My article in Newsmax: “Capitalism Is Kaput, What’s Next?”

Capitalism has been dying for a long time but we didn’t know it. We thought we were practicing it; we thought it was the most advanced economic system humankind has ever conceived, while in fact, it has long been kaput or as Webster’s Dictionary defines it, “utterly finished, defeated, destroyed, unable to function.” Indeed, capitalism has been destroyed by the very force on which it intended to capitalize: the human ego.

When it first dawned on humanity, capitalism was the right thing at the right time. It facilitated progress, healthy competition and in many cases, a chance to build a good life based on one’s willingness to work hard. But for the past several decades, the link between labor and income has been shattered and crushed, replaced by financial wizardry and exploitation of financial power for political gain and vice-versa. And just to demonstrate the disconnect, ask yourself this: If every industry and every service in the country is breaking record lows right now, how come Wall Street is breaking record highs? This is what a shattered link between labor and income looks like. Very few gain from it.

Now, thanks to the coronavirus, it is becoming evident that capitalism has run its course. I believe that the tide in stocks we have seen after the initial drop when COVID-19 first struck is the swan song of capitalism. Like the sudden apparent recovery of a dying man before the final collapse, Wall Street is currently celebrating. But it will be short lived. Very soon, it will begin its final decline. It may be a longer process or a shorter one, but either way, capitalism has run its course.

To me, the more troubling question is “What’s next?” Because if we are not careful, the signs are pointing to a new dark era. Radical forces are becoming increasingly brazen and seek to overthrow democracy and capitalism and install totalitarianism. It may take the form of communism, fascism or Nazism, but whichever it is, it will not benefit the regular folk.

Yet, this will happen only if we stay idle. It is evident to everyone that the world today is an integral system whose parts are all interconnected. Everything that each of us does affects all of humanity. In such a system, caring only for ourselves is a prerogative we cannot afford. We must develop a more inclusive thinking where we calculate our actions according to the benefit of our communities, cities, countries and eventually the world, instead of only our own. If we are aware of this then we have no excuse to sit by and let events develop on their own. We need to spread the word that we are all responsible for one another.

The violent struggles we are seeing now are counterproductive to the cause of mutual responsibility since they only increase hatred and separation. Being interconnected and interdependent means we care for one another. And just as I wouldn’t act violently toward a member of my family with whom I disagree, so I must avoid violence toward others, on whom I rely, even if I do not like them for whatever reason.

I am not endorsing socialism and certainly not communism of any sort. Nor do I have a particular political affiliation. My interest is the well-being of humanity. Accordingly, I am endorsing caring, mutual consideration and mutual responsibility.

The resulting economic system after the demise of capitalism will be something we have never tried before, since we have never cared for one another unless they were family (and even then, not always.) There is no clear outline to this new economy, since we have yet to begin to care for one another, but as soon as we start caring, we will know what we should do.

It is a bit like a first-time mother. Until she has her first child, she has no idea how to be a mother. But as soon as the child is born, she suddenly knows. She feels what she should do because her love guides her motherhood.

The same is true for a society that is based on caring. Until we begin to build it, we will not know what it should be like. But once we take our first step, the knowledge will come through our care for one another.

It is possible and it is urgent. If we wait, the radical, totalitarian forces will gain too much traction and set society off on the complete opposite track.

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Medium published my new article “What Declining Birth Rates Mean to Humanity”

Is it right to bring more children to this world now? This is a question that seems more relevant than ever in these days when economic, social, and environmental uncertainty are making women think twice about motherhood. The number of births in the United States hit the lowest levels yet during the last three decades, according to an official recently released study of 2019. It is expected that the distress caused by the coronavirus pandemic will lower those record-breaking statistics even more. But beyond the numbers, our main concern should be how to improve the quality of life for the world’s population, the quality of our relations for the benefit of society.

“As humanity evolves, people are becoming increasingly reluctant to have children because people’s egos are growing, producing a self-centered approach toward all aspects of life.”

The fertility rate per woman needed to replace a generation is 2.1 children, a level that is not currently met, according to a recent report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The preliminary study found that on average, women in America are expected to bear only 1.71 children. It also reveals that the total number of births fell to about 3.7 million last year, nearly 1% less than in 2018.

The baby boom predicted as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown will not materialize. Quite the opposite: Birth control requests in America have nearly doubled due to the virus outbreak. As a result of the soaring unemployment and economic pressure, economists expect to see approximately 500,000 fewer births in America next year.

Today’s society does not cultivate a desire to have children. As humanity evolves, people are becoming increasingly reluctant to have children because people’s egos are growing, producing a self-centered approach toward all aspects of life. The ego grows day by day, generation after generation, and makes people focus more and more on pleasing themselves, to the point that today many young people do not even want to marry. Couples have developed a new approach to life, centered around self-fulfillment, and many question why they should lose their freedom and tie themselves to fulfilling the needs of children.

At the same time, medical advancements have given us the sensation of control over births. Women can now choose whether they want children or not, when and how, depending on their careers or life priorities. They are even able to choose the baby’s gender prior to conception. From the naive couple of past society with very little knowledge about pregnancy and childbirth, we have transformed into a society of well-planned and carefully-calculated childbirth.

The sharp decline in fertility rates has swept through many countries as a global trend, as studies confirm. But this is not necessarily a negative situation. One may ask, “Since we already have a worldwide population of 8 billion, why do we need to increase it? What for?

In fact, a person needs meaning, a higher purpose than just living. What does fertility give to a person? Every person’s life on earth is purposeful. Every human being is meant to correct his egoistic nature. This goal can be attained through the gradual process of connecting with others, until a new humanity is born, a humanity based on mutual responsibility and unity.

What the world needs now is a qualitative change not a quantitative one. A society in which every person rises above his egoistic nature and aims at benefitting his surrounding environment does not require billions of people. This epitomizes a qualitative change instead of a quantitative one.

Concern about how to educate our children and not the number of births is what should occupy our minds.

When we educate our children to love others, toward the purpose of life, toward discovering the correct connection between people, this will be the time to bring as many children into the world as possible. In a global and integral system, each child brings tremendous benefit to the development of all of humanity.
Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash
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Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Book of Zohar: We must not ponder the state of rest of the beings in the world besides man, since man is the center of creation, as will be written below in Item 39. All other creatures do not have any value in themselves, but to the extent that they help man achieve his wholeness. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.

Question: If the fall and crisis occur at the level of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, then this nature falls together with man? Where is the role of man in this? Or is he just in this environment and reaping the benefits?

Answer: Man is in this environment as the organizer of this fall. Nature itself is integral. Its inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels are interconnected and are in perfect harmony.

And man violates this harmony with his egoism. It is him who we must correct and then connect with all of nature in the same general integral picture, to complement each other in peace, in harmony with each other, and with all levels of nature. Nature’s forces push us to this.

If we quickly understand this and do everything we need, then there will be no viruses and no problems. And if we push, inflate, and only indulge our egoism, then nature will inevitably cause all kinds of problems with its sharp reactions.

These problems will show us that we must annul ourselves, unite between us, not abuse nature, which will still lead us to equilibrium but by pressure, crises, and blows.

But I hope that people will nevertheless learn and hear what the wisdom of Kabbalah says about this. And then we really straighten up.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/10/20

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Nature’s Experiment

Question: We see how nature forcibly pushes us to integrate. At first it was tribal, communal integration, when people united in order to survive, then came forced imperial integration, colonization, and then cultural, religious, national, and class integration. Today there is economic and informational integration.

All this developed under the influence of nature without our participation; no one specifically wanted it. And suddenly there is a virus that divides us, makes us stop all connections.

What is this leading to? Doesn’t this seem like it is against nature?

Answer: In principle, we are advancing toward gradually distancing from each other. Once we lived in communities, villages, and farms, but now everyone has their own apartment.

Today, newlyweds do not live with their parents, and once it was natural. Currently, every small child should have his own room, his own personal space. His egoism becomes so great that even though he is only 5 – 10 years old, he still requires a separate space for himself: “This is mine and don’t enter!” In other words, we see a person’s egoism growing.

And now its next level is being revealed, which nature itself shows us. If you are close to each other, then your relationships leads you to disease and death. So, you should be at a distance of two to 10 meters from each other. Who knows where this will lead?

In principle, this is quite natural. In this way we can do less harm to each other.

Question: As if nature forbids us to be in connection with each other because it was egoistic?

Answer: Here we learn something else. On the one hand, we willy-nilly stopped working and for some time found ourselves in the family circle. Therefore, there are certain problems surfacing, as man is not used to this way of life.

On the other hand, problems are manifested not only between spouses, but also between parents and children, between children themselves, etc. They are social in nature, and this is bound to have very large consequences.

Nature is putting us through a certain experiment; that is how I see it. I look at nature as a supreme intelligence that brings us to a certain state so that we understand how we should behave.

The supreme intelligence knows how we actually act, how we determine and become aware of our states, how we can find a way out of them by comparing the pleasant with the unpleasant, with development, with various movements. It sees how our habits, customs, and social problems and their solutions change.

Now all countries are simultaneously undergoing such restructuring, to different degrees, in different cultures, but it is still happening.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/23/20

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Trapped in Global Egoism

Question: The great physicist Albert Einstein said: “A human being, is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

Do you agree with this statement?

Answer: Statements are good. But they are so streamlined that when you start to understand them, you come to the conclusion that you are thinking about completely different things, events, reasons, and solutions. And it turns out that everything seems to be right as it should be, everyone agrees, but in the end, they come to the point that they run in different directions.

Question: Indeed, we talk about love for others, about unity, but we see that it is getting worse and worse.

But unity and love were spoken about thousands of years ago. All religions are built on this. Today, even scientific research is being conducted on this topic. And although a person is very pragmatic, he sees that unity can benefit us. But where are we, where is this unity, where is this love for others?

Answer: Our egoism does not allow us to submit to each other. If at one moment I submit to you, then the next moment I don’t want to submit, I try to get away from it, try to snatch something for myself.

Look at the agreements made between countries, governments, and within governments. How many laws exist in each country for each act, for each movement of a person? And who monitors their implementation? And what can we do within these laws?

People do nothing but invent new laws, write them down, and put them on shelves. And then, when necessary, they pull them out using all sorts of hook-making methods and begin to prove that this law exists and that it must be activated. In this way, they want to suppress others.

We understand these movements of our egoism that want to subjugate everyone. These egoists stand in governments with such pride, trying to suppress others by so-called parliamentary methods. But how long can these things be tolerated and how long can they continue to exist?
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/23/20

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Question: How did it happen that the king of nature is able, due to illusory ideas, to destroy not only outsiders but even himself? How does this fit with high ideals, culture, art, moral principles, and mighty intellect?

Answer: We need to understand that we are made like that. It is simply amazing how nature has created us, on the one hand, seemingly reasonable, and on the other hand, endowed with such egoism, which cannot be reckoned with.

If you take any beast and put a bowl of food in front of it, it will feel whether it is good or bad for him. If you put a bowl of delicious food in front of a person, he will eat it even if it is bad for him.

This problem is in all our feelings. On the one hand, we desire, and on the other hand, we do not understand what we desire. That is, we cannot control our desires. They command us.

In animals, instinct commands. Good or bad is just an instinct. There are no attachments, no love, no hatred, no pleasant or unpleasant, but only good or bad that are recorded in their genes. In us, it is not so.

Question: Does this mean that man is the crown of nature, but only in potential?

Answer: A person will become the crown of nature only after we go through the realization of evil and the completion of his correction.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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Question: 3,000 years ago, people discovered the law of mutual guarantee: love your neighbor. It was already written about it back then. This is the same law that exists at the level of elementary particles.

How is it that we have known this law for thousands of years, but it does not help us? We still cannot balance our egoism in any way, can we?

Answer: But this law is against our nature. Our nature seeks to exalt itself, to subjugate all to itself, to absorb everything in itself, without giving anything to anyone, without considering anyone. This is the law of egoism that exists in every person.

I am not just like animals, dragging some carcass for myself and not sharing it with anyone. I want to subjugate everyone, so that everyone will be my slaves, groveling before me. I want absolute power over the whole world. If someone thinks that this is not the case, they simply do not know themselves well.

Question: If a few thousand years ago people already knew that love will cover all sins and did not achieve this, is it that perhaps thousands of years must pass before we come to this?

Answer: Perhaps. I am not saying that it should end today. But we are coming to this. We are moving toward the realization of the evil that we cannot live within our nature. By this, we are killing ourselves and endangering life on Earth. We must somehow raise ourselves above our egoism, above our instincts, and come to integral interaction.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/16/20

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Question: You say that nature is an integral system and that everything in it is built on love. But we know from history that everything in nature is built on competition, survival, and suppression of one’s neighbor. How would you comment on this?

Answer: It is very simple. Each of us consists of two parts: animate and human—in one form. In the animate form, we submit to the general evolutionary development and nothing can be done about it.

And the human in us should be above competition, only in mutual assistance. Kabbalah teaches how to create a human society from us animals. This is the only way we can survive. Otherwise, we will simply disappear—even as animals.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/12/20

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Comment: We know that people are immersed in the Internet now; they don’t seem to need anyone, just a gadget and internet access. Recently, an experiment was conducted: five days in a single, cozy cell without the internet.

My Response: That is a death-like experience.

Question: This was in the UK, where TV Channel Five launched the show called “In Solitary: The Anti-Social Experiment.” Each person had a single, comfortable cell with a soft bed, sanitary conditions, and wholesome food for five days.

But the main condition was complete solitude. People could only draw, read, and talk to themselves. And within a few hours, they began to panic.

Everyone coped with this panic in different ways: one pressed the rescue button, one started talking to the surveillance cameras, and another had an upset stomach. Only one person, a female blogger, who had set herself the goal of getting rid of her habit in this way, had brought pencils, markers, and a lot of paper, and she drew some meaningless pictures.

What was the conclusion of the experiment? Researchers write that a social
being, a human, suffers from loneliness, but a citizen of the modern world with constant internet access does not fully realize this until he is completely isolated.

Mankind and loneliness, are these categories compatible?

Answer: A person, who had always been closed in the world and now finds himself torn away from it, feels a huge vacuum. He worked at the pace of this world, day, night, news, and so on, all of these programs and calls, and suddenly he no longer has access to any of it. Of course, this is a huge void for him.

People used to live in such emptiness. I remember my childhood and youth until the 90s. In 1995, I created my first website kabbalah.info. Before that, how did we live? We had newspapers and television. Before television, which came to me in 1955, we had newspapers and books.

Question: What has changed in a person in just 50 years that he suddenly cannot be alone?

Answer: A person has a connection with the world and he cannot live without this connection. It is not the electronic web; it is the web of connections between us that has opened up. We can no longer exist without feeling each other. But, we fill this feeling with completely different thoughts, news, and with other unnecessary things. But, in general, we have discovered a web of connections between us.

I feel like I am connected to it and I cannot do without it. It is like air to me. I am connected and I feed from it; I get this information feed and it keeps me going. Without it, I do not feel like I am alive.

Question: If you take out the layers of information that a person receives, what is still important to him in this web of communication?

Answer: Look at what is going on in the evening on TV news and sports programs. Here, they dance, they shout at each other, and argue. All of this is now called “the world” or “our world.”

If it were all turned off, do you understand what would happen to the world? The world would plunge into the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages! People will have such a lack of information! They don’t need it and they can, in principle, survive without it, but they won’t be able to. They are already different.

You can view the news as it is presented and you will see that out of every 100 news items, maybe one or two will interest you enough to open them, and all the rest, you don’t need. But you cannot do without them.

Comment: Researchers write that all of this information showered on a person causes stress because it is so superfluous to him.

My Response: But he cannot be without stress.

Question: How would you fill the content of these programs?

Answer: I can choose the content, but it would require completely different people. We need to educate people. It is necessary for us to educate people regarding how to discover the source of life and the source of the world and how, not to be lost in these streams of news that are composed for them.

A person is in need of good connection. In need of good communication! And the web doesn’t make any connections. It’s just like a spider’s web.

Question: What is a web of good communication?

Answer: This is when each person thinks about how to do good to others.

Comment: And then, if he is isolated…?

My Response: This web will still act on him because others will think about him.

Question: And you don’t need any gadgets for that?

Answer: Nothing is needed! Only good intentions that will connect people with each other. People will be connected in such a way that everyone will feel one another’s good intentions and nothing else is needed. And, from this, everyone will be delighted and feel a sense of meaning of existence and in their capacity to rise above their “I” and so on. This is necessary.

I have no doubt that we will succeed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/3/20

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Question: Egoism is our nature, our essence. Throughout the entire history of the development of humanity, our desires, that is, our egoism, has constantly grown.

It is enough to recall Pushkin’s fairy tale about the golden fish [similar to Grimm’s “The Fisherman and His Wife”], which illustrates the growth of desires and the immediate emptying after their fulfillment. What is the reason that nature constantly brings us to this state?

Answer: This is for us to want to catch a golden fish and use it a thousand percent because this is how egoism is developing in us.

Egoism, the hidden force of nature, pushes the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels and, mainly, humans, to the maximum fulfillment. However, in principle, it is impossible to achieve.

Question: Does it mean that fulfillment and the subsequent emptying of desires cause the development of greater desires in us? Is there some kind of limit to them?

Answer: Desires are limitless. Why should they be limited? If I want ten grams of some kind of pleasure and receive it, I am in a state of limitlessness, infinity.

Question: The fulfillment of our desires, which is achieved through many efforts, is felt only for a short time, and then disappears. Especially when it comes to basic desires: food, sex, and family. Why?

Answer: This is in order for us to go further and achieve more. There is a constant development of our desires. This is not just a repetition of the same desires since they  change slightly.

We feel greater desire all the time, and then greater emptiness, which is followed by an even greater desire for pleasure and even greater emptiness, and so on.

Question: The higher the quality of pleasure, the longer it lasts. Let us say that the pleasure of eating a meal lasts for a fairly short time. The pleasure of fame, for example, from winning a competition or from performing a concert, lasts, as psychologists say, even for a few weeks. What will it lead us to in the end?

Answer: To the fact that we will want a lot and then we will finally realize that the desire by itself does not fulfill us because the pleasure that comes and fills the desire immediately leaves it empty.

Question: Yet, the pleasure of communicating with friends fulfills much more than from eating a meal or shopping. On the other hand, we see a lot of lonely people. Why don’t people sit in circles and communicate with each other?

Answer: We cannot feel enjoyment all the time from the same fulfillment. No way. The nature of pleasure is determined only by the difference between what we desire and what we feel.

Therefore, there must be a constant renewal of the desire and, accordingly, a constant renewal of its fulfillment. Only in the case of the dynamic development of both desire and fulfillment and their constant complementing each other will we feel pleasure.

In fact, desires and fulfillments are purely mechanical data. It is their change, when you are on the border between what you want and what you are fulfilled with, that gives you a sense of pleasure.

Question: So we are arranged in such a way that we can enjoy only for a few moments?

Answer: Only for a moment!
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era,” 4/23/20

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