From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 5/9/20

The coronavirus will impel us to reevaluate everything. First, it demonstrated how much we really need each other—by denying us physical contact and sending us to stay home. Next, it highlighted the imperfections of the economy—how unfit it is to sustain the people it is meant to sustain, how the top financial tier profiteer on the backs of everyone else, and how vital food products are thrown to the trash to keep their prices high, while more than 20 percent of American households are going hungry.

The social crisis that will unquestionably ensue will make us rethink everything. We will reevaluate relationships, work, and social values. If, until recently, we regarded ostentatious rich people as successful, we will begin to appreciate people who contribute to society. The daily applaud to health care workers on the frontline of the battle against COVID-19 is an example of this trend. The more we understand that our happiness does not depend on emulating people who boast in their self-centeredness, but on people who work hard to contribute to society, the more we will want to be like them.

It may be a hard and painful lesson to learn, but the coronavirus is gradually teaching us how to be more caring, compassionate, and, eventually, happy. COVID-19 is making us redefine our selves.

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Medium published my new article “Straightening Up the Economy”

We never knew it, but our economy has been standing upside down for more than a century. Instead of catering to our needs, we had catered to the “needs” of the economy. We worried about growth, production, consumption, and trade deficit or surplus. Somewhere along the way, we had forgotten that the economy was meant to cater to our needs, to see that we had food, clothing, healthcare, housing, and education. If possible, it should also provide us with some pleasant pastime but until COVID-19 came along, we had completely forgotten about it. Now we have been given a chance to straighten up the economy and rearrange our lives in a way that suits our needs.

“Professional trainings will make way for social trainings; we will learn the forgotten arts of making friends, of sharing and caring.”

With today’s technology, there is no need for everyone to work, certainly not the insane amount of hours we had been working until the onset of the lockdown. The average white-collar employee worked far more hours than slaves worked just two centuries ago. It might have made some sense if employees had more freedom or security than slaves, but when the coronavirus crisis shut down the economy, tens of millions of people were left without any security whatsoever — not housing security and not even food security. In other words, yesterday’s slaves are today’s IT professionals, software engineers, freelancers, employees in finance, law, insurance, tourism, and most white-collar professions. In the pursuit of freedom, we had replaced the relative safety of the slave for job titles. But when we needed to fall back on something, we discovered that our titles were completely meaningless. Never mind that they did not make us happy; they did not even give us any security.

The blow that COVID-19 has landed on the economy is humanity’s chance to free itself from the shackles of capitalism. Now is our chance to reevaluate the whole concept of work. Should our job define who we are? Why, for example, should our contribution to society not determine our social status? Why should a lawyer have a higher status than a teacher? Who contributes more to society, the lawyer or the teacher? Instead of appreciating people according to their contribution to society, we appreciate them according to their contribution to themselves. Is it not time we changed our values?

Thanks to technology, very few work hours are needed to provide for the needs of humanity. Within a few years, there will be no jobs the way we think of them today. Simply, there will be no demand for them. Instead of paychecks, governments will provide a basic income or some other sort of secured sustenance to all the residents. This will be necessary in order to prevent complete social collapse.

Then, once people’s livelihood is secured, it will be possible to establish a truly free society, where people work on bolstering their environment rather than their checking accounts.

Secured income frees people to secure their happiness. Therefore, people will focus much more on fostering fulfilling relationships. Professional trainings will make way for social trainings; we will learn the forgotten arts of making friends, of sharing and caring. The end of the reign of the economy is the beginning of the reign of humankind, of human kindness. The coronavirus is not just another virus; it has come to heal humanity, to straighten up our economy and put man on top, rather than money.
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Medium published my new article “You Cannot Step into the Same River Twice”

We may be relieved that the economy is reopening and we are coming out of the lockdown, but as Heraclitus said, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” Our pre-coronavirus way of life will not return. We have entered a new era, and the quicker and more consciously we step into it, the easier will be the transition. The more we resist the transformation, the more traumatic it will be.

COVID-19 has ushered us into a new reality. It is the first time we truly see that humanity is one entity whose parts are all interdependent. It is also the first time we realize that thinking of ourselves is useless, since others can infect us no matter how careful we are. This pandemic was the first lesson in mutual responsibility that the coronavirus gave us, and it is one of many more to come.

“Since society will commend people who promote the well-being of the whole society, people will value themselves according to their contribution to society.”

Now that we have learned that we are all responsible for one another, we will gradually learn what that means in every aspect of our lives. At first, we might wish to return to our previous lives of excessive consumerism and self-entitlement, but this will only result in a return of the virus or its “successors.” We already know that our mistreatment of the environment inflicted this menace on us, so as we suffer more and more blows from nature’s “retaliation,” we will accept that we cannot keep living as we have.

The abandonment of unbridled capitalism and ruthless competition will inevitably result in high unemployment rates. At that point, the virus (or its implications) will teach us another lesson: Authorities will see that every person gets a basic income that enables provision of all staples — food, clothing, healthcare, housing, and education.

As more and more jobs become automated, the level of joblessness will grow and force authorities to rethink priorities. Provision of basic income will sustain people on the physical level but their idleness and lack of challenges will impair their mental health and make them apathetic and unruly.

This is where the next lesson of the coronavirus will come into play. To cope with growing apathy, authorities will be compelled to stipulate reception of basic income benefits on participation in courses and trainings. This will begin the actual transition of society into the new era.

The trainings and courses will focus on two categories: technology and society. The courses in technology will equip people with the professional skills required in an era where jobs change quickly and evaporate even more quickly. People’s learning skills will need to be honed so they can become flexible and open to changes.

The more complicated training will deal with society. First, people will learn what it means for them that the world is an integral system whose parts are all interconnected and interdependent.

Since people feel good when they can live according to their values, the training will focus on the merits of individuals who contribute to society. Gradually, people will shift from perceiving success as gaining possessions to perceiving it as advancing society. Since society will commend people who promote the well-being of the whole society, people will value themselves according to their contribution to society. At that point, they will perceive themselves as parts of the common body of society and will function in harmony with it.

Once people have fully processed these lessons, they will no longer mistreat one another or nature. Their worldview will become expansive and complete, and they will grasp reality from the point of view of the whole of society and the whole planet, our common home. By this time, people’s attitude toward each other and to nature will have been reversed from negative to positive. Just as it was natural for them to care about themselves before, it will be natural for them to care about others. And since everyone will operate precisely so, the new reality will actually be a different world — where ill will and mistreatment of others will become contemptible, abominable, and humanity will abandon egoism once and for all.
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These days we are facing very big changes in the world. The world begins to turn gradually, adapting to the conditions of the “last generation” and gradually shows us its different sides: from the left, right, top, and bottom.

This is difficult and confusing for a person living in our world today, a person who does not know what form the world will eventually take.

Until now, the world was in a continuous process of development, which we understand because it was based on egoism. Egoism aimed to get more and more, and we obediently fulfilled its demands. If there wasn’t enough money, strength, and resources to do it, we ran and got what we needed. Everything moved along the course of egoistic development according to the nature of this world.

Suddenly, the opposite nature began to reveal itself, which requires a new, not corporeal development. The corporeal things will exist in the necessary measure, do not worry about it. However, now we need to take care of developing the quality of bestowal, spiritual development. Yet, we do not have an internal engine that would push us forward in the direction of bestowal and will make us act.

Man and the whole world are in confusion and do not know what to do. When the quarantine ends and businesses start opening, starting from the smallest ones, such as cafes, kiosks, to large plants and factories, we will see how difficult it is to do this. Nature plays with us in such a way that in 50% of the cases, we will not be able to restore production to its former form. The owner will return to his store, but there will be no customers.

Nothing will help here except the methodology of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is now beginning to descend into our world and manifest itself. The Creator is hurrying us. If the world does not understand this, it could end up in a world war that makes the coronavirus look like a light slap.

However, we can see how, with the help of such blows, nature, the upper force hidden within corporeal nature, controls us, presses us down, puts us in order.

There will be more and more such blows, but we can go the easy and quick way if we act with understanding and at will, not from under a stick. For now, we only learn from the blows, and we will have to get them from all sides to finally find the right path, which may not be in the same direction as we were moving before. This is a problem for all of humanity.

Now the quarantine will begin to relax, and we will be able to return to our previous activities. However, it is necessary to understand that a return to the past is impossible; the world must move in the opposite direction. After all, we were guided by our egoism, which pushed us to develop, to maximize the use of the will to receive that was swelling like a dough.

Now we understand with our minds that we do not need to expand further; on the contrary, we need to reduce our needs so that this dough falls, goes down, and decreases by at least half.

But how to do it if it goes against the will to receive? This is a big problem because now we need to reduce businesses instead of increasing them, lowering and not increasing our profits, capacity, and power. It is not easy.

We know that if the doctor advises you to add something useful to our food, we will do it willingly. However, if we need to give up something, it is already difficult or even impossible. And we will have to do the same for our business. How can we do this if we have to act against our egoistic nature?

However, if humanity does not do this, it will continue to destroy itself, and the end is already looming on the horizon. It is impossible to pollute and ruin nature indefinitely. In addition, new viruses will now appear one after another, at a breakneck speed. We feel the great danger of environmental disasters and viruses hanging over us, and at the same time, we do not know how to stop ourselves.

If the world were united and controlled by a single government, it would be somehow possible to decide which industries to close and how to compensate for them. This requires a global plan to cure human society of its egoism. It is impossible to close businesses without a strong environment that provides support, compensation, and explains the reasons and purpose.

It turns out that the improvement of human society depends on its connection, on the organization of a new society. We will not be able to exist physically if we do not correctly establish a new form of society, which is called the “last generation.”

For the first time in history, humanity understands that it is global, integral, and must thoroughly take care of its structure, that is, analyze all its activities and all the production on a global scale. All countries must unite and understand that they are facing a common enemy.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/20, “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

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Medium published my new article “Time of Women’s Leadership”

As the world awakens to a new reality, the imperative role of women to put together the broken pieces and rebuild society has become more evident and urgent. COVID-19 made us realize this fact even more vividly, starting with the most intimate and basic environment we all know: the home. As a result of the stay-at-home order, we rediscovered that the female figure in the family is the most prominent and influential. From home, that same importance reverberates in every field of life where women are involved. That driving force of womanhood, compared to no other, is precisely what the world needs now to begin its recovery from the impact caused by the pandemic.

Week after week of lockdown revealed the centrality of the female power in the family, where every member felt totally dependent on the woman. Even if men help with household chores, most of the burden falls on the woman’s shoulders. Now, as the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic are gradually lifted and people are returning to their offices, it is impossible to say that we will return to business as usual. New discernments will accompany us back into the world outside the home, such as the impression of the remarkable dedication and determination of the women in everyone’s life which are imprinted on every person and particularly acknowledged during times of despair like the one the planet is now trying to overcome.

The World as Humanity’s Home

It comes as no surprise that the most positive results in curbing the coronavirus pandemic took place in countries run by female leaders, as recently highlighted in world news stories. When women take a greater portion in the leadership of our common global home, meaning the whole of humanity, we will undoubtedly gain from it because there will be less war, fewer problems and conflicts, and better organization of our world overall.

Every man knows that if he expects a good outcome on basically any matter in life, he should consult with the woman at home, since she is more serious and practical than he is. This is something I have observed in many cultures. With few exceptions, even in some countries where women appear to live in the shadows, women are the ones leading and making decisions. It is the woman who determines what happens in the family.

If more men would understand the importance of listening to women when we face multifaceted challenges, the state of the world would change for the better in the way we conduct our lives, in what we acquire, and on which goals we set our sights.

Women Qualities for the Sake of Society

Women are naturally drawn to organize the world like they organize the house so all inside feel comfortable and good. Unlike men, who are more like children who enjoy backyard fighting with their friends, women will not allow the bickering and childish competitions to continue to prevail as they have until the pandemic’s blow. Just like a mother, women are able to put everything in order within society and to stop the struggles and reckless competitiveness. And men will listen. This is comparable to a child’s inclination to listen to his mother. She gave birth to him, fed him and raised him, so she understands how to control him. So why shouldn’t our common global home be administered the same way our families are? If women unite for this purpose and act sensibly, wisely and forcefully, a positive change will happen.

There may be some sensation that women are not necessarily poised and resolute to assume leadership for the world to bring about change to the extent that is required, especially in this healing process from the pandemic. Thus, it is crucial to raise the importance of the roles women should play in all social discourse at the widest possible level.

Probably, there is also a need for a more supportive male force to help bring women together and pave their way. Such a force should stand beside women to encourage them and make way for them to take their deserved place and lead. I am not suggesting that one part of society needs to replace the other. They each learn to complement the other.

Such a dynamic balance between the genders should emanate from the understanding that all of us, men and women, cannot go back to our previous faulty way of life. The old world we constructed is about to implode, and the coronavirus is just the first sign. We must build together a new world where everyone is engaged in cultivating a prosperous yet sustainable society, instead of an imbalanced pattern of pollution and destruction.

This shift does not mean that we have to dismantle everything and build anew, but simply look at businesses and engagements from a new perspective: for the benefit of our children, the entire humanity, and all of nature. Women can provide the keen vision to determine such decisions. In other words, women should establish the prioritized goals and men will implement. Through this mutual cooperation, a common ground of support and understanding will arise.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is the U.S. making a mistake by reopening the economy so soon?“
If anyone thinks that reopening the economy will start bringing back the same world we lived in before the coronavirus, then think again.

Letting many more businesses run will not mean that people will immediately go back to spending on all kinds of nonessential items again.

We will soon realize that society’s awareness of what is essential and nonessential in life has slightly risen, and thus many businesses dealing in nonessential goods and services will find themselves continuing to suffer even after being allowed to reopen.

We can expect a struggle, as the government will continue encouraging consumerism in order to oil the economy more and more against a generally growing distaste for it among society.

What I propose is that instead of fighting this losing battle of reigniting the consumerism we used to live in, governments will instead provide everyone involved in unsustainable businesses a new kind of work, one where they learn about human society’s growing interdependence, and how to realize this interdependence that drops down on us in a positive manner.

By doing so, they will receive an income that would cover their needs, and gradually grow into educators of how to enrich positive connection throughout society.

In other words, governments would do well to shift their focus away from reviving a consumerist economy, where wealth equates to success, to creating sustainable societies where people’s essential needs are covered in exchange for participating in the creation of a new society led by values of mutual consideration, responsibility and solidarity.

Success in the latter vision of society would be personal and social happiness, kindled through developing increasingly positive connections.

Above photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What lessons will the world learn from COVID-19?“

COVID-19 is nature’s way of teaching humanity serious lessons in mutual responsibility, equality and nature’s superiority to humans.

By forcing us into social distancing and stay-at-home conditions over a relatively long period of time, we have become freer to contemplate what is most important in life, how we relate to each other, what kind of world we have created for ourselves, and whether there is a better way to conduct our lives.

In such a situation, we can learn from COVID-19, that in the way it makes no discrimination between people of different status, equally infecting everybody from the average Joe to world leaders, we would also be wise to relate equally to each other.

 Ben Garratt on Unsplash.

We can also learn about our common smallness in the face of nature, where all it takes is a microscopic particle to bring about so much sickness, death and overturning of our socio-economic infrastructures around the world.

We are in a process toward increasing awakening to our interdependence and interconnectedness among each other and with nature.

In such a process, nature sends us various blows to spark more global awareness, so that we would develop more consideration and responsibility toward others.

Why? It is because by doing so, we resemble nature, which takes each and every detail into account.

Harmonizing our relations will balance us with nature, and we would then experience nature’s positive feedback.

Nature is connecting us more and more, and the sooner we become aware of how we’re being forced by nature to connect, and take our own active part in this connection to make it positive, then the sooner we’ll experience much better lives.

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How would you like to see the next stage of human development? The Creator gave us great help, He stopped the whole world before the abyss, which we, in our egoism, almost brought to complete destruction.

At the last moment, the Creator stopped us with the help of the coronavirus, forced us to calm down, to relax, to sit at home, and to think about our lives so that we would never return to the old world built on egoism.

What would have to change in our world so that it would become better, kinder, more correct, and more just? What should we ask the Creator together? Indeed, today for the first time we see how the Creator is immediately engaged in all of humanity, around the entire globe.

We want to fix the connection between us, and it will already establish our whole life. Can I take care of everyone and think that my neighbor and the whole world have everything that I have? Am I ready to share with others, worry about them just like for my children? After all, I won’t take the last and deprive my child, I will provide for him first.

The law of love requires such an attitude toward everyone. Do we understand that tomorrow we must become other people, both in thought and in an action? Thus, our society will move forward.

We are not talking about forced distribution, socialization of banks and enterprises. We just want to ask the Creator to change human society so that it leads to a change in relations within the family, between countries, from the internal correction in each person spreading outward. Maybe the coronavirus will help us with this.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/20, Writings of Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/30/20

Now that we’re no longer sheltering in place, the focus shifts from health to provision. Many businesses will not survive the coronavirus crisis since there will be no demand for them. Humanity is changing; many things we regarded as staples, we will now regard as superfluous luxuries.

Yet, those business owners need an income or they will not survive and social mayhem will ensue. The state has no obligation to fund businesses that have no demand, but it does have to provide people with basic means of sustenance. Therefore, providing some basic income for every person is a must.

Yet, this income is not to be given as freebies. COVID-19 has shown that we are all interdependent. Yet, we have no idea how to function in a society where everyone’s life is dependent on everyone else. People who have lost their previous careers to the virus will therefore learn about living in an interdependent society in order to become instructors of living in such a society. They will be trailblazers of a new social paradigm of mutual responsibility and solidarity. They will build a basis for a society that all of humanity will later join, since a few pandemics from today, all of us will be in the shoes of those who have lost their jobs today. Few will provide for everyone, and everyone will engage in connection. This is the synopsis of correction.

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Medium published my new article “I Am Genuinely Afraid”

The economy may be reopening but not as it should be. Irresponsible ignition of economic and commercial activities will bear such consequences that will make us regret not waiting a little longer in the first round.

We are living in an integral reality that has a natural balance. When the balance is breached, the system pushes itself back to balance much like a pendulum that returns to the middle with greater force the more you pull it to one side.

Humans have pushed the global ecosystem so far off balance that now it has to strike back a painful blow in order to resume the balance. As long as we refuse to understand this mechanism, we will continue to suffer blows every time nature balances itself. At the moment, we are far from understanding this and far from balance. We were waiting for the moment when we came out of the lockdown so we could keep pushing nature. But the result will be that nature’s next push back will be much stronger and much more painful.

Eventually, we will learn. The only question is how much we will have to suffer until we realize that we will not win by thinking only me-me-me.

The more we developed technology, the more we behaved like senseless children in a toy shop with no one to tell us what we are allowed to buy and what’s too expensive. But you can’t leave the shop without going through the cashier, and the cashier will make us pay for everything we took.

Sure, we have to reignite commerce and provide people with what they need. But we are not thinking only about getting what we need. We want to compete once more in who’s got more, who is richer, and who is more successful. But competition didn’t make us happy the first time, so why go back to it? Worse yet, this is exactly what caused the outburst of the virus — our self-centered behavior — so what sense is there in re-embracing the conduct that inflicted a disaster on us. Can we doubt that another disaster, probably much worse, will follow?

If we reignite only those parts of the economy that sustain us, that guarantee our livelihood, while dedicating the rest of our time, resources, and efforts to establishing better connections among us, we will all be happy. We won’t need any accessories to brag about, and we won’t need to compete with anyone because we will feel worthy just being who we are! We will be appreciated for contributing our skills to the common good, and the gratitude and warmth from people will fill us to the brim with happiness.

Have you ever walked into a room where everyone liked you and thought well of you? Do a little thought exercise and try to imagine this. Now do another exercise and imagine that as soon as you walk out to the street, everyone treats you with that kind of warmth and care.

In such a society, the most required profession will be instructors and teachers to guide people into that type of mindset. With such a mindset, the cohesion and solidarity in society will make welfare services redundant. People will take care of each other, just as it should be!

Think of army elite units. They know that in battle, their lives depend on their unity. We are in a battle now. We have already realized that we are all dependent on each other’s responsibility. If we forego the mutual responsibility we have acquired in this battle and return to our dog-eat-dog mindset, we stand no chance against the next virus, or whatever blow nature will send us next. I am genuinely afraid for humanity. The virus was a mild lesson; the next one could be devastating.
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