Medium published my new article “The Heavy Price of Feeding Ourselves”

Putting food on the table has become a luxury these days. U.S. inflation soars to 8.5%, the highest annual level in 40 years and grocery prices are particularly hit, up to at least 10 percent higher from last year. For many people, not only in America but around the world, the cost of food is out of reach. Are we on the verge of the next global crisis?

“Sharply higher prices for staples and supply shortages are increasing pressure on households worldwide and pushing millions more into poverty.” declared the Heads of the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, United Nations World Food Program, and World Trade Organization in a joint statement just released.

The World Bank estimates that for each one percentage point increase in food prices, “10 million people are thrown into extreme poverty worldwide.” The Covid-19 pandemic caused disruptions in the world’s food supplies; climate crisis has damaged agricultural crops and threatened the food security of millions of people. Now the war in Ukraine is affecting grain and fertilizers production and exports to the world. Global food prices have reached “a new all-time high,” and the situation is getting worse every day. Starving masses could fuel social tensions, particularly in vulnerable countries.

But besides the aforementioned factors, people’s mindsets and habits trigger food insecurity. As the world evolves, the population has grown as a result of medical developments that allow increasing fertility and life expectancy. In addition to it, we are not only more numerous and live longer but we also consume much more today than in the past. Just a few hundred years ago we stayed home passively and a slice of bread a day was enough, today we live a hectic life and instead of a slice we need a pound of bread a day.

Compared to nature, we can see that animals behave differently from us in terms of breeding and consuming calories. When animals are not hunting or gathering food, they usually lie down peacefully and save energy. When there is a lack of food in the area, they give birth to fewer offspring. In the past, in times of food shortages, women naturally would also conceive less.

But as human beings we are no longer as attached to nature as animals, nor do we care to think deeply about our future as human beings and how properly use and balance our resources. We may easily degenerate into a world of famine and consequently, more conflicts will emerge.

We will be able to prevent hunger and other problems that can cause great suffering and death through a joint international debate. In such a discussion, representatives of countries would consider together what to do with the onerous facts and how to use human capabilities to solve them.

The problem is that the international organizations that are supposed to deal with it, like the UN, are impractical because they represent the bureaucratic forces of the states and governments, nor are they enthusiastic about dealing with solutions about the future of the world. It turns out that we have no one to trust and no one to wait for to formulate plans for a good life for us.

The scale and gravity of today’s global challenges which have outgrown the present systems’ ability to handle them require fresh new thinking. In my view, until we deal with the heart of the problem, which is the egoism in human nature, we will find no remedy to our woes. We all need to finally realize that humanity is a single superorganism in which any disruption affects the whole system and any solution should be integral. In other words, a better future starts with a shift of awareness of what needs to be fixed: we.
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Question: In May of 2020 TikTok blogger Demi Skipper from San Francisco took announced on her blog that wanted to start with an ordinary bobby pin [hair pin] and swap her way up to a home. She exchanged it for a pair of earrings, and then continued to make a progression of more valuable trade-ups until in November of the same year she achieved her goal of owning a home.

This isn’t the first case of someone trading up a relatively worthless item to owning a house. In 2007, Canadian Kyle McDonald made 14 exchanges to home ownership starting with a big red paper clip.

What do you think about these tales that seem like fantasy?

Answer: All this takes place in front of an audience. But it is quite possible. From where does wealth, money, steamships, etc. come in general? That’s exactly how it’s done.

Question: What’s happening in the chain? Why? How does it get so hyped?

Answer: These are desires multiplied by human stupidity, swagger, fame, and so on. All this gives value to these amounts.

Question: “I’ll do it, and I’ll give you a car for a paper clip. And they will talk about me.” Something like that?

Answer: Yes, it is a sale, of course.

Question: What would you personally like to launch, something simple like this paper clip, and what would you like to get at the end?

Answer: I would like to launch into the world the popularity of the happiness of the world, the real happiness of the world, and at the end for everyone to get an understanding of it. But there is no such TikTok currently, not yet.

Question: A simple sentence like this: “What is happiness for the world?” And as a result, everyone will understand it. Is there no such thing?

Answer: No. There are no such games like this. A deep awareness is needed by each and everyone, of course, that a person is created an egoist and so on. This is the only way. A  game won’t help here; it can’t wind up just like that. It’s not a show.

A person should really want to connect with others, to take care of them, and to realize that we are on the same Titanic.

Question: Can this Titanic sail?

Answer: If we support it this way, then undoubtedly.

Question: If we unite?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And if not, then this is the Titanic?

Answer: Of course.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/23/21

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Comment: Over a year ago the biggest trade agreement in history between 15 countries was signed. It promised an increase in income for every third inhabitant of the planet and gave hope for the revival of world trade and cooperation. The agreement united China and the Asian-Pacific region countries including Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

The agreement allows trading partners in Asia to gain access to each other’s markets, reduce taxes on goods, and improve living standards, especially for the poorest countries in the region. They say: “The agreement is open to all. We are waiting for India here.”

Why not live like that? They set noble goals. Even though they are egoistic, they are set to provide income for people who are poor and have nothing today.

My Response: Yes, people there live poorly, of course.

Question: Why can’t all leaders rise above their pride, enter into one union and start to slowly revive our world, which is falling economically all the time?

Answer: I do not think it is possible. I do not even hope that it will all be as cheerful as they write. Someone has to win at the expense of the one who loses.

Such is our world! Therefore, agreements are agreements, but then politics and petty egoism come into play, and that is it.

Question: So we will not be able to live normally in this world?

Answer: No. We cannot. And these good impulses, they are all not good. The point is, how will they win? At the expense of whom will they win?

Question: So you think that one way or another, I have to suppress someone?

Answer: Our world is created in this way.

Question: And when they say “equal agreements”?

Answer: It is what they always say: mutually beneficial conditions, mutual trade, wellbeing of nations.

Question: What union will work?

Answer: The one that has a different goal: to lead people to unity, to rise above themselves, above their egoism, and above their nature. Otherwise nothing will work.

Question: So my goal to provide wellbeing to a third or half of the world’s population, to the whole world, will not work anyway?

Answer: No.

Question: And the goal should be that the people of the world will be able to unite?

Answer: Yes. Such a goal is in a state of good balance with the general force of nature and with the general development of humanity. And then of course, it will work.

Question: Can you imagine such leaders who say: “We are now uniting in order to…”?

Answer: And they will explain that “might goes before right,” that you cannot go against nature. And it turns out that going against this basic law of nature is stepping on some kind of a rake again, on one side or on the other, under some other pretext, it does not matter.

Question: That is, if a person does not change and is a wolf to another man, or will be in competition with another one …?

Answer: They are originally wolves. And they will not cover it up with some good external deeds. This will come out and lead them perhaps to an even bigger war among themselves.

Question: Are you saying that if we are wolves, then we cannot achieve anything in this world?

Answer: Nothing, only suppressing each other, only rising one above the other. We must play our egoism.

Question: Who does the wolf have to become for everything to happen? For everything to be good?

Answer: He must understand his wolf nature, and understand that nowadays we cannot act any other way, but only by being aware of our nature and gradually resisting it together. It is not easy, but we should at least admit it.

Question: What advice would you give to these leaders in this situation, in this world? If you were listened to, what would you say? Take care of yourself?

Answer: Yes, take care of yourself. Write a general memorandum of your intentions and how you expect them to be realized; explain it to each other. This is possible only if you advance alongside the development of nature so that your development coincides with its development.

We see over the course of millions of years (with humanity it is over thousands of years) how nature develops us egoistically and at the same time creates such conditions that we must somehow cope with this egoism and balance it. And if we do not, then it is done through war.

So we have no choice but to first understand our nature, what state we are in and what the path of our development should be and that it must necessarily be in connection between us above our egoism.

Question: And is this your advice to leaders?

Answer: Yes, to admit that we all are egoists. It is not that difficult. But the fact that we should work on our egoism and get closer to each other, this is already a problem. How can we see us rising above egoism and acting against it? How can we weaken the egoistic ties between us and replace them with some kind of more or less altruistic, equal ties that are actually based on mutual understanding and mutual connection? It is not easy.

Question: Would the law of mutual guarantee that we are talking about suit them? Can it be included in the memorandum?

Answer: In principle, this implies that we commit to act in mutual assistance.

Question: Mutual assistance to what?

Answer: Mutual economic assistance, which in fact provides for universal development, the one in which no one acts at the expense of others, so that no one suppresses anyone else.

And how is this possible if we are in a closed space, in the closed world? We must initially determine for ourselves the norms of our behavior, each one in relation to all. It is, as it were, a group of 15 people who must work out some kind of a system for relating harmoniously.

Question: And if they decide to build some kind of common territory in which everyone will, in general, be satisfied with this connection, then should they follow these principles?

Answer: They must develop the population. They must explain to the population that the future of the world lies in a good connection between people, otherwise war in our time will destroy them in a second.

Therefore it is necessary to act in such a way so as not to lead these 15 countries to a fierce war in which they have already been, each in their own way; but here it can explode in general. So this association will split into many different small associations, which will begin to fight among themselves, hog the blanket, and this will all end.

Question: This striving for a good connection is necessary, isn’t it?

Answer: Who will lead this good relationship? Who will promote it? Who understands what this good connection means? Who will oppose the egoistic one-man politicians, each of whom in turn wants to climb over everyone and be above them? This is the nature of our world. And who is in charge of these states? The biggest egoists.

So I do not know. Personally when I look at it all, I just care that it does not explode.

If they do not follow the path of the correct education of the population of their 15 countries, then in the end they will see how angry they are with each other, how much their inner egoism does not allow them to connect with each other at least to some extent, and as a result a trade war will begin, then a political war, and then a real war.

Question: So isn’t education the only way?

Answer: Only education, changing a man.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/3/22

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Comment: A problem of this century is the loss of meaning in professional activity whereby employees are disappointed in their work and do not see the point in it. This condition can affect people who are quite wealthy, well-educated, or in leadership positions. But since they are still perceived as successful by others, it is difficult for them to share this and refuse this work. They continue to work like this and burn out.

They don’t see the point in their work. There is a job, there is work, there is money, but I don’t see the point.

My Response: It is natural. This is the growth of mankind, the gradual development.

The egoism of man is not filled. This is the same selfishness that is our basis. At one time he was filled. He enjoyed work, honor, fame, knowledge, money, and the opportunity to somehow implement all this. But today he is not filled.

He is indifferent to the opinions of others; he is indifferent to climbing some stairs, and even to big money. There is, one might say, some kind of fatigue, like with any metal or material. So it is here. There is even a term for it: burnout.

Question: At what point does this happen? I lived normally, I worked normally, I was on fire at work, and suddenly empty and for nothing.

Answer: Egoism switched to the next mode of operation. It is not enough for people that everything is given to them. What was before that caused satisfaction and fulfillment, vanity was filled, etc., but not now. I don’t know what to do, how to live, or what to work for. I do not know! It is completely uninteresting to me.

Something more is needed. What is that “more”? They cannot tell. There is just no satisfaction; there is filling, but no satiation. What to work for? What to live for? No. Everything. Give me a pill and that’s it. People will get there! Why not?

This is deliverance from suffering: “I would like to forget and sleep.”

Question: What should a person do in such a situation? You keep saying that there will be such a universal cry.

Answer: Yes, but this is a cry, the realization of a real desire to understand the meaning of life. So why do I need all this? To such an extent that even children, which are the most important thing for a person, and especially for a woman, will not be happy.

And everything is there, absolutely everything is there, but I cannot even do my work mechanically, something for their sake. Nothing! This is the real despair from the lack of fulfillment of the egoistic Kli.

Question: When will deliverance come?

Answer: Deliverance will come from this state, when there will be a huge howl to all of heaven, and after that humanity will begin to understand why it really exists, not earlier.

Only when there is a real need to understand the meaning of life. Then we will live!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/31/22

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Comment: Many people today, especially young people, are increasingly reducing their degree of consumption. This is becoming a new trend.

My Response: In principle, this is sensible and correct from all points of view. All consumption should be limited. Otherwise, it causes various undesirable consequences. This is first.

Second, we lived already through years when we were just beginning to cultivate the Earth by modern methods. There were abundant deposits and minerals.

Today we are discovering the limitations of such an attitude toward the Earth. This, in principle, is not a bottomless sphere, but a very complex system. What we are leaving for our children is unclear.

Question: It is estimated that if all of humanity rises to the standard of living of the United States, we would need four planets with such a volume of minerals, materials, and production to provide the whole world with the level at which America lives.

I wonder if America will reduce consumption or will there be any other solutions? Maybe a virtual world, where people will need fewer material things, will replace this?

Answer: I am sure that the problem here, of course, is not in America and in the number of people, but in the fact that, unfortunately, we are controlled by great egoists who feel only replenishment of their own pockets. They do not care what happens next with this pocket even though everything is disappearing from it as well.

This is a pure type of egoism where a person feels that he gets more and more of something in banks, factories, and enterprises.

The only thing that we need here is serious re-education. Otherwise, the planet will force us to switch to a different consumption regime. But it will be a forced regime. Look at how hard it is in countries in many parts of the world. People will have to starve.

Question: And this is despite the fact that now we throw away half of the food we produce?

Answer: Yes. People will have to starve not only because of this but because there really will be no food. Look at what is happening to forests and fields. There is no way to reverse it. Half of the people will die out. The other half will understand that it is impossible to live like this and will slowly limit themselves. But they will still not achieve anything by this.

We will have to understand that only our good relationships will give us an understanding of how to treat ourselves and nature correctly. It requires a new attitude of a person toward people and the world around them. And this is our entire egoism.

This scenario of the extinction of half the planet is possible but not necessary. Our planet, as Baal HaSulam writes, can feed tens of billions of people. No problem! But only on condition that we cultivate the land, plant, harvest, and distribute it for this very reason. Then everyone will have enough of everything.

Question: Obviously, it is necessary to re-educate not only ordinary people, but first of all managers who make decisions?

Answer: Absolutely everyone! Absolutely everyone in our world will have to change themselves, their attitude to the world, and not as an individual consumer but as a social unit consisting of billions of people. We will have to perceive all this as one single whole. Then there will be enough of everything for everyone.
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From KabTV’s “Virtual world” 2/9/22

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Question: What do you think the new economy should be like?

Answer: The new economy should be economical. A person should not extract everything out of the ground, out of the air, or out of the water. He should be guided by a more harmonious life and consume as much as he needs, and not steal and not plunder. Our planet is not bottomless. It will not let us continue to act like this.

Question: What will we come to then?

Answer: To the fact that there will be nothing left. It is like, for example, parents who leave their offspring a couple of million dollars, and he takes and squanders it in a year.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 1/5/22

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Comment: The large numbers of people becoming unemployed should be provided with necessary income. You said this 20 years ago. Today, it is discussed more and more.

Meaning, today’s global productivity is great enough to provide everyone with necessary food, clothing, and shelter without having to work. You suggest putting these people in classrooms for them to study something.

My Response: Not just to study. I propose making these people workers of a new generation so that they can transform their egoism into altruism with the help of a special study. This is the most inner work a person can do in one’s life in this world.

If we start this, we will see firsthand how our world will change. We will bring a positive force, energy, and direction that is lacking now. This force can only come from man, since he is the only bearer of evil or possible good. It will lead to massive positive changes in the world. This is as stated by Kabbalah as well as myself personally.

Question: Can regular classes, in accordance with a special methodology, really accomplish this? Is it just reading or working with teachers?

Answer: It involves people working on themselves and between themselves. Nothing else is needed.

It is better for us to start this early rather than to wait until the world is completely drained, falling into all sorts of problematic states, and descending into wars that are now quite feasible.
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From KabTV’s “Virtual World” 2/9/22

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Question: Due to the spread of the virus, people have been closed in at home, they are not able to participate in society. There have been a lot of divorces and domestic violence. Children do not want to study and go back to school. People do not want to go back to work.

In America, the government decided to help the people socially by printing money and distributing it to people. Now there is a lot of unemployment and no one wants to work, everyone sits and waits for government money. It seems that here in America they want to build a particular socialism. Or is capitalism slowly coming to an end?

Answer: Indeed, capitalism is coming to an end because this is not the final phase of human development, and it will not end there. But the question is: What can the state do with the limited opportunities it has?

Comment: Not to encourage people to stay home and live for free. They print money, but there is no gold reserve, and money is only a piece of paper. It somehow starts to resemble the Soviet Union.

My Response: What can you do? It doesn’t matter if it is America or the Soviet Union. The laws of economics, the laws of shifting between classes, between society and people are the same everywhere—human! Not socialist, not communist, not capitalist, these are general laws of nature. But no one wants to know and observe them. That is what is happening.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 1/5/22

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Question: In 2020, gold was becoming cheaper, but it was the beginning of a pandemic so people were not up to buying it.

But in 2021, prices suddenly shot up and today the price of gold has reached 30-year record high. People are actively buying physical gold in the form of bars, coins, and jewelry.

I want to ask you, as a Kabbalist, what is it about gold? After all, it is all about beautifying…

Answer: Beautifying the ego!

We just want to put our efforts into some kind of material objects that are immutable, that won’t disappear or decay, that won’t rust

Question: What is gold on a spiritual level?

Answer: It’s egoism in its purest form. Gold relates to Keter, and silver relates to Bina.

Question: Can you explain it in a simple way?

Answer: When true egoism is corrected, it is represented by gold, and when it is on the way to correction—in other words, halfway toward correction—it is silver, Bina and Keter.

Question: Let us proceed from the fact that the spiritual affects us one way or another. We are branches, while the roots of everything are spiritual. But then what about gold?

Answer: It remains.

Question: Nothing can replace it?

Answer: No.

Question: Even in times of hunger? Even when there is no bread?

Answer: No. When there’s no bread, then no. But once we start adding something to bread, gold immediately begins to appear. It is made for the living.

Question: This means that when we talk about necessities, we are talking about bread. But what about when we talk about our world, the world of excess?

Answer: “People die for metal.”

Question: What conclusion do you draw from all this?

Answer: My conclusion is very simple: as long as egoism rules, gold will be the universal, global equivalent of these egoistic forces. But once people trade their egos for good connections between them, gold will simply be equated to an ordinary metal, a regular material, and will no longer be used for trade. Only the value of bestowal to each other will be used as a measure for trading. This is a completely different material.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/3/22

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In the News (“What Companies Want Most in a CEO: A Good Listener”): “Companies are increasingly seeking socially adept leaders—not charismatic smooth-talkers, but executives who listen empathetically, welcome input, and rally the workforce around a common goal, according to a recent study by a team of researchers including Harvard Business School Professors Raffaella Sadun and Joseph Fuller, who analyzed thousands of executive job search descriptions created over a 17-year period. …

“Top executives who demonstrate this kind of interpersonal prowess are more likely to be in high demand, particularly at large, multinational, and information-intensive organizations, the research suggests. ”

Question: What do you think about these conclusions? Are they evident?

Answer: Yes, all this is understandable. Yet why are we starting to understand this today? Time works in such a way that we have different requirements.

Today we do not need charismatic leaders. Now, we need people who understand others. Moreover, I think that they mean those who really understand others. I do not know where they will find them, but with a lot of money they will find them. 🙂

Actually, I am glad to hear this. I mean, the biggest problem of humanity is brought forward—human egoism, which does not allow one to feel the other. And this is necessary. Thus, again, we have come to the same conclusion from different sides.

Comment: It took 17 years for them to come to this.

My Response: This is not so bad, the planet has existed for much longer.

Question: Does it always come to this, one way or another? All the thousands of years?

Answer: Yes, all the time. From the first dinosaurs.

Question: Why didn’t they just write: “A leader must be human”?

Answer: Because “human” is a very vague concept for us. Anyway, what does it mean to be human?

Question: He must be sincere?

Answer: Can you name such leaders? Those who have made their way into leadership so far to date are unscrupulous, egoistic people who can tear apart everything and everyone in their path. They can put everyone down and walk on their heads, over their bodies. Nothing will stop them; they will be only too happy to clear their way.

Question: Does it mean that even this Harvard assumption is a breakthrough?

Answer: Yes! It is very interesting what they will do next.

Question: What else would you add to this? What is your main point?

Answer: My main point is that they will not find such people in their pure form, at least from their school of economics. Because people who have this attitude to life have a different economy—the economy of hearts, the economy of attitude to the world.

They feel that it is possible to earn money and possible to build a world out of another material, from the correct relationships between people.

Question: Are these the future leaders? Is that the most important thing?

Answer: Yes. It still is not very close. But this is the main thing, and we will have to come to this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/30/21

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