: At this time, what particular part of relationships between men and women is “impaired” by the crisis?

Answer: The crisis hits all levels: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. We are not paying attention to this fact, nor do we investigate it much. Our world outlook is not integral yet. We don’t understand what other spheres of life undergo the crisis except recognizing it in the human society, specifically in the financial and economic spheres.

However, the crisis does involve animals and plants, but in a way that we simply don’t notice. If not for the crisis, then why does a huge number of species vanish? Every day, as reported in the literature, several species become extinct.

Of course, the crisis is mostly noticeable in relationships among people; typically, we feel it through ourselves. Interaction among people is crucial and defining; we stopped understanding each other correctly and became internally detached; therefore, we now are incapable of finding common points of connection when solving any kinds of problems.

We make international plans and domestic policies, but then again we are the ones who break them and run around in circles.

Our growing egoism requires integral solutions, mutual interactions, common comfort, reciprocal involvement, and general connection between us; first, we should unite, and as a result of our unity there will emerge a new idea, a new tool for developing technology, economic, and finances. We don’t do this.

We do not unite, nor do we create new instruments for management that stem from our unity, that’s why there is no management whatsoever. We make new plans in education and upbringing that do not originate from our unity, and that’s why they do not work. We are the ones who create the surroundings that impact us: TV programs, movies, etc. that do not stem from our connection; thus, we tremendously damage the society we live in by splitting it even more and setting wrong values.

At all levels of life, the root of the problem is the human being. Instead of correcting this problem by changing people, we use our conventional methods; that is, we “enforce and encourage” by referring either to police or money; it is called “love and hunger rule the world.” However, this pattern doesn’t work any longer. Our egoism doesn’t react to it.

We could have treated our ego in a different way, as a bear in the circus that gets a spoonful of honey instead of sugar, but it’s not enough for our ego. The “bear” in us refuses to work under these conditions; it needs a totally different approach, a new system of interaction and governance, though we do not realize it yet. That’s why the crisis in fact is a misunderstanding of the system of forces within which we find ourselves.

Of course, the main thing is the family. The fact that the family is practically disappearing sets the example for a new generation; it doesn’t seem too terrible to us yet. “So what… Instead of seven billion people we’ll end up having only two. What’s wrong with it?” However, we don’t understand that it is not a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, people are becoming more and more like “barbarians,” they accept everything that happens around them without much ado.

At some point several centuries ago, we were considered barbarians, but it wasn’t actual barbarity, but rather our developmental stage. Today, we outgrew all possible cultural thresholds and acquired every cultural value, but once again we are turning into barbarians regardless of our values; it’s quite different—it’s degradation. So, at this point integral upbringing is simply indispensable.
[84469]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 7/8/12

Related Material:
Barbarism In The Modern World
Egoistic Rivalry
Egoism Is Changing Its Form

Filed under: Crisis, Education, Integral Upbringing, Q&A, Society | Add Comment →