In the News (India Today): “2020 was a bad year. This has been said enough times and accepted by most people who wouldn’t want to be reminded of the terrible year. But, nobody would have thought that a year could be so bad that it will have a dedicated game to it which is kind of fun. Yes, 2020 now has its own game 2020 game, a free web-based side scroller that offers a fun take on last year’s events. …

“Developed by Max Garkavyy, 2020 game was built over a span of six months where each level is an event to forget from last year. The game looks inspired by Super Mario where the ultimate challenge is to avoid the obstacle and reach to the end. These obstacles come in the form of wildfires, COVID-19, TikTok, the US presidential election, and the endless quarantines. …

“Almost none of us want to witness another year like 2020 where everything that could have possibly gone wrong, did. Yet, almost all of us who survived this terrible year can look back at it and be proud. And, there is no better way to revisit 2020 with a bit of fun something that is made possible by 2020 game.”

Comment: Maybe it’s worth creating such a game to go back and know in advance what mistakes not to make.

My Response: I think that’s an idea. Any game in some way shows you a possible future. You can play several options here and see how it suits you, your attitude, perception, and so on.

Question: So the leaders of Europe and Trump, for example, could think and see what mistakes they made?

Answer: The problem is that they do not know where this is going, what these laws of nature are. Their ignorance is ruining them.

Question: And if you were given such a game “2020” now, what would you personally do?

Answer: It should all be built to compel people to get closer. Imagine that we are obliged to get closer to each other. For today, you must feel closer to others so much so that you feel that you are in their life, they are in your life, that you are mixed.

Question: So it is in thoughts, in decisions, in everything?

Answer: In everything! Everything got mixed in this world. And now you have to see how close it has come, and now you have to somehow find yourself in this: “Do I want to stay in the past? No, I have to get closer! And how do I get closer? I cannot. Maybe, after all, one way or another to get around this case? Maybe, like in a game, I can buy some chips, pay for something and not do anything?”

Question: So that all these thoughts that I don’t want to get closer, but I have to, they have to live in a person all the time?

Answer: Our whole life is a game.

Question: So you would take a player and bring him to such a state?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And in all the problems: the hype with food that took place, the movements in America, the presidential elections, the only lever is the thought of closeness?

Answer: Only our closeness. As soon as we get closer, everything turns out right, even if it may not seem so to us.

Question: And what if one of the presidents were playing this game and had to make some decision?

Answer: He would make his state an exemplary stage for closeness. And then they would show the whole world that this is the way of salvation.

Question: His future is then determined and the future of the country, and even the world?

Answer: Of course. We will see in the near future that it will happen anyway.

Question: At the same time, as you say, the head should also think about the world? Is this his initial thought?

Answer: Absolutely. He should think not only about his country. And then his actions will really be set up for closeness, for connection. Everything will be very good. Just wish it would be soon!
[279265]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/25/21

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In the News (The Guardian): “Several Indian states are considering implementing a controversial two-child policy and incentivising sterilisation as a means of population control.

“The state of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with a population larger than Brazil, has announced draft legislation which would see anyone with more than two children denied state benefits, subsidies and government jobs. After a family has two children, there will also be incentives if one of the parents undergoes voluntary sterilisation.”

Question: Do you think such initiatives are correct?

Answer: We must not sterilize people like animals. People need to figure out themselves how to regulate the number of children they will have and why they do it.

Question: Are you suggesting a serious educational process?

Answer: Nothing will work without it, not laws or coercion, only creating a framework that a family would be proud of the fact that it brings up not a large number of children but rather special children.

Question: This revolution in thinking must take place by providing them with education?

Answer: Of course! And it will happen anyway. Otherwise, look at what kind of country it is! I was in India, I was in China, and I saw a big difference between people.

Question: Should it be carried out not by a bill on limiting the number of children, but by constant, structured education?

Answer: Yes.

Question: It is interesting that in Europe everything is the opposite, they have to subsidize families to have children. Yet, in countries like Africa and India, families must be subsidized to have fewer children. Why is this happening? What is this different way of thinking in people?

Answer: It is all based on religious beliefs and principles.

Question: Why does a highly educated person, let’s say, with three or four degrees, want fewer children?

Answer: He wants quality instead of quantity. He understands that the main thing is quality. He wants his descendants to be educated, to understand, know how, what, what they live for, create the right environment around them, and put their children on their feet in turn.

Question: And if people would voluntarily have many children and give them good education, is this a cultural feature? Do they do this consciously? Do you welcome this?

Answer: Of course.

Comment: Our people always had many children.

My Response: First of all, it was a small nation. Second, one did not replace the other. People were encouraged to have a large number of children, but every person, every child, at least every boy, had a teacher who educated him. The family has always been proud of the fact that its children, sons, as a rule, were educated. “Look how many pages he knows by heart!” And so on.

That is, it was like a highest ideal, a reward, approval. Everyone aspired for a child to become a sage.

They do not have that there.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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My new article on Linkedin “Could the Middle-East Drown in Water-Wars?”

Global warming, back-to-back years of drought, and absence of investments in water saving and desalination technologies are pushing the already tense international relations in the Middle-East to the point of breakdown. If the water crisis continues, it will not be long before the arid land will be scorched by gunfire.

Iranian farmers cannot produce crops without water; the Kurds and Iran are at odds over the shifting of water lines; more than 12 million people in Syria and Iraq are losing access to water, food, and electricity; and in Syria, which is still torn by a civil war that began ten years ago, the drought this year is the worst in the past seventy years. Terror saws fear, but you can restrain it with arms. Thirst saws desperation, and nothing can stop desperate people.

Next to oxygen, water is the most vital element for survival. Without it, people will do literally anything to get it.

In a 2017 podcast, Peter Gleick, chief scientist and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute said, “Some of the earliest conflicts over water [appeared] about 25 BC in Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.” Even now, “In the last decade or so,” continues Gleick, “there have been more and more instances of violence related to water … [which] have been what we call subnational conflicts.” The drought has not improved over the past four years since the interview. It has only worsened, and its consequences have brought the region to the point of near breakdown.

The most distressing element about this crisis is the fact that it is absolutely unnecessary. There are proven technologies that can turn deserts into oases at a very reasonable cost. Israel, once a victim of accelerated desertification, has brought the problem completely under control by constructing desalination plants. Israel has already built several such facilities abroad and is willing to help anyone who wishes to use the technology. Regrettably, the leaders in many Middle-Eastern countries consistently focus on tightening their grip on the people rather than on improving their lives.

In fact, Israel is already channeling water to Jordan as part of the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries. It is more than willing to sign such agreements with other neighboring countries, but at the moment, it does not appear as though there is openness toward the idea on the other side.

While I do not believe that Israel’s neighbors will start a war with Israel over water, it is sad that people who could have access to abundant water are denied this most necessary ingredient because of politics.

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My new article on Linkedin “The Israeli Covid Hubris”

There is a famous anecdote that once, when President Richard Nixon met with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, he confessed in a moment of candor that it was complicated governing 200 million Americans. To this, she replied, “You may have 200 million Americans to govern, but I have 6 million prime ministers to govern.” To this day, we don’t know how Nixon responded to Meir’s quip.

What we do know is that she was right. In Israel, everyone knows everything about anything.

When Covid-19 came along, the whole world panicked, and we in Israel immediately knew what to do, and we voiced our opinion to anyone who would (or would not) listen. Indeed, we are an obstinate people.

There is a reason for it. Our ancestors were fierce and strong minded individuals who left their own tribes and peoples and joined Abraham to form a new nation that united above all differences. At times, they succeeded and profound bliss had spread among them.

At other times, their adamant selves would take over and they would revert back to their old, opinionated selves. Then, fiery hatred would burst among them. However, after some time, they would remember the principle that had made them a nation—unity above divisions—and they would reaffirm their nationhood.

Today, we still have those fiery divisions, but we no longer have the times when we rise above them. Hatred has grown so intense among us that we can no longer unite above it. This is why every issue that comes along becomes an opportunity for altercation.

The only time when we do show some level of unity is during war. All Israelis feel it, and many admit that if there is anything to be thankful for when Gaza fires rockets into Israel, it is that this is the only time when we stop fighting one another.

For now, I don’t see that this will change soon. But at some point, Israelis will realize that they must unite not only because they are being bombed, but because they have a mission: to set an example of setting divisions aside, uniting above them, and building a strong nation.

Precisely the example of a nation created from strangers is what the world needs to see today, since everyone feels estranged from everyone else. When Israelis unite, they set this example, and this is all they need to do in order to solve all their problems with their neighbors and with the entire world—unite among themselves.

For now, they prefer to unite with anyone but each other. At some point, they will have no choice and they will do it. I hope this point comes soon.

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In the News (New York Times): “What will our future look like — not in a century but in a mere two decades?

“Terrifying, if you’re to believe Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian and author of ‘Sapiens’ and ‘Homo Deus,’ a pair of audacious books that offer a sweeping history of humankind and a forecast of what lies ahead: an age of algorithms and technology… .

“Just as the Industrial Revolution created the working class, automation could create a ‘global useless class,’ Mr. Harari said, and the political and social history of the coming decades will revolve around the hopes and fears of this new class. Disruptive technologies, which have helped bring enormous progress, could be disastrous if they get out of hand. …”

My Response: People will be replaced by machines everywhere. Today even the question is raised whether it is necessary to launch people into space. After all, 90% of the equipment in a spacecraft is necessary to support human life. What for?!

A machine will handle everything by itself. You can launch it anywhere. It will withstand any overloads, will be able to work in any circumstances, and will collect everything you need. It does not need to sleep, take tons of food with it, and take care of oxygen or anything else.

Today it is all beginning to be perceived in a completely different way. No need for these lyrics, flying somewhere, to some distant stars. A device will fly, film everything, and transmit everything.

(The Guardian): “Yuval Noah Harari examines ‘the useless class’ and a new quest for purpose

“The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.”

My Response: The whole problem is in the elites that make money on these people. If the elites did not think that they constantly need more and more “pieces of paper” or gold to put somewhere, then there would be no problem getting rid of a huge number of people.

And so these people are necessary for the elite in order to earn even more. This is the whole problem: how to “make sure the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe.”

This, of course, cannot be done. So the elite’s goal is to reduce the population so that they themselves suffer no damage. I think you can already see how they are beginning to find an approach to this.
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From KabTV’s “Challenges of the 21st century” 4/24/19

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In the article “Peace in the World” Baal HaSulam writes: But in truth, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, for they labor very little compared to the weak and lazy in society.

This is how people serve each other: I serve the one who is above me, the one below serves me, and so on, according to the hierarchy.

The only problem is whether everyone is happy with their place. Does each understand that he has nowhere else to go and that it is better for him to be satisfied with it? After all, our body constantly requires filling. There is egoism inside it that cannot be placated because it is growing all the time and requires change. This constantly confuses us. I cannot stop at any level of development. This is the source of the problem.

Comment: Nature arranged it in such a way that there are strong, domineering personalities and weak ones who are only able to serve them. In principle, by their nature, they are not capable of anything else.

My Response: Each person has his own place in society, and we must agree with this. The fact is that everything is really established in us by nature, but we can use it in different ways. The fact that people are created unequal does not mean that some are better, others are worse, or that a better place is prepared in advance for some and for others it is the opposite.

It is necessary to use everyone correctly so that everyone understands their place and is satisfied with it. As the medieval Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli wrote: “Man, do not complain at fate. Be content and accept it. Let the warrior always be brave, let the worker enjoy his labor.”
Everyone has their own place.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Hope for Peace” 9/9/09

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In the News (Forbes): “BET founder Robert Johnson argued Monday that ‘now is the time’ for white America to acknowledge damages resulting from slavery, and for the U.S. Government to provide reparations in the sum of a $14 trillion wealth transfer to help prevent the country from splitting into separate and unequal societies. …

“Johnson has long been an advocate pf reparations. ‘I’m not new to this challenge.’ He said he’s not advocating ‘more bureaucratic programs that don’t deliver and don’t perform,’ adding ‘I’m talking about cash. We are a society based on wealth. That’s the foundation of capitalism.’ In November of 2019, Leaders of the New Jersey’s Legislative Black Caucus introduced a bill that would establish a Reparations Task Force, which would aim to research the history of slavery within the state, any racial discrimination that stemmed from it, and how the state could help make up for it. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year, 63% of Americans believe the legacy of slavery affects the position of black people in American society today either ‘a great deal or a fair amount.’

Question:  Will this put an end to racism? What can these proposals lead to?

Answer: To the end of the world. When everyone starts demanding what they supposedly deserve, even billionaires, there will be no end to it. Everyone will start whetting their appetites against one another. No, you can’t do that! It is foolish to rethink the whole of history in this way.

Question: Are you in favor of people turning this period in history around without looking back and turning it into a clean slate?

Answer: I am in favor of reinterpreting the whole of history. To reinterpret history in action, that is, in fact, we were like that under the influence of our egoistic inclination. And now, when we realize its insignificance, perniciousness, inferiority, and so forth, we are moving on to the next degree of coexistence where we will simply help each other, get closer to each other, without any complaints about the past.

Comment: Without reparations, without looking back at what happened.

My Response: It’s endless!

Question: So only such a revision of history based on egoism, right?

Answer: Yes. The past cannot be bought with money, just as the future cannot be built with this money.

Question: I see, only to understand human nature and start coming closer to one another?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Who will take the first step? It’s so clear and correct. It feels like this is how it should be!

Answer: I don’t know. Whoever will gain awareness of it.

Question: A leader who will become aware of it, right?

Answer: A leader? I don’t know. By the time he reaches leadership, he can no longer be aware of anything. He’s already bought by that same egoism.

Question: So that is a dead end?

Answer: For now, yes. But there around the bend something should open up. Say, some kind of virus or a force can appear that will lead us to the awareness of the insignificance of our nature and the need to change it. And not to correct anything by the approach, “You will pay me, and I’ll be nice.” This is not the way.
[286201]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/8/21

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My new article on Linkedin “Afghanistan’s Pandora Box for Mass Migration”

Six years have passed since Europe faced one of the worst refugee crises the continent remembers.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, shockwaves resonate throughout all of Europe as countries grapple with how to handle the arrival of the thousands fleeing war, persecution, and chaos that reigns in the besieged country. The European block is trying to divvy up quotas of Afghan immigrants. Turkey has already warned Europe that it will not be their “refugee warehouse,” and similar to Greece, it has built a wall to thwart asylum seekers.

The outpouring of emigrants impacts the geographically distant United States to a lesser degree, but it is still expected to pay a heavy price for its messy withdrawal and to absorb thousands of Afghan refugees. This poses an additional challenge to their current migration crisis on its border with Mexico.

The scenes of Afghans desperately trying to escape are saddening, distressing, and disturbing, but history has taught us one thing about mass migration policies. Absorbing entire nations of people is not a realistic solution, and most definitely not a wise one in the long term. We have never seen good results throughout generations of dealing with these situations.

This is especially the case when bringing peoples with different religions, cultures, and behaviors in among other societies, particularly without any preparation on either side. It is like smoldering coals that aren’t entirely extinguished that will readily reignite a raging flame under the right conditions.

One may ask, do Europeans or Americans have a moral responsibility to accept every refugee after they withdrew military support in Afghanistan leaving the country in the hands of extremists?

Europeans or Americans should not take responsibility for people who have no intention of integrating into their culture and become like locals upon their arrival. Already today those who travel to Europe find it completely different after previous massive waves of immigration.

A more humane and correct solution would be to rehabilitate the affected peoples, help them, but in their place, in their home. But since terrorism has taken over their country, it is the mandate of international organizations such as the United Nations and its affiliates to fully support those struggling with adverse conditions to survive.

Every people has a place on earth where they belong, where they share a common culture, religion, and values. A place where they should have the necessary means and conditions to settle down and live safely. Simply opening the doors and letting an influx of immigrants in will not solve any problem. It only creates new ones of huge proportions, including opening the doors for radicalized Islamic elements to infiltrate along with those genuinely looking for shelter.

The goal in every society is for individuals to mix with each other and merge, but not artificially. The liberal approach which believes that it is possible to assimilate every immigrant through broad-mindedness is wrong. It is a recipe for increasing agitation unless a proper absorption and integration process is found.

An effective integration would necessitate an in-depth educational process in which every individual would be taught how to unite on a common ground above their differences.

Only after each nation has sat in its place and learned the laws of nature, which is round and integral, where every part is naturally linked to the rest of the system and works in harmony, then we will rise above differences. The merging should begin in spirit, in the shared values of loving others. Only then can we live with each other and not feel differences between us.
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My new article on Linkedin “Migration Is No Solution”

A heart-rending picture of a baby being handed over from its parents to US troops (but has since been reunited with its father), Airbnb offering to house 20,000 Afghan refugees at no charge, Europe fearing another wave of migration from a Muslim country, and the US debating if and how many Afghan refugees it should take in, all these point to our misunderstanding of ethnicity, culture, and faith. Instead of pondering what to do with refugees, we should plan and carry out programs to help indigenous people thrive in their indigenous countries and in their indigenous culture and faith.

We can already see that the migration of millions of Muslims into Europe was not good for Europeans. There is no integration between the cultures, no desire to learn from one another, and the migrants have no wish to merge in their new environment, but to build their old countries in their new ones, ignoring the wants of their hosts, and often patronizing them as though they were entitled to rein the land.

This forced encounter of civilizations creates nothing but clashes that produce distrust and hatred. I am all for brotherhood among all people; I think it is a must, especially today, and I think that achieving it will solve all our problems. But there is a right way to cultivate brotherhood, and there is a wrong way, and right now, we are wholly on the wrong way.

What we are doing is forced integration, and this will never work. Each country and each nation has its own indigenous place on Earth. On its own land, each nation should cultivate its culture and live by it.

The international community should assist nations that need it to thrive in their own place, not transfer them to countries where they will be foreigners, where they will disrupt the lives of the locals, and struggle to maintain their own traditions. That would only make everyone miserable. Once we have achieved stability, where each nation sits under its own vine and under its own fig tree, so to speak, we can begin to gradually and thoughtfully integrate them.

If we want to avoid such distressing images of which we have seen too many in the past several years, we should change our mindset from encouraging migration to cultivating respect for all indigenous cultures and faiths. We will all benefit from the increased and solidified diversity, as long as we do it on the basis of respect and brotherhood among all people.

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My new article on Linkedin “In A Gloomy World, There Is A Way Out”

If a word could embody humanity’s current feeling, that would be “uncertainty.” The whole world is losing direction, people live without foreseeing any clear future. They do not know what will happen next—tomorrow, in the coming months, in a year. From new coronavirus variants to extreme weather, everything is becoming increasingly unpredictable.

As somber as it seems, what lies beneath the confusion is nature’s good intention to open our eyes to see that our endless quest for material achievements is meaningless, futile, and that the time has come to pursue a higher and lasting fulfillment in life.

Uncertainty is evident in every field: on country leaders, in our workplace, the economy, society, within our families. We have reached a dead end. There is a sense of helplessness and despair, and no one really knows the right way forward.

We don’t know what to offer our children. Young people lack a good example to follow, and professions that they might previously have chosen may soon be irrelevant in today’s rapidly changing reality. In any case, they have no drive to spend many years in studies when nothing really shines on the horizon.

If their parents were driven to work endless hours a day to build themselves, the children no longer want to live that way. They seem to have learned the lesson and realize that there is no point in all this ceaseless pursuit of squandering their energy only to end up feeling empty.

Many young people have stopped chasing after great achievements, and are instead just looking to get by in life, to pass the time connected to gadgets and disconnected from their environment.

In general, the impulses for development that we had in the past are vanishing. We have begun to understand that there is nowhere else to go, no desire to move forward, no force driving us. This is the source of our despair, depression and helplessness. Until people begin to look for some meaning in life, expressions such as, “I am better off dead than alive” will become more frequent.

Without a clear future and goal, a person has no strength to live. We see this trend everywhere in the world to a greater or lesser extent depending on peoples’ nature or upon the conditions in their respective countries. But certainly, this is a global phenomenon.

This is the first time in history in which everyone simply doesn’t know what is happening. There is a general sense of shock. We have no idea how to control what unfolds, how to lead or be led. The importance of human, scientific, technological, and economic development achieved throughout the generations is dwindling because we now question whether everything that we have built thus far has something of real value to make us happy, fulfilled.

We have reached this tipping point for a purpose. Such a state of despair is revealed so that we will realize that we cannot come out from this maze through our own individual forces. This situation is showing us just how alienated we are from each other. If we weren’t so polarized and divided, we wouldn’t feel so lonely, uncertain, and anxious. We would be much more resilient, confident and hopeful about the future.

Therefore, what we see as a general crisis and evil is actually nature at work—the upper force which is all good—pushing us forward to correct our selfish nature and harmful relations to others, the root cause of all our predicaments.

Today we will no longer be able to manage our life successfully or survive without a method to guide us, the method of connection. It teaches us that the real meaning in our lives cannot be found in this world, in earthly short-lived matter, but only above it. We will only be able to rise to that elevated state by uniting and building a society truly founded on the basis of love of others, on mutual care and reciprocity. By this, we will be able to create the most fertile ground for a gratifying existence.

Along the way from love of oneself to love of others, our image of reality is replaced. Our senses are renewed, the mind and the heart change direction from the inside out, and an opposite world is revealed to us. We suddenly perceive a higher, wider world in perfect connection with the force that controls and balances everything in nature and reach a meaningful life and eternal fulfillment.
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