The number of people in the world who suffer from depression is increasing. Rejection, not understanding the meaning of our existence, drug use, and terrorism, are all indicators of our disappointment in life.

We have come to the point where we must bring the world to a rational, balanced state. Now, since now many people find themselves unemployed and have nothing to do, it is a very dangerous social factor and governments are afraid of that. So what can be done?

It is impossible to destroy millions and even billions of the supposedly superfluous in the world simply by wars. It would be a war after which nothing would remain. There is no reasonable solution, even if we approach the problem according to Malthus: “Let’s just purify humanity of all the redundant elements and cut it in half”—this will not work!

We see how the collapse of one tenth of a nuclear power plant in Japan had terrible effects throughout the world, most of which we still don’t know about, like in Chernobyl, because the information remains classified.

But even these small “problems” are enough to stop the construction of nuclear power plants around the world. The decision makers understand the threat and so they stop building them. But by this single action, we can see that there is no problem and no solution. The problem is somewhere else all together: How can we bring billions of people to a balanced state?

So we should see the release of so many people from their work as the transition of man to another kind of work, to productive social work, so that we can really make human society more beneficial for everyone.

This can be implemented only through the integral education of everyone. Thus we raise a person to the level of integral understanding, of the global management of nature, and then he treats himself, the world, and everything else differently.

First he understands that the problem isn’t just about rich people and poor people, about good or bad leaders, or about billionaires who take everything for themselves, but he understands that there is a clear trend here, and this is how nature develops us. This means that we should take on a form that is adapted to nature because we cannot do anything against it. The only thing we can do is to understand the laws of nature. If we are adapted to the laws of nature we will bring ourselves to the most comfortable state.
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From KabTV’s “Foundations of the Integral Society” 2/26/12

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Opinion (Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank Chief Economist): “I have travelled to 16 different countries over the past year. They are all very different, with different systems, starting points and cultures, but they all share the same burden of inequality. I realised that the real loser since the financial crisis began in 2008 has been the middle class.

“Pundits will have you know that we are witnessing capitalism and the free market running amok. Where? There is not a single market working according to capitalistic rules.

“The main policy response in this time of crisis remains one of buying time. This solution will not last however; it will only make social inequality more severe. The source of income and wealth equality is an equal right to capital and to work. Currently the only parties with free access to capital are overburdened banks and governments.

“Ironically, pundits have dubbed the current crisis the running amok of capitalism. I would argue that we are witnessing governments and politicians running amok.

“We must invest in education, secure free markets, competition and long-term tri-party agreements on education, salary and working hours. This is the path towards more equality.”

My Comment: The solution is wrong—it is based on the model of egoistic capitalism that no longer works. We need to invest in the following:

1. Reaching a reasonable, single level of well-being for all people,
2. Introducing mandatory integral education and upbringing.

Both of these measures will eliminate the crisis because they will remove the contradictions between man, who devours nature, and the world around him; they will change us, and we will understand how to create a new economy of well-being and balance.
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In the News (from mignews.com): “According to the report issued by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the ratio between employment and the size of the world population is uneven and does not depend directly on the local Gross National Product (GNP).

“In Turkey, the GNP per capita is very high, while only 29% of the population is in the work force. The next highest GNP per capita is Kazakhstan, with 77%.

“In Kyrgyzstan and Moldova, the rates of the GNP per capita are lowest, but the rates of employment are 59% and 39% accordingly.

“In the developed countries, the ratio between employment and the size of the population is about 50 to 60%, which points to prosperity and stabilization of the people’s economic situation.”

My Comment: As we all know, the figures in economics do not reflect the situation of the population at all and only help the rich get richer at the expense of the poor by presenting statistics that are convenient for them. Economics is not a science, but a result of calculations that are beneficial to those who manipulate it.

However, it appears that its period of dictatorship is over, and the economy of balance between society and nature will replace it, whether we like it or not. Only the formula of balance will dictate and determine our social and economic relationships.
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The ecological catastrophe that we face is the result of an endless pursuit of revenue accumulated through selling products and the competition of billion-dollar bank accounts. We had the illusion that this would never end, but now it is over; there are no more consumers left and we have nowhere to move forward.

The crisis manifests itself in education, culture (interrelations), and ongoing difficulties when it comes to satisfying of our immediate needs. Manufacturers still have the potential to develop, but there is almost nobody who is able to buy their goods. Large pools of the population of Western countries who lost their income cannot purchase goods at the same rate they used to. Previously, goods were produced and consumed within a complete monetary-commodities cycle. Now, the cycle is broken.

At some point capitalists arrived at the wrong decision: They started to play with finances alone, separate from products. A large, inflated “bubble” was created adding its contribution to the overall crisis. Because the bubble is devoid of real content, it is blown up with the help of advertising and a game that takes place between various banks and financial systems.

Thus, in all spheres of human activity, in education, culture, interpersonal relationships, people are not able to live as they used. Humanity is helpless.

Let’s take Spain as an example: Young people who received a university education in Europe cannot find jobs; they cannot marry because they have no ability to provide for their families, nor can they make progress in their professions. Everybody wants to put their knowledge into practice, have a family, buy a house, etc., but nobody needs them. People cannot realize themselves; they cannot find a place for themselves anywhere; they cannot lead a normal life. All they have is unemployment and uncertainty.

This is spreading around the world. A person has no solution in a situation where I care only about myself and do not care about the world; if we don’t care about others, we cannot provide others with a means of subsistence. We do not care about each other; therefore, on one hand, we toss out a huge amount of surplus goods, and on the other hand, the surplus does not get to the correct destinations where they are desperately needed. Our ego doesn’t allow us to take care of others. Only if we feel a threat do we begin satisfying their needs.

As another example, let’s look at Africa, which once produced many products and developed remarkably. But then the Europeans began dumping their imports there with slashed prices. This destroyed the local market; Africans stopped producing staple goods; people abandoned their previous jobs and professions. Later on the same companies that artificially lowered prices while introducing their products started to raise them once the local competition was eliminated. As a result, Africans were left without mean, and their impoverished situation persists to this day.

There are very harsh conditions in the world and they are exacerbated by a deepening global crisis. It impacts both developed countries and Third World nations, some of which are only beginning to develop. All of it is caused by human egoism. But we are also already feeling that we are connected: We are all floating in one boat; if someone damages the boat, it affects everyone. We cannot advance. Our egoism works like a boomerang and hits every single one of us.

In Europe, it appears in a very peculiar way. In order to achieve power and success, European nations initiated mutually beneficial connections, and it is impossible to break them apart. Severing them would cause complete obliteration. Consequently, instead of a common market, joint production, and a united society, we witness a dangerous state, which doesn’t allow anybody to move a finger without the consent of others.

We’ve already approached the necessity of taking each other into consideration. Even though European history is filled with wars and conflicts and numerous counts of tragic events, slaughters, and the subjugation of one nation by another…still, today there is no other way for Europeans but to transition to cooperation even though it will yet be originated by hatred and indifference. It’s not enough just to reckon with others; we see that it doesn’t work. It gradually becomes clear that a common market doesn’t tolerate old economic laws that are built on an egoistic foundation. The old system is not functional any more.

Today, both human nature and the environment bring up a new condition: Egoistic compassion doesn’t work; we have to implement love to our neighbors.

It’s hard to pronounce these words. They seem so unrealistic, so far from us. Our hearts reject them.

However, we will continue to approach this state if we manage to attract the compelling force upon us. Today, Nature forces us to gain love for our neighbors since the only alternative to it is death from hunger, disease, and cataclysms. It’s our duty to form an alternate force that would oblige us to move towards mutual love.

What kind of force is that? It is our surroundings that are organized in a way that pushes us to unite even more so than ecology, economics, education, possible lack of food supply, etc. do. Society must be strong enough to sustain our egoistic nature, impose a new type of relations among us, and thus lead us from one edge to another—from hatred to love.
From KabTV’s: “A New Life” Episode 13, 1/11/12

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Recently, a new wide-ranging and profoundly deep step of egoistic development has begun. It is based on the relationships that gave rise to industry and international trade. Business owners in industrial countries began to realize that if they outsourced production to China or India, they could save a lot of money on labor costs. Gradually, they transferred their enterprises to the Third World countries, trained local workers, and started operating.

As a result, on one hand, these endeavors significantly increased profits, but on the other hand, Western countries deprived themselves of their prior “content.” Do owners of enterprises care about people who have been recently fired and became unemployed? “Let politicians worry about them; our task is to earn money.”

Consequently, governments were forced to take care of billions of people who couldn’t earn a living. Western countries started to get poorer, their indebtedness grew rapidly, and they started to print money that was not backed by real value. Previously, money was tied to gold and represented real wealth. Not any more. It so happened that flourishing Western nations grew poorer. Poverty is not yet obvious, but processes accumulate and gradually reveal themselves.

The worst thing that happened is that internationally known business people became even richer due to outsourcing to poorer countries; their level of influence upon their governments in Europe and America increased dramatically. Thus, egoistic values (money) crawled to the top of the human pyramid. Those people acquired power over everything. It resulted in the current financial and economic crisis. This is where our egos lead us.

Developed industrial countries lost their social structure, which was totally destroyed by the impoverishment of multiple layers of the society. This situation negatively impacted education and various other types of social relations.

Eventually, we arrived at a general global crisis.  Nowadays, reciprocal interconnection is imperative; “rich” countries mainly consume, whereas poor countries manufacture the goods for consumption. They became inseparably linked into one network. Everything that is produced in Third World countries has to find its buyer in industrially developed countries. But the number of potential buyers constantly decreases since people in Western countries get poorer. As a result, the world crisis spreads and deepens.
From KabTV’s: “A New Life” Episode 13, 1/11/12

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Opinion (Andrew Roberts, PhD, British historian and journalist): “Nothing is inevitable. It was the first truth I was taught as a Cambridge undergraduate in the 1980s, and it has been italicized and underlined for me by everything I have learnt since. …The whole of human history is testament to the fact that vast sections of mankind can seem to be progressing towards what looks like an established goal, only to get sidetracked into cul-de-sacs, sometimes for decades, occasionally for centuries. So why do we still assume that an eventual return to any significant economic growth in the European Union is inevitable?

“…the leading thinkers of the Whig and Marxist historical determinist school who infected mankind with the concept that we were ‘progressing’ somewhere, moving towards a fixed, positive future point. In economics, that idea is encapsulated in the assumption of economic growth as a kind of manifest destiny, almost the birthright of the species.

“By contrast the EU is giving off the strong historical whiff of an empire plateauing out into long years of relative stagnation… Birth rates, defense expenditures, bond prices, welfare spending versus wealth creation; everything that historians look to in order to gauge the health of empires suggests that Europe’s fire has gone out.”

My Comment: Following the EU, the crisis will spread around the world. All countries will go through their stages of stagnation. What lies ahead is the realization of the need for a different development, not material, which is limited by our planetary possibilities and tiredness from material achievements. The only solution is to develop on a new, non-material dimension: the revelation of the hidden forces of nature, the discovery of the purpose of our existence and its attainment. Humanity simply has no other incentive to exist.
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Question: Suppose an unemployed person came to you and asked: “What exactly should I do?” How would you answer him?

Answer: I would say the following: I want to explain that you are not unemployed. Today families, countries, nations, the world, the entire human society, all of us are entering a completely different existence. We do not have to work for 10 hours a day, but rather we need to organize our life in a completely different way. Everyone inevitably will come to this; you’ll see that you are not alone.

In China, one million people are laid off daily, and this is escalating. The same happens in Europe and America. In Africa, people did not work and still do not work. In practice, we are approaching such a state when the notion of “jobless” or “unemployed” is erased. A person should create an environment where he will feel comfortable. If this requires work, then he will work; if it does not require work, then he will not. Work is not an end in itself.

Let’s think and discuss what should be the form of humanity if today billions of people are released from their work as something unnecessary, superfluous, and even harmful. I received a letter from my student who works in China. He has a large business selling Volkswagen cars, which are very popular in China. He writes: “We have not sold a single car since the beginning of the month. It is a disaster!” And they used to sell a hundred a day. Do you understand what is going on?

So, what can I do with an unemployed person who is standing in front of me crying? This is a natural trend in our evolution. Let us see where it leads and take the necessary steps to ensure that we do not feel inadequate because we do not work. Perhaps, it is not necessary to work. Maybe, all our work only harms nature, us, and the environment. It obviously destroys the environment and possibly us. What can we do that is more enjoyable instead of what we were doing before? This is what we can talk about.

We just need to show a person that this is an objective reality, and if he understands, then he will see that his life is getting better, not worse.
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From a “Talk  on Integral Education” #13, 12/18/11

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I think that in the course of the year to come, humanity will realize that it’s impossible to continue this race of overconsumption, overproduction, and bank inflation. This bubble must burst and we must begin to consume reasonably and implement fair distribution of work and resources amongst everyone.

The many hours that will free up a person’s day as a result of these changes will be taken up by integral education and upbringing, where each person will begin to feel a new level of existence, a spiritual state and will gradually begin to feel a sense of commonality. In this common desire, this common intention and direction of thoughts, we will begin to attain the next level of nature and its harmony. Our bodily sensation will begin to disappear because our bodies exist on the animate level.

This is the state that we’ll eventually have to reach. Nature will assist us in two ways: by giving us blows and by revealing new horizons.

I feel that this year is very powerful and fundamental. We must do everything in our power to keep humanity from going in the direction of protectionism and division. We must help people realize that we need to direct our course toward further connection.

Europe is already starting to realize this. Today’s European market serves as an example. They play the game of “What will happen if we divide?” and then encounter enormous problems. Therefore, their course is directed toward further globalization and integration.

This is a change, a critical realization of which direction to take and where the salvation lies. I hope that Europe will ultimately overcome this special peak by going in the direction of further integration and connection; otherwise, it won’t survive.

If they do move toward integration, then they will discover enormous strength and opportunities, and they will serve as an example to all of humanity. They will not have to re-develop their manufacturing industry that they’ve moved to the East and Asia, primarily to China.

If this process takes the right course then we’ll see humanity developing in a good gentle manner and it would be a good example for everyone. This would be a rosy picture. I hope that it happens this way.

If we don’t move in this direction, then unfortunately, there may be great international and global problems, which will ultimately lead us to the same results.
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From “A Talk on Integral Education” #14, 12/18/11

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Opinion (Adrian Mowat, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief Asian and emerging-market strategist): “China’s economy is already in a so-called ‘hard landing,’ according to Adrian Mowat….

“‘If you look at the Chinese data, you should stop debating about a hard landing…China is in a hard landing. Car sales are down, cement production is down, steel production is down, construction stocks are down. It’s not a debate anymore, it’s a fact.’…

“‘What you can look forward to is to see a pickup in property demand that will clear up the inventory; that doesn’t appear likely,’ Mowat said in an interview after the conference yesterday. ‘I don’t see any evidence of a policy move that will cause the economy to re-accelerate.’”

My Comment: The crisis will affect the entire world and will not subside; instead, its waves will force us to realize the need for internal restructuring, a new attitude towards ourselves, society, and nature, all the way up to full integration. Asia, as the largest and most energetic continent, will feel the crisis more than the EU and the USA.
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Opinion (Valentina Matvienko, Russian Federation Council Speaker): “The EU countries’ closer cooperation with Russia could help resuscitate the economy of Europe, Valentina Matviyenko said during the 14th session of the Association of European Senates in Paris.

“Delivering her speech at the Luxemburg Palace, Matvienko called the current global economic crisis ‘a completely new phenomenon’ which she said could be resolved with the help of fresh ideas and approaches. She signaled Moscow’s readiness to help Europe grapple with the economic crisis.”

My Comment: It is encouraging to hear about the insights of decision makers, but the problem is that they do not know what decisions they need to make.
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