Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/14/22
Posted on October 14th, 2022
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Medium published my new article “The Facade of Internet Neutrality Exposed”
After years of avoiding this sensitive issue, the US Supreme Court finally agreed this month “to decide whether social media platforms may be sued despite a law that shields the companies from legal responsibility for what users post on their sites,” writes The New York Times. “The case, brought by the family of a woman killed in a terrorist attack, argues that YouTube’s algorithm recommended videos inciting violence. …Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law intended to nurture … the internet. …The law said that online companies are not liable for transmitting materials supplied by others. Section 230 also helped enable the rise of huge social networks like Facebook and Twitter by ensuring that the sites did not assume new legal liability with every new tweet, status update and comment.”
However, the freedom from liability seems to have been abused. “A growing group of bipartisan lawmakers, academics and activists have grown skeptical of Section 230,” continues the story, “and say that it has shielded giant tech companies from consequences for disinformation, discrimination and violent content that flows across their platforms.” However, according to the plaintiffs, “The platforms forfeit their protections when their algorithms recommend content, target ads or introduce new connections to their users.”
This may sound like a legal battle over power and control, but Section 230 can cost lives. “In one case,” continues the newspaper story, “the family of an American killed in a terrorist attack sued Facebook, claiming that its algorithm had bolstered the reach of content produced by Hamas.” The lawsuit was rejected but one judge said “Facebook’s algorithmic suggestions should not be protected by Section 230.”
Freedom of the internet is a problem. Because human nature pushes us to exploit whatever we can for our own good, when tech giants can exploit a platform by promoting content that will increase their income, no morals will inhibit them. As a result, they promoted videos of ISIS beheadings, and other gruesome acts of terror to people they identified as potential sympathizers. The lawsuit claims that promoting such content not only boosts sales for tech giants, but also encourages potential terrorists to act.
There is certainly a need to restrain circulation of violent videos or content that incite to violence. Also, one of the arguments against social media is that if they target specific content to specific people, they are no longer uninvolved “billboards,” as they claim, but active players in shaping the minds of those using their platforms.
On the one hand, it is impossible to return to the days when there was no targeting. On the other hand, who will decide to what extent to target and by what criteria? After all, we are all subject to the same weaknesses that tempt social media giants to misuse their platforms. How, then, can we guarantee that whoever is in charge of monitoring content will not fall prey to the same errors as the owners of social media platforms?
The only solution I can see is to launch a comprehensive, thorough, and long-term educational process that will make us aware of our interconnectedness. Only if we realize, at the deepest level of our being, that when we hurt others, we hurt ourselves, will we stop exploiting, oppressing, bullying, and otherwise harming one another.
At the moment, we are nowhere near the understanding that we need this process. We are persistently and insistently pushing ourselves down a tunnel that will end in a nuclear world war. If we launch this educational process in time, we will reverse the trend that we are on. If we do not, we will inflict inconceivable suffering on each other until we realize that we are dependent on each other.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “A Hard Awakening – There Is Antisemitism on the Left”
The 2022 report by the policy planning think tank Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), titled Annual Assessment: The Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People, has revealed many things about the current state of world Jewry. Particularly, it has acknowledged a painful truth: While there is antisemitism on the Right, there is more of it on the Left, it is more sinister, and more institutionalized. Now we can talk about the peril that lurks for the Jews in the “enlightened” Left.
It may be surprising but the US, France, the UK, and Germany, certainly among the strongholds of democracy, are also today’s most active hotbeds of antisemitism. This is true not only in terms of antisemitic attacks, but also, and perhaps mainly, in terms of ideological justification for hatred of Jews, the Jewish state, and excommunicating them from the circles of society.
For example, the report talks about “Normalization of the antisemitic discourse,” where “Antisemitic discourse is becoming normalized and is penetrating mainstream national politics on university campuses and on the street,” with “a clear rise in anti-Israel or anti-Zionist expressions from progressive groups that have significantly crossed into antisemitic territory.”
Worse yet, “Identity politics in the progressive discourse places Jews into the ‘oppressors’ camp (white skin color, social privilege, and power). On this basis, Jewish support for Israel is sometimes equated with complicity with racist policies.”
Western Europe, too, is experiencing “progressive” antisemitism. In France, Muslims and progressives rise above the ideological chasm between them and unite for the “noble” cause of bashing Israel and Jews. “The growing recognition of the cardinal role of Islamist antisemitism in the resurgence of Judeophobia is challenged by ‘woke’ ideology and the intersectionality movement, which jumped from academic theory into left-wing political activism,” details the report. “This ideology incorporates a post-modern corpus of theories, a fusion of the Frankfurt school’s neo-Marxist ideas and the ‘French theory’ that garnered considerable academic truck (sic) in the United States beginning in the 1980s. The common fight against imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and widespread class stratification has thus manifested itself in a convergence of struggles between the radical left and radical Islam, and has in some cases translated into virulent antisemitism.”
Across the channel, the UK is experiencing its own wave of woke antisemitism. “Jewish communities perceive a lack of support in combating antisemitic phenomena,” says the report, “particularly within progressive left circles. British Jews grapple with a frequently imposed framing of Jews in progressive discourse. This framing is an obstacle to fighting antisemitism and contributes significantly to failures to recognize and stand against antisemitism among the broader left.”
I am glad that the cloak of civility has been lifted, or is at least beginning to be lifted from the face of the Left. The “civilized” and “enlightened” nations have always been our worst oppressors. This was true in antiquity, when Babel demolished the first Kingdom of Israel, and Rome demolished the second. It was also true in the late Middle Ages with the Spanish Inquisition, and in the previous century with Germany’s Third Reich.
As the report details, public figures on the Left do not portray themselves as antisemitic. Instead, they disguise their venom behind highbrow contentions of injustice to Palestinians, migrants, people of color, underprivileged population groups, gender equality, and everything and anything related to identity politics. However, the implicit, and sometimes explicit culprit will almost always somehow turn out to be Jewish, the Jews as a whole, or the Jewish state.
This is not antisemitism from the street, from the populace; it is institutional antisemitism, antisemitism as a policy and as a political instrument. Antisemitism from the street is violent, and can be homicidal. Institutional antisemitism is suave, and can be genocidal.
Besides noting the rising antisemitism on the Left, the report also notes the disunity within the Jewish community, particularly with regard to dealing with antisemitism. I will address this issue in one of my coming posts, but I should point out here that joining the ranks of the Left will not save Jews from the whip when it lashes. Now that it is clear that antisemitism is spreading through all parts of society, and especially in democratic countries, it is time for Jewish unity as an antidote for Jew-hatred.
You can find more on contemporary antisemitism and its history in my books, New Antisemitism: Mutation of a Long-lived Hatred, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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Medium published my new article “With a Grain of Salt”
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meet for the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Joe Biden said Thursday that “the risk of nuclear ‘Armageddon’ is the highest it has been in 60 years after Russian President Vladimir Putin renewed his threats as his military retreats in Ukraine.” However, according to a story published in the Los Angeles Times, the statement “appeared to go beyond U.S. intelligence assessments.” In fact, “National security officials say they have no evidence that Vladimir Putin has imminent plans for a nuclear strike.” In this case, I too believe that we should take both leaders’ statements with a grain of salt.
In the end, the Russians, too, fear the consequences of using nuclear weapons. Humanity has never seen what a nuclear world war looks like. The precedents in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as horrific as they were, are nothing compared to the massive and prolonged destruction that a nuclear world war will inflict, especially given the power of today’s atom and hydrogen bombs.
The threats by Russia and its allies are unnerving, but I think that this is their intention — to demoralize and frighten. I do not think that there is a genuine intention to employ tactical nuclear warheads or any other kind of nuclear weapons.
If humanity plunges into a nuclear world war, we have no idea where it will lead us or how it will end. I think that everyone realizes this and will act accordingly. There is simply too much at stake, too much to lose to gamble with a nuclear war.
Besides, such an attack would turn the entire world against the aggressor. No superpower, however strong and however weaponized, can stand against the entire world. Therefore, threats to use nuclear weapons and disheartening declarations about a possible nuclear Armageddon are, in my opinion, unrealistic, at least at this point in time.
That said, as a whole, the world is certainly moving in a negative direction. If we cannot understand that war is not the way to achieve political or economic benefits these days, we will eventually plunge into a third world war.
The developments in Ukraine should worry all of us, and encourage us to nurture stronger ties among all parts of humanity in order to avoid a possible breakdown of global society.
If we can learn the lesson from this painful war, perhaps it will give some meaning to the misery that millions are experiencing. If we cannot learn from it, we will need another war, most likely a crueler one, to accept that we must lay down our arms and treat humanity as it really is — a single entity whose parts are interconnected and interdependent.
Eventually, we will learn that war is not the way. I only hope we learn it not through a nuclear ordeal.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How does ego ruin my life?“
The ego positions us in situations where we regularly want to exploit others. We look at others through our egoistic lenses of how we can use them to benefit ourselves: “How can they do something for me?” “How can I trample on them in various ways?” Eventually, the ego kills us. It corrupts students in classrooms, people at workplaces and in all kinds of relationships—it ruins our lives.
Since the ego ruins our relationships and our lives in general, the immediate follow-up question is: What should we do with the ego? We need to take the ego’s reins and control it. We should not suppress or kill it, but use it correctly, because we have to use everything created by nature in ways that benefit us all.
Our bodies function automatically on nature’s still, vegetative and animate levels, knowing what is beneficial and detrimental for their functioning. However, on the human level, which is above the still, vegetative and animate, we do not know how to correctly function.
We thus have to learn the ways of positive connection to others, because our ego makes us relate to people and nature solely out of a desire to benefit ourselves alone. In addition to simply benefiting ourselves, the ego also sometimes makes us want to enjoy by suppressing others, i.e. exploiting, manipulating and abusing others. In other words, it makes us enjoy ourselves by making us feel superior to others. That is the truly negative form of the ego that ruins our lives, and learning how to control this ego and make it acquire a positive form requires regularly learning and promoting to each other how we can positively connect.
Based on the video “How the Ego Ruins Our Lives” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Baal HaSulam gave several commentaries on the Ari’s book The Tree of Life. One is called “Ohr Pnimi” – “Inner Light” and the second is “Inner Observation.” One is more specific and the other is more expanded.
In the section “Inner Light,” he explains that the primary reason for the restriction was only the desire for a new form of receiving in order to bestow that is destined to be revealed in the future thanks to the creation of the worlds, and not at all the feeling of any Aviut in the middle point.
The space that the Ari writes about is the space of desire, which felt itself opposite to the Creator and therefore restricted itself. Desire restricted itself to the perception of receiving fulfillment from the Creator, to being in some imperfect form relative to Him. Therefore, both the light of the Creator that filled it and the restriction itself was in the form of a circle.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/2/22
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How many people around the world today are in genuine fear and a sense of helplessness? They do not find any justification for their suffering, they do not know what to do, or how to feed themselves tomorrow or in a few months. Some worry about what will happen to their billions, while others do not know how to live when their last pennies run out.
Everyone suffers in their own way, but no one understands how to continue to exist. And we suddenly received such a gift from above that we can look at this world with a human gaze, and not as small and unhappy, beaten animals. And all this is thanks to the revelations of Baal HaSulam that have reached us and through his soul, and Rabash was a transitional adapter between us and Baal HaSulam.
Baal HaSulam was conduit of the light from the world of infinity to us through his perfect soul, which had reached its final correction. But he asked to lower himself, because otherwise, he could not connect with people. And only after he was lowered by many degrees, he was able to write The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Introduction to The Book of Zohar. We do not understand the degree that he had before, the greatest height, from where he could not even tell anything in words.
Which means, it was at the degree of the GAR of the world of Atzilut and above, where the light is not clothed in desires. From there, he could not address the person and be heard, and therefore, he asked to lower himself. And in fact, he fulfilled his mission, which the Creator expected from him, knowing that he would ask for it and fulfill it.
And we are at an intermediate degree between Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and humanity. On the one hand, we need to rise up to understand what Baal HaSulam said. On the other hand, we need to go down to the people and understand what they need from us and in what form they will be able to accept our message. We need to reach both of these poles, above and below.
Baal HaSulam and Rabash spoke from above. And we are at the bottom, below the Parsa, in order to be able to touch and awaken the world, and then, together with all mankind, to ascend through the Machsom and connect to the upper Malchut. This is our mission.
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From a Conversation at a Meal Dedicated to the Memorial Day of Baal HaSulam
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Question: During the Second World War, pilots said that the aircraft was so responsive that while operating it, it felt like an extension of the pilot’s body.
A communication system is already being created today, artificial intelligence, by which aircraft will be able to secure the pilot, hear him, even replace him, and read from his brain everything the pilot thinks. You can say a lot of technical terms here, but what I am interested in is, without this technology, is it possible to establish communication with the machine? Is it possible to establish connection with the inanimate?
Answer: When a person works with a machine, feels it, and it enters his sensory organs and gives such a reflection of itself in his brain, in his feelings that he begins to be with it on an instinctive level, on such an instinctive connection it is as if it were he himself.
And then, without even realizing his actions, he controls the machine and the machine controls him. There is a mutual connection. But these are special cases.
Comment: I remember you told me that a carpenter, if he is a real professional, feels wood and even hears it.
My Response: Of course. It is natural.
Question: So this state of unity is possible?
Answer: Yes.
Question: You usually say: “To become one heart with another person.” But is it possible to become one heart with a car, with your business?
Answer: Maybe, because it is not with the machine, but with the image of the machine itself.
It is when you absorb the machine into yourself and start working with its image inside you; then you can really fully control it, and it responds to you.
Question: And you do not need any artificial intelligence? Is it your effort that is needed?
Answer: Yes, it is simply a merger. But it depends on which machine, of course.
It is easier with an animal. It is even easier with people. With plants somewhat too, partially. By the way, I even observed that when a person works on a plant, talks to it, the plant feels it.
Question: You are saying that natural materials are closer to working with. And if it is some kind of manufactured, processed piece of iron?
Answer: It is hard.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/18/22
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Question: What does it mean: every moment the world is new? Is it true or not?
Answer: It is because the data constantly changes. If we could see how things are changing, then, of course, it would be more understandable for us.
Question: Why does a person feel or not feel the changes?
Answer: It depends on the coordinates in which he is used to seeing and accepting the world. If for me, the world is something stable and inhibited, then I don’t see any changes in it. There are a few things I see, for example, once there were dinosaurs, but today there are none. In principle, I can say that the world is static, although everything is constantly spinning: the Sun, the Moon, the Earth.
In the same way we can talk about the development of the world. We see that the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and man himself are developing. So, everything goes through its own specific dialectic of development.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express”, 9/23/22
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Question: Our life is no pleasure, but rather an attempt to escape from suffering, which means that in every moment we are looking for an opportunity to suffer less.
We think that we get pleasure by buying a new car or a garage, but in fact we choose slightly better conditions. But this still is not pleasure is it?
Answer: Of course, these are not real pleasures: eternal and constantly growing.
Question: In our world a person sooner or later loses the taste in any pleasure. And when one reveals spiritual fulfillment, doesn’t he get used to it?
Answer: No. He doesn’t have time to get used to it. Spiritual pleasure quickly disappears. But this happens because a person has the opportunity of the next degree, the next filling, and he endlessly advances.
Even when the pleasure of the first degree disappears, new desires are released in which he can immediately advance further and fulfill them. And since these are not egoistic desires, but rather desires for bestowal, they are neither neutralized nor destroyed; they accumulate and grow all the time.
Let’s say I bought a yacht. But after a month I got used to it. I no longer have that inspiration, that song inside, that I felt when I bought it. Pleasure disappears as the egoistic fulfillment destroys itself. Since plus and minus are opposite to each other, pleasure enters desire and extinguishes itself.
But if pleasure and desire are both aimed at bestowal, then they do not extinguish each other, but instead support each other. First, when they go together, they increase each other 620 times and there is a huge surge of ecstasy, the strongest pleasure. Therefore, in our world it is called a Zivug (coupling of opposites).
Even in our world, if a man and a woman correctly understand how to delight, then they please each other not for oneself, but for other. This is where such reciprocity appears, which increases the filling. I don’t enjoy her and she doesn’t enjoy me; rather, we delight each other. Here too, an increase in pleasure is obtained.
But in the spiritual world, this increases by 620 times, meaning it manifests itself as attainment of the deepest layers of nature, the source of pleasure. Moreover, it is not extinguished, but constantly accumulates. This is an accumulating process.
Unfortunately, we do not know how to properly use even the purely bodily, egoistic pleasures of our world. We are only engaged in self-gratification, and we lose a lot when we do so.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Highest Pleasure” 8/12/13
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