When your child earns his first money for ice cream, do the following:
1. Before he has a chance to lick his ice cream, snatch it from him and bite off 20%.
2. While your child stares at you in amazement, take another 30% bite.
Then give him the rest of the ice cream and explain that this is what the state does with all the money someone earns. And this will be the case with every ice cream he buys for himself. And that the percentage of the bite can be reduced by grabbing the biter by the hand and demanding to know why they are taking so many bites.

If every parent does this, there is hope that a generation of people will grow up in this country who will understand that the government does not have its own money—it only has taxpayer money. And that taxpayers not only can but should, monitor how government officials spend their money. (Unverified attribution to Margaret Thatcher)

Question: What do you think about this way of educating a citizen? That from a childhood prepare to be robbed: distrust—verification—control. What do you think about a child being brought up this way?

Answer: The words are right. It is good when the child feels such stress.

Question: Is it good that he is already ready to be robbed by the state?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Actually, this is a child. Let us say 10 to 14 years old.

My Response: No, that is already an adult.

Question: Do you think this is a possible option to educate like this?

Answer: Yes, it is good for the child and good for the person in general, for parents, and everyone.

Question: So he does not go out into the world with his arms open. He knows that the world is anxious and will bite them off. Do you think this is a good entrance?

Answer: Yes, it is quite good.

Question: What do you think about a prime minister who insists that a citizen should monitor him and his employees and subordinates? Margaret Thatcher, they say, was like that.

Answer: Yes! She was tough! She did not dismiss the criticism, but on the contrary, listened.

Question: Then what is trust in the government?

Answer: When I know, I am sure that the government is acting correctly. Then I trust it.

Question: Is it when I understand that it correctly takes a precise amount of money from me? Will it be only after some kind of check by me?

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: Is the person also being educated if he lives like this?

Answer: Naturally. He checks others for everything and checks himself, and sees that it all fits into the right system.

Question: Is this self–control, and control in general, mandatory?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Then in general, what is the correct education of a citizen?

Answer: The correct education of a citizen is that he knows his political economy well: where the money comes from, where it goes, and how he manages it.

Question: That is, how he would have done it himself. Does he become a citizen who knows this and understands all this?

Answer: Yes. At least, he should understand that in his business, in his work, and in his house, he should be a businessman, a master.

Question: Is this the correct education of a citizen?

Answer: Of course. Then this is correct at the level of the house and the family, and the state in general.
[317783]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/24/23

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Comment: Anya writes: “We live with our parents. My husband insisted on it because we wanted to save money. And now I cannot bear it anymore, I am bursting with hatred for his mother! She criticizes everything: how I cook, how I iron, how I raise children. We cannot move away yet, and my husband says we need to wait at least another year. I do not know what to do! I cannot live like this! Right now, I have closed myself in my room and I am writing to you. I understand that this is my ego, that I need to somehow adapt myself to her, but I cannot control myself. Does she not have an ego? A big one!”

My Response: Of course. But you should think about yourself. If you constantly put yourself down, you will eventually come to a state in which your ego will decrease, and this is good.

Question: So, peace will gradually come?

Answer: There may not even be peace, but as for you, you should see that such a state can be very useful.

Question: And when you say “put yourself down,” does that mean to agree?

Answer: To agree, to somehow distance yourself as far as possible and not to enter into conflicts.

Question: That is, his mother tells her: “You iron, cook, and raise children so badly.” Do you think this woman, Anya, should at least keep silent? And this will be advancement for her?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you see that this is a never ending war?

Answer: It cannot end in any way.

Question: Do you think that Anya should be smarter here?

Answer: She should be wiser.

Question: Should she close herself in her room? It is easier to leave and not listen. Just like that she closes herself in her room and stays there.

Answer: But that is not correction. Correction takes place only through contact.

She must tell herself that it is by this decision, when she does not enter into conflict and stays away from it in every possible way without arousing it, that she gradually corrects her egoism. In this way, she saves her family.

Question: Can you please tell her if she can move to such a state that at some point she will be able to say some kind words to her husband’s mother? Can this happen?

Answer: Only when she becomes convinced that she has corrected herself due to her husband’s mother. And then she can hug her and say “thank you.”

Question: Now you have introduced one more detail: that due to her husband’s mother she can correct herself. That is, she already has gratitude even for the mother whom she now hates?

Answer: Yes.

Question: But these first steps are not easy to take?

Answer: This can be corrected only if she sees in her husband’s mother the Creator who raises her this way.

Question: Could you please decipher the Creator for us? She sees that behind the mother there is something that is working with her. Should “and wishes me well” be added here? Should we make such a cluster or should we not?

Answer: The mother is ruled by the Creator. Anya should figure this out.

Question: Will it be good if Anya takes small steps in this?

Answer: If she does, then yes.
[317327]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/31/23

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I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster (Warren Buffet).

Question: Do you agree with this?

Answer: This is true, of course.

Question: Must one strive to be loved? Is this the right direction?

Answer: A man would like to be loved; at least to finish with such a result is good.

Comment: But we are very often forced to take some unpopular steps.

My Response: We are in a completely opposite world.

Comment: Where no one loves anyone.

My Response: Of course. How can we even express such ideas here as “in order to be loved.”

Question: And if I do everything for this? Here he is, a billionaire; he donates, he wants to be loved, and he comes to this thought. Is this the right thing for these people to do?

Answer: No, he will not correct the world in this way. All his actions will again turn into egoistic ones and they will not lead people anywhere.

Question: So when you say “to be loved,” you mean something different from what he does?

Answer: Of course.

Question: So what do you mean?

Answer: I cannot advise him on anything because it is useless.

Question: He no longer needs it, so advise us. What does it mean to live like this, to be remembered, and to be loved? What does a person need?

Answer: It is only necessary to engage in education. Only education! Otherwise, nothing will happen in the world.

Question: So you claim that the most respected job for a man is to be an educator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How does he educate people then?

Answer: He must explain to them in every possible way what the purpose of creation is, that only in realization of the plan of creation can a person achieve happiness.

Question: What do you mean by the purpose of creation? Should he also attain this purpose of creation?

Answer: The educator himself must attain it and then convey to people that when a person himself does good to others, he fills and enjoys himself.

Question: Let us delve deeper then if possible. What do you mean by good?

Answer: By good I mean filling another person with what he desires.

Comment: But he has a lot of different desires.

My Response: No! This already depends on education, fill him with the right kind of education so that he would require a normal minimum filling.

Question: This needs to be clarified. A person needs to be clarified in such a way that he lives on such a normal filling and does not require something big, billions of dollars, and so on?

Answer: And feels that if other people can be led to this, then this will be the complete happiness.

Question: That is, in order that people live, rejoice in the necessities that they have, and do not demand anything more beyond that? Is this what you call a correct education?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you not want to move on, to say something higher?

Answer: When I cut bread, I cut it into slices. So this is the first slice.

Comment: Then let us stop at the first slice
[317243]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/7/23

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Question: Can birth rates be regulated?

Answer: Birth rates can be controlled with the help of money and housing. If young couples are provided with conditions such as money and living space, then, I think, this can increase the birth rate. But these are huge public expenditures.

Question: You once said that there is a certain global plan in increasing or decreasing the birth rate with the help of which a correction is made. What is the meaning of this process from the point of view of Kabbalah, from the point of view of a common desire?

Answer: Of course, this refers to adopting a certain general plan for the movement of mankind to a certain limit.

But I do not think that we can talk about it now because we are still in an absolutely imperfect state. First, we need to solve a lot of problems, and only then, when we see what a family can be, what a person, children, and so on can be, will we be able to solve questions about the reproduction of generations.
[316610]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah in the modern turbulent world” 8/3/23

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Question: How can we reveal the uniqueness of a child?

Answer: I think that as much time as possible should be devoted to self-education.

Question: Is it necessary to bring up a boy in accordance with “men do not cry”?

Answer: I think that in general this is true but, on the other hand, it depends on what the price is.

Question: Does it matter how a child is named?

Answer: In general, no. But I would recommend consulting respected people.
[316850]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah in the modern turbulent world” 8/3/23

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In the News (Inc.com): “‘64 Years of Data Proves That the Bigger Kids Dream, the More Successful They’ll Be, A new study shows that how big kids dream matters as much for future success as IQ or family background’
“A recently published study analyzes surveys of 17,000 children conducted 10 times from 1958 up to the present day and finds that when it comes to how much kids achieve in life, big dreams matter as much if not more than IQ or the family’s socioeconomic situation. …

“The scale of kids’ dreams helps determine their future circumstances–and adults have a big role in shaping those dreams. …

“The study found that when kids harbored unrealistic goals in their teenage years, they did end up unhappier in early adulthood when reality set in. …

“The data shows that when parents and teachers push kids to dream big whatever their current circumstances, kids elevate their expectations. And the result is greater career success and happiness in adulthood, no matter where kids start out in life.” 

Question: The question is very simple: to dream or not to dream?

Answer: If a person does not dream, then one will be an animal.

Question: And if these are completely unrealistic dreams? The dreams of a child are somewhat…

Answer: Even if they are unrealistic, it is still necessary to dream. You don’t have to live in dreams and by dreams, but, in principle, it is necessary to dream.

Question: What is it? What does this dreaminess develop in a child?

Answer: This develops a lot of qualities in a child. Firstly, he begins to imagine his life as he would like to see it, what he needs to change in himself and change in general, what he would like to change in life and in the world. And all this puts him face-to-face with the world. That is, he is no longer just some weak-willed and accepting individual, but he really is what he would like to create in the world.

Question: So this reality that the child sees, he wants to improve and live in it all the time?

Answer: Yes, of course, at least make it for yourself, maybe it’s not better, but it is for yourself.

Question: Why is it that when children dream unrealistically, many become unhappy at the age of 18?

Answer: It depends on how much he understands, how much he is in criticism of his dreams. Here it is necessary to take it reasonably after all.

Question: So at some point the thought comes that this is just a dream?

Answer: Yes. It is necessary to train him, it is necessary to tell him, explain. And he must understand that there is a long way from a dream to its realization. But, in principle, he can implement part of it.

Question: At some point, do dreams begin to leave a person, or does a person have to dream all the time?

Answer: No, the fact is that a person goes through many different stages during his life, mainly in his youth, in adulthood. The main stage is hormonal development when he is already drawn to creating a family or connection, and so on. And then there are a lot of questions that contradict his earlier dreams, ground him. But this is not a stroke of fate for him, on the contrary. All this is a form of development.

Question: Does a person need to continue dreaming like this until old age?

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: Do you have a dream?

Answer: Yes, there is a dream.

Question: You have kept it that long? Were you going through life with this dream?

Answer: No, it has changed over the course of a lifetime. It is getting more and more sober, realistic to implement in life. It remains, but it is far from the dream that I had in the beginning.

Question: If a person is cut off, stops dreaming, and everything is gone what is this?

Answer: I feel sorry for him. What is left for him in life then? Just a pension.

It is necessary to dream, to realize your dream, at least in a partial form. Choose from it what is real and implement it.
[315807]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/17/23

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Question: When artificial intelligence is created, it is trained on trillions of parameters, literally on everything that humanity has created during its short existence by cosmic standards. There are no other options. But everything created by people did not really work for their benefit. Then how can the correct information be uploaded; how can we educate it correctly and give correct examples? Where can we take them from if the entire set of examples that exists in the human world is negative?

Answer: We do nоt care if the results are positive or negative. The main thing for us is that we can agree that they are like this. That is, on all the examples that are given to humanity, I can learn both good and bad.

But, in principle, we are talking about the fulfillment of two conditions. The first condition is to act for the benefit of all mankind, second is to not cause irreparable harm to nature.

Therefore, everything that is loaded into a person is evaluated only based on these two principles, and on this basis, a conclusion is made whether to use this example or not.
[316573]
From KabTV’s: “Kabbalah Express” 7/31/23

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Comment: From a letter:
Dear Michael Laitman, I am asking for your advice. We raised our children, gave them everything, and they disappeared and do not even call. They are not in our life. My husband started developing dementia. I take care of him by myself, I literally fall down  from exhaustion. I have no strength anymore. Our children are gone, our children have abandoned us.

Why are they so ungrateful? What did we do wrong? Why couldn’t we instill some basic respect for us in them?

My Response: We are not talking about basic respect. Maybe children are somewhere far away, busy with something, they have families, they have everything. But old people demand care and attention. I mean, I understand both parents and children.

The modern world is not made in such a way that we live together as several generations under one roof. Even children do not get attention, let alone the elderly. I do not expect anything else from the world. In no way.

Perhaps it will happen so that people will work half a day, and they will have a lot of time and will really devote part of it to parents, part to children, and part to themselves.

Question: Are you saying that we need to understand our children who are distancing from us with their families?

Answer: We ourselves have prepared such a life for them.

Comment: But this is not exactly how we lived; I remember that.

My Response: We did not live like that because we were in a different world.

Comment: By the way, you yourself have always said that it is good when three generations live together.

My Response: It was so, but now it is impossible. So, let’s stop talking about fantasies.

Question: Then the question about the future is: what will we come to in this way?

Answer: We will come to the point that we will have to really rebuild this world in order to make it more human.

Comment: You are still in favor of these good human relations one way or another.

My Response: Everyone should understand what they have to create, what kind of world they want to see. But, of course, this will not happen today or tomorrow yet.

Question: What should enter a person? What kind of world should he want to create?

Answer: A person must be imbued with desire, compassion, love, and concern about others. About others in general and not only about their relatives.

When he understands this whole system we all have to participate in, then together with others, with strangers, he will be able to create such systems of interaction, support for infants, children, youth, and so on, up to the elderly and all others where everyone feels good.

Question: You have just said a key phrase. You said that a person should understand in general this system in which we exist. Then will everything start falling into place for him?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: This is the most important moment! We do not understand this strategically.

My Response: No, we cannot depict this picture for ourselves.

Comment: We can say that the world is interconnected, but we do not imagine this picture. But the world is like that.

My Response: The world is like that.

Comment: And these connections are good ones.

My Response: These connections are good, and they do not end in this world! They continue in the next world! Therefore, in addition, we must understand where we are and how we are included in each other, where such a combinatoric takes place between us that we cannot escape anywhere, we need to have a good attitude to each other all the time.

Question: I am leaving and coming back, I am leaving again and I am coming back. Does all this take place in this system?

Answer: Yes, everything is in this system. This is called that there is no death, as it were,  and everything is infinity.

Comment: This is beautiful! I wish people would understand this!

My Response: There is no need, this is very hard.

Question: But will we come to this understanding?

Answer: Yes. But we have to be ready for it, and on the other hand, we have to be ready to do it and understand that it will be better for us. We should not look at it as a huge responsibility.
[316501]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/31/23

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Question: “What is unconditional love? How and why does it harm both parents and children?”

Answer: It is because absolute love does not educate children. Children must understand that there are certain conditions for the manifestation of love. And parents should also feel some kind of reciprocity from their children: right-wrong, correct-incorrect, toward themselves-away from themselves, and so on, so that there would be some kind of correct contacts, mutual contacts between them. And not just “I love you” and that is all.

There may be such an attitude toward a baby but not between adults. Even when children are growing up there should be mutual relations built on attraction and rejection, the carrot and the stick. Children must understand that they are permitted to behave in a certain way and not allowed to behave in another way, that there is reward and punishment.

Question: So when it is said that a child was brought up in love, grew up in love, what does this mean in your opinion?

Answer: In my opinion, a child grows in love when he understands what he is rewarded for and what he is punished for. That is called in love.

Question: And if it is in absolute love?

Answer: In absolute love a child will be crippled. He will not be able to live with other people, and it will be very difficult for him to exist in the world. He will be spoiled so much that he will be good for nothing. As a result, he will have no friends and no relatives. I do not know if he will be able to have a family.

Question: Can you explain why?

Answer: He does not feel that he owes something to somebody, and he will not correctly perceive people’s attitudes toward him. After all, he must live in the world in which he is connected with other people through reception and bestowal, but he is not ready for it. Because of that, he will just be an unhappy person. He will be rejected, people will not be able to interact with him, and he will not be able to interact with others. It will be very difficult for him not to feel unique.

Question: What is proper education?

Answer: Proper education is a balanced attitude toward a child from the side of his parents that is built on two lines: reward and punishment, mercy and severity.
[315994]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/17/23

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said during a speech that he wished he had discovered the importance of work-life balance years ago. 

Speaking at a Northern Arizona University (NAU) commencement ceremony Saturday, Gates told the graduating class that during his early days at Microsoft, he didn’t believe in taking vacation days or having weekends off, noting that he used to keep track of employees who would leave early or stay late. 

“But as I got older — and especially once I became a father — I realized there is more to life than work,” Gates said during his commencement speech. “Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson. Take time to nurture your relationships, to celebrate your successes, and to recover from your losses.”

“Take a break when you need to,” Gates added. “Take it easy on the people around you when they need it, too.”

Gates also encouraged the graduating class to live in the moment and “have some fun,” adding in his speech that what they are currently doing right now won’t impact their future  (The Hill).

Question: What is this message to students—take a break when you need to? How do you feel about this?

Answer: It means spending more time on creativity. Because if you bury yourself in work, you will not be able to give your brain, yourself, and your thoughts a creative direction.

A creative person should live by absorbing from the air, from the environment, from something that is not simple mechanical work with effort. He should be free, as creative intellectuals have always lived in general.

Comment: That is, the rest itself, even when you walk through the forest and it is a rest on the one hand, on the other hand, it is work.

My Response: Creativity. Of course.

Question: Do you completely agree with him?

Answer: He speaks correctly. A creative person should be free. Otherwise, he will not invent anything and will not give movement, an impetus to progress.

Question: What if we translate this to education, to children? A school that is based on homework, on coming to the blackboard and giving answers: “Tell me what you did at home.” And so on, and so on. If that is all, do you think, it does not prepare creativity?

Answer: It trains technicians who can work, calculate, and do something, but they will not have creative spurts.

Question: So, you are for the formula of creativity. Is it possible to bring everyone to this formula?

Answer: I think that it is possible. Especially since from our time and onward, the period of humanity’s development in the direction of creativity begins. We will see less and less production and more and more of those who work at a level above production.

Question: Are you saying that creativity is inherent to almost every person?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Why? How did they place this point of creativity into us from above?

Answer: So that we express more what is characteristic of a person, not a machine, not a beast, and so on.

Question: So, if we see that a person has resigned himself to mechanical work, does it mean that he has not found this point in himself?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does it exist in him?

Answer: It is there. Maybe he is looking for it, but it has not been revealed yet. Therefore, he has to do or chooses to do mechanical work. Maybe it helps him, it organizes his thoughts somehow.

Question: Do you think every person should look for this point in themselves?

Answer: I think that if a person has the right inner attitude, he will come to this.
[315046]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/8/23

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