My new article on Linkedin “Toward the Abolition of the Nation-State”

A comment on one of my recent posts about the state of the world stated, “There have always been cataclysm [sic] all over the world,” basically stating that it’s not the end of the world as we know it. Factually, that comment is evidently correct. Why then is there a point in focusing on what is going on today? There is a fundamental difference between what is happening these days and what had happened until today, even when the cataclysms are not as bad as past ones, at least not yet: Now they are happening everywhere, concurrently, and with growing ferocity and frequency. Another, very important, point: People are far more fragile and therefore far more affected by cataclysms than our ancestors.

The more these fires, storms, earthquakes, and pandemics plague the world, the more we will feel helpless. The gap between the life we believe we deserve and the life we actually have will become a chasm that will impel us to realize that we cannot cope alone. We will realize that only unity can save us, but our egos will drive us further and further apart. Finally, we will realize that until we deal with our egos, we will not be able to deal with our problems. At that point, we will realize that we have to overcome our separation, and that the most divisive element in our world is nationality. That will be the day when we decide to bid farewell to the notion of the nation-state.

There will still be elements that create diversity, such as culture or ethnicity. But diversity is not negative, but positive, increasing a nation’s strength and resilience. When people rise above their differences, they form stronger bonds than they had had before they fortified their cohesion. But when they are separated by countries, their intention is to stay apart and outperform other countries, and dominate them. This works contrary to the trajectory of reality toward unity. In fact, today, governments have become detrimental not only to other nations, but even to their own nations; there is nothing more egoistic than the government in each and every country.

The world will not be left ungoverned, but the government will consist of people who have been taught how to rise above local and personal interests, who feel and consider the world in its entirety, rather than a small section of it.

This may sound farfetched today, but it will not be long before we all realize that unity is a matter of life and death, that either we all adopt a reciprocal mode of thinking, or we will all perish. When that thinking becomes dominant, people will develop a more inclusive perception, including governors. Then, it won’t be inconceivable for a leader to actually have the benefit of the people in mind, rather than one’s own benefit or that of one’s cronies.

Also, there will not be a single, autocratic leader, but a council of individuals who are all committed to the well-being of the people. They will consult and jointly decide on the required policy in every matter. It will be a bit like the Sanhedrin that the people of Israel had had in ancient times, when people of high moral degree, whose minds and hearts were focused only on the benefit of the people, governed the nation and decided what was right and what was wrong. As I said, we are not there yet, but this is where humanity is going.
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Comment: It seems that we are entering the era of repentance. In America, police officers are asking for forgiveness more and more, and now the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is being considered in Congress, which addresses the behavior of police officers and Americans in general.

French President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Rwanda recognized responsibility of France for the genocide in 1994 and asked for forgiveness.
The German Foreign Minister admitted that the Germans carried out a genocide in Namibia in 1904 – 1908. He promised to allocate one and a half billion Euros for the development of Namibia. Canada has called the forced assimilation of Indians a cultural genocide. The Canadian Prime Minister apologized.

How do you feel about this process?

My Response: Mainly, these will be various excesses and nothing good will come of it either because all this is based on the great egoism of people on both sides.

What good happened to South Africa, to Pretoria, after the local population occupied Cape Town and all the other cities and cultural places? They literally turned it all into latrines, and nothing else.

That was the end of this country, which was very progressive, where the first heart transplant was performed. It had its own nuclear industry. It was a flourishing country. And what happened to it today? Poor people live there, including the same local population.

Comment: Here the question is whether to ask for forgiveness for past sins or not to ask? For example, Germany is going to give one and a half billion Euros for the development of Namibia. And Namibia says: not one and a half billion, but you owe us 400 billion for the past genocide.

My Response: I think this is not how it should be. They should help in the restoration, strengthening, development, and most importantly in educating the population, in raising the general level of the population. After all, if you pour in not even 400 billion dollars, but as much as you want, it still will not work out, it will even be worse.

You will pull them out of their centuries-old way of life, and they will disperse completely and who knows what will happen to them. We see such examples all over the world.

Therefore, I believe that there should be a completely different approach here based specifically on education.

Question: How do you feel about the era of forgiveness, if it comes?

Answer: There is no need for any forgiveness, they will not understand it all. They will turn it all upside down.

Question: Is this not a correction for those who ask for forgiveness?

Answer: No, I do not believe that either. No egoism voluntarily agrees to all this. All this is happening under the influence of a small group of rabid egoists who believe that this is exactly what should be done. They demand that the government apologize, do something in this way or in that way.

Comment: There is no component of education here.

My Response: There is none of this at all! Give us the money and shut up, that is what they demand.

Question: Does it mean that the countries will not become better, neither France nor Germany?

Answer: If you do not raise the general level of the population, to which you as if owe, then nothing good will come of it. Rather raise the population that you allegedly suppressed earlier to today’s level.

In fact, we see that all over the world, everywhere, this process of colonization, slavery, use of the local population took place: in South America, North America, Africa, and Australia. This is a period that humanity must go through.

And what to do today? Ask for forgiveness? There is nothing to ask, they just need to invest, and raise that population to today’s level. This is decades of work. Build factories and plants for them. The most important thing is educational institutions, medical institutions, and so on. Raise, lift, make people out of them. In principle, I imagine that this is very serious work and for many, many decades. It seems to me that this will stretch for many generations.

A few hundred billion dollars is not enough here, it will take much, much more. But it must be done.

It is necessary to bring the entire planet to a single system, the unification of education, upbringing, and internal development.

Comment: And for the countries that want to buy off, that is not a process of correction for them?

My Response: No, there is no ransom here. Let’s just forget about the past altogether. We need to bring the Earth into a round state.

I think that they will eventually come to this. Otherwise, there will be no peace in any way.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/7/21

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My new article on Linkedin “Human Change to Climate Change”

We used to think we were in control of the ecological environment, but every now and then a natural plague arrives and shows us how weak and fragile we are. Extreme heat, swarms of locusts, turbulent storms, violent winds, devastating floods, and long-lasting plagues are occurring with greater frequency and ferocity. Is there a way to completely ensure our future safety?

It is quite clear that the actions we take affect the ecological environment and throw the natural system out of balance. But it is not clear what the consequences of each given step may be. It is not obvious where the next blow will come and what its nature will be because the system is so complex that we do not understand the myriad connections in it.

Our intellect, emotion and even science, are not currently able to grasp the integrity of nature and its complexities. Additionally, the economic interests of the ruling elites define what happens in each and every moment, and therefore, different systems and functions serve those interests, either consciously or unconsciously.

Many organizations work to reduce human harm to nature, but such activity alone will not solve the imbalance in nature, which is the reason for environmental catastrophes. Why? Because our problem is much deeper than reducing human harm to the environment. What destroys the ecological balance the most is the egoistic relationship of self-interest between human beings.

Nature is a system composed of an integral connection that operates through hierarchy. What happens to a certain degree in the system affects all the other degrees. The intensity of the impact is in line with its hierarchical ranking. The human race is the most developed echelon, so its influence on nature is the strongest.

A person’s relation to the inanimate, vegetative, and animal levels of nature occurs at specific degrees, and the system of relations between people happens at a higher degree. The nature of human relationships is determined by the level of egoism that is developed in a person. Jealousy, hatred, respect, corruption, domination, humiliation, joy, any sentiment that passes from person to person, both in action and in thought, upsets the balance of the entire natural network with the greatest intensity.

At the same time, the human being is also the most delicate creature in the natural system. When the system is influenced negatively, people suffer the most painful injuries.

As soon as this hierarchical image becomes evident to us, we will begin to address the root of the problem.

The intensification of human egoism, characterized by self-concern and exploitation of our surrounding environment, at a time when the world is becoming so interconnected, puts us in a perilous state. It urgently forces us to upgrade human nature. In the whole ecosystem there is integrity and reciprocity; we have no choice except to understand this principle. We are in one boat, so in order to survive the 21st century, each must change one’s human nature from its inherent evil, both in behavior and thoughts. We must change our thoughts, actions and desires to those that are beneficial for others and the environment.

The practical method to learn how to attain this imperative transformation is the wisdom of Kabbalah. When we learn how to transcend all of our negative egoistic tendencies and recognize that we are all individual parts in a single, connected and completely interdependent mechanism, will we also comprehend that doing good to others is also good to me. Then we will have the mindset and emotion needed to build a network of mutual consideration and mutual guarantee.

In this advanced state our effect on the whole system of nature will be positive. We will return the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature to a general balance.

Just as today we are the ones who destroy all of nature, so we also have the power to repair it. The future of the planet depends on us.
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The transition to the state of spiritual embryo, which starts to develop in the upper world, is very difficult. This is the most difficult transition of all spiritual processes. We can say the same about corporeal conception and birth of a new life, which is a miracle.

Therefore, the spiritual transition requires a lot of patience and perseverance, a daily examination of what we can add to the state of spiritual conception in order to transition from the feeling of this world to the feeling of the upper world, from externality to internality.

Such a transition requires complying with many conditions and strictly following the advice of Kabbalists, working in the ten with complete subjugation without which it is impossible to come closer to the Creator. My friends are very important to me because only through them can I influence the Creator and advance.

Through the coronavirus pandemic and all other problems such as fires and floods, the Creator teaches us that it is only possible to approach Him if you value society and become integrated into it as much as possible. There are still many such problems ahead of us, and all of them are in order to make us think about the way to escape the blows. Salvation is possible only through collective work, all the way to complete connection.

This is how we will reach the solution.

The blows bring us closer to a better understanding of the connection we should be in with each other. Nowadays, blows are happening on a global scale and are affecting all of humanity because we live in what is called the last generation, which must begin the correction. That is why the Creator arranges such lessons for us—so that we can find out what He requires from us based on His actions toward us.

We must understand that the only way to protect ourselves from blows, floods, fires, and viruses is through good relations between us. Until we learn this, we will receive blow after blow. We will not be able to return to a quiet life. Nature is preparing unpleasant surprises for us from all directions. Since the modern world is connected by a global network, wherever a blow occurs, it will resonate everywhere and reach everyone.

Everyone will feel the blow, which will help us recognize that we are connected and dependent on each other. If we do not want to come to this voluntarily, then the Creator will have to teach us through such collective punishments.

Everyone will receive some kind of blow: some will suffer from fires, others from floods, others from viruses, others from extreme heat or cold. We cannot know why each of us received precisely this kind of a blow, but in the end, everyone will suffer.

This is exactly what is happening now and will happen in the future. Our life is determined by the time in which we live, that is, by the stage of general correction. Hence, world wars, extensive fires around the globe, floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions can possibly occur. Nature has enough measures of influence.

However, it all depends on how quickly we can put a protective shield against all these problems, that is, can come closer to each other and thereby cancel all evil forces.

The Earth will immediately calm down because with a good connection between us, we can calm and balance it and live a wonderful life. We will continue to strengthen our connection more and more until we reveal within it not only the sensation of this world to its full depth, but we will also begin to reveal the upper world ever higher and higher.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/21, “Ibur (Impregnation) and Yenika (Nursing)”

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In the News (ordonnews.com): “The famous fortuneteller and medium Wolf Messing made the following prophecies about the events of the 21st century:

• Russia will go through difficult times and will be at odds with the whole world over territory near its southern border. It is now clear that Crimea has become this stumbling block.
• After 2021, the Great Prophet will appear in Russia and create a global religion that can unite all of humanity. This will allow him to establish a world order in which there will be no struggle for power, wars and corruption.”

Question: After reading this, naturally, I thought about us. Science, which speaks about the unification of the world, is here. Why not give it a chance, and in the year 2021 reveal it for everyone? All it talks about is unification. Are we ready to roll out like this in the year 2021?

Answer: I personally am ready now if it were up to me. But it depends on many other factors. First, there should be no such fierce resistance in the world to what Kabbalah talks about: unification.

People should be disappointed with what they have. We cannot (as the Soviets have done) forcibly roll out the methodology of war, communism, or whatever you wish to call it.

We should only do it in a way that is convenient, helpful, and appealing to people. Otherwise, it can only be done by bloody means. Perhaps it will be done this way. We read a lot about what will happen in the time of the Messiah: huge, bloody wars, murders, and other things. But I don’t want to delve into these details.

Question: It is not possible to enforce?

Answer: No! Of course not. People will try to break out of their egoistic, cruel, terrible shells. But there is no place for Kabbalah here.

Once they sober up from all these things and their egoism simply gives up and raises its hands, then it will be possible to explain to them what nature really requires of us—unification, rapprochement above our egoistic rejections. Then it will be possible to do something.

Will this happen in the year 2021? For me, it could happen tomorrow. It all depends on the general state of events, as they say.

Question: So you’re saying that a person should be discouraged by loneliness, selfishness, and by living for himself? And only then will he ask: give me something to?

Answer: Yes. We are witnessing a new generation emerging for whom our past ideals hold no importance.

Question: Yes, they don’t want careers; they don’t care to work hard to move up the career ladder; they do not even want to earn very much money. Pizza, cola, sitting in front of the computer…

But are you sure that, one way or another, some generation will definitely have the need for the method of connection?

Answer: They do not see the meaning in life, and it is very difficult, even impossible, to exist without it. They will be looking for it. And they will understand that you get there through connection because all other practical methods have already been exhausted.

Question: Is it important for you to use the word “Kabbalah”?

Answer: No! Absolutely not! Nor should we use it. These stigmas—people are negatively predisposed to them, they would start pulling materials on Kabbalah from all kinds of sources. It will only confuse people.

Question: They don’t need to have this term in mind as long as they do want to reach this connection?

Answer: It could be someone completely unrelated to us, as if they’re not affiliated with us, a person or a group of people who will develop and promote it.

Question: But what should they have in mind besides what you say—unification?

Answer: Nothing else!

Question: This is how we reach similarity with the law of nature: harmony?

Answer: Of course! Harmony! Harmony in relationships. This is what nature requires. After having gone through everything, we certainly can demand it intentionally.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/20/20

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Question: Yuval Noah Harari, historian and author, is an adherent of liberal and humanistic views, but as a researcher he came to the conclusion that the liberal system is failing.

What can you say about the crisis of the liberal idea itself?

Answer: Humanity is in misunderstanding of itself. What kind of liberalism can there be?! How can there be love for one’s neighbor, participation, equality, or brotherhood if we are egoists and cannot correct our nature ourselves? Then what is there to talk about?! Philosophy? It gives nothing!

You need to know how to correct your nature. After that, you can talk. And until we have corrected it, we still remain little selfish animals. No matter how we cover ourselves, it is a fig leaf, under which there is nothing.
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From KabTV’s “Challenges of the 21st Century. Introduction” 4/24/19

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My new article on BIZCATALYST “IMF: Covid Scars The Vulnerable The Most”

On the homepage of its website, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) writes that it is “an organization of 190 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.”

In a report the IMF published recently, titled After-Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the organization concludes that “The degree of expected scarring varies across countries, depending on the structure of economies… Emerging market and developing economies are expected to suffer more scarring than advanced economies.” As usual, the rich and powerful get away with everything, and the exploited weak bear the brunt. We don’t need an organization of 190 countries to know that this is the case, but to change it. When it does nothing to change it, it means that its purpose is not to change the situation but to perpetuate it, mask the ploy from the vulnerable, and if possible, collect a few compliments on its great service to society.

The pandemic is a blessing for the rich and powerful. They use organizations like the IMF as lip service, and I have zero expectations from them. When they act, it is only in order to gain even more wealth and power. When you bring them an idea, start with what benefit they will get out of it. If you don’t, don’t waste your time or theirs. Things won’t change until the poor raise an outcry that they can no longer survive. Then, things will get interesting. But the clash will be short-lived. In the end, nothing will change because the ego has not changed.

If the rich can get away from the crowd by hopping on a private jet to a resort in the Maldives, what incentive will they have to change anything?

It looks like things will change only when humanity is lying face down in the gutter. As long as heads of states can get away from it all, and get away with it, nothing will change. On the contrary, there will be “world peace” based on a global economy where people have equally nothing, and a global moral system that says, “Steal as much as you can, however you can, and wherever you can.”

You would think that there is no point in talking about the situation, but that is not the case. A change will come, but it will happen only when the lie is exposed to the whole world, and the world cannot ignore it. When this happens, humanity will not sit idly when more than 400,000 people are diagnosed with Covid every single day in India alone, and 4,000 people die there for lack of oxygen and basic medical treatment or adequate facilities. A few weeks ago, this disgrace was happening in Brazil, now it is happening in India, in a few weeks it will happen elsewhere, and we don’t care until it hits us in the face. It isn’t just “aid” organizations that are indifferent; it is all of us.

If we cared, they wouldn’t dare. They wouldn’t have the audacity to contort their faces in phony frowns of sympathy.

Sincerely, I have no hope that a change will come from suffering. People will continue to ache until they feel that death is better than living, but they will still not change. The only thing that will eventually change us is the realization that our only strength is in each other. Then, when people turn toward each other, they will realize that they cannot unite, that their hearts are frozen, and this is why they’re suffering. Only when people try to merge their hearts will they realize that their egoism is their enemy, the cause of their afflictions, and that all along, it has been fooling them into thinking that it is someone else’s fault.

When we try to form a bond, we will finally find the strength and gumption that we need in order to overcome our ordeals. The horrific future on our path will materialize only if we remain oblivious to the solution of unity, the only solution that can work.

Human suffering is not written in stone; it is written in our hearts of stone. If we turn our hearts toward each other, it will soften them, and this will soften our fate.

Nature isn’t cruel. No animal suffers as much as we do, unless we afflict it on them. The only thing that’s cruel in nature is human nature. If we change it, by reaching out to one another and forming a bond that is similar to the bonds among all parts of nature, nature will cease its lashing at us. Then, and only then, we will begin to heal, and start living for real.

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In the News (Daily Mail): “Seventeen schools are already owned by Chinese companies, but that number is set to rocket. …

“Nine of the 17 schools under Chinese control are owned by firms whose founders or bosses are among China’s most senior Communist Party members; …

“Schools are using educational tools for teaching children a ‘whitewashed’ view of China;

“One firm admitted its acquisition of British schools is aimed supporting China’s controversial Belt And Road strategy, which aims to expand Beijing’s global influence. …

“Last night, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said: ‘China’s strategic understanding and reach means that they have an advantage in seeking to influence others and using established brands, including some of our own, to achieve that position. …

“The revelations will add to concern about the growth of Confucius Institutes at 29 British universities, and Confucius Classrooms, an offshoot, at almost 150 schools… .

“They claim to promote the Chinese language and culture, but critics say they are a vehicle for Beijing to spread propaganda and curtail free speech.”

My Response: The thing is that we do not know what is really happening. The fact that they tell us a little bit that they bought some schools is all child’s play. The Chinese are pragmatists. Absolutely clear ones.

Question: What is China for humanity?

Answer: This government policy is based on conquering the world without destroying it.

Comment: Without wars.

My Response: Yes, this is the new strategy. Therefore, they will enter into this gradually, step by step.

Comment: They enter into contracts with Iran, contracts with Iran’s enemies, contracts with us, with Israel, in some incomprehensible way.

My Response: They do not care with whom and how. They need hegemony. The hegemony of China. Although, in general, there is no ideology. This is not socialism, not communism, not capitalism. They only want power. Pure power.

Question: Do you think that power is an ideology?

Answer: Yes, the usual egoism. They had it locked up for years and years, and now it has started to break through. Thus, they implement it.

Question: Do you think they will implement it? Is humanity powerless before them?

Answer: No. The fact is that at the same time it all seems to be leveled. If I go somewhere and use something and pay someone for something, then I do not care who the owner is. The main thing is that I receive the service and I can pay for it. This is why I do not see anything Chinese or European in this.

This is the paradox. That is, they bought a factory, and the factory continues to work, but it now belongs to China. But I do not feel this and I do not know this and it does not matter to me.

I do not pay attention to what belongs to whom at all. A completely different card is played here—one from above.

Question: Can you tell what card is being played?

Answer: Eventually, we must understand that it does not matter who owns what. Everything is toward the Creator. It is important for us to know that if we want to use something correctly, we can only do that through mutual dependence, mutual connection between us.

What difference does it make to me to whom this belongs according to the banks or something else! It does not matter. This world in which we paid attention that this is German, this is Soviet, I want to live with this, I do not want to live with this, is over.

Comment: But we wanted quality service.

My Response: There will be quality.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/8/21

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In everything that happens in the world, we should see the good and benevolent governance of the Creator who brings us only good. In this way, He corrects the souls and connects them together into one common soul.

However, we see everything in a different way, and the question is how much I want to discover the truth in order to justify the Creator and be grateful to Him for his kindness by adhering to Him. This is my correction.

If I see a corrupted world, it is because I judge from my flaws. We do not see anything outside of us but only what is happening inside each of us and all of us together. All floods, fires, and pandemics are symptoms of our own disease.

If we went to a doctor who could diagnose each of us and all of us together, he would be horrified at how serious our disease is. He would say: “You see fires? It is because you have a high fever. You see floods? These are also diseases within you. At one point you feel the forces of Gevura on the right side appearing as floods and another time on the left manifesting as a fire. In the middle, between them, there is another blow, the pandemic. You are yet to uncover many other blows on the right, on the left, and in the middle, because I have no other way to convince you of the need for correction except with such blows.”

It turns out that we are to blame for being in the difficult state we are in now because many years have passed and we still did not wake up for corrections in any way.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/21, “Entry Into the Spiritual Degree”

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My new article on Linkedin “Fatal Despair”

Long before the pandemic hit the world, the US was already on a downward trend. According to a story published by David Leonhardt in The New York Times under the title “Life Expectancy, Falling,” “During the second half of the 2010s, life expectancy [in the US] fell on a sustained basis for the first time since the fighting of World War II killed several hundred thousand Americans.” Echoing this topic, the magazine Science News stated in an essay titled “‘Deaths of despair’ are rising. It’s time to define despair,” that “Since the 1990s, mortality had risen sharply.” However, according to Science News, the spike in mortality was not indiscriminate; it affected mainly the “middle-aged, non-Hispanic white people, especially those without a college degree.”

According to both stories, which relied on publications by Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, the reasons for the declining life expectancy were what the researchers dubbed “deaths of despair.” Such deaths are caused by several factors, all of which are social rather than medical. Among these factors are lack of structure and meaning in life, broken or poor social ties at work, loss of connection to the church or community groups, high divorce rates or not marrying at all, drug and substance abuse, alcoholism, and suicide.

As Leonhardt writes, “It’s hard to imagine a more alarming sign of a society’s well-being than an inability to keep its citizens alive.” While I understand that educated people may be less susceptible to fatal despair, since they have more distractions to fill up their minds, the profound crisis that has struck the American society is pervasive. I have no doubt it will affect everyone in America, and far beyond its borders. As Case and Deaton note, the crisis is not in the ability to live, but in having no reason to do so.

Humans are not animals. We cannot settle for having a place to sleep and food to eat from day to day. As humans, we contemplate the future, reflect on the purpose of our lives, and on our freedom to steer our lives where we want, assuming we know where we want to steer it.

Also, as developed social beings, we live in complex social systems that constantly influence us, just as we influence the systems. When any member of society is in crisis, it spreads from person to person much like a virus. Countless studies have shown that when people around you are happy, your chances of being happy are far higher than if people around you are depressed. This is true even if you don’t interact directly with those people. Therefore, when a sense of meaninglessness spreads through the society, it must be treated on a social level since it is, in fact, an epidemic.

The problem, as Case and Deaton already noted, is lack of meaning in life. Therefore, this is the issue we must tackle if we are to heal society. The longer we wait, the more the depression will spread and take its toll. Already, millennials find most things that excited their parents tasteless. And without a purpose in life, they’ll fall into the same quagmire that is ruining their parents’ generation.

To stop the spread of fatal despair, therefore, we must give people a lasting purpose. Such a purpose must be greater than one’s worldly life, since people have already given up on finding worldly goals worth chasing. We need to show people that human existence has a purpose, that it is possible to feel truly alive only when we look outside our personal shell and begin to examine the world and the people around us. When we begin to connect with others, we find meaning in everything we do. Suddenly, our every action and thought has an impact—positive or negative—and each one of us matters, since we all influence each other.

Only when we see the world through a broader perspective can we understand how important each of us is to humanity. When we work to improve society, rather than selfishly amass wealth, power, and possessions, then everything we do, say, or think becomes important to everyone around us, and to those who will come after us.

Life is not valued by how much we manage to accumulate, but by how much we impact society. Those who solidify society, who make it resilient and animated, are those whose lives become imbued with meaning, which continues after their years on Earth have ended.
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