In the News (from Slate): “It’s not that rare these days for people to marry outside their ethnic or religious group or to live in a different region of the country from where they grew up. Among college-educated people, in particular, the tendency is not so much to marry within your community as to marry within your educational cohort. Every once in a while you do see a college graduate married to a high school dropout (my parents, for example), but it’s quite rare. Since incomes are normally measured on the household level for statistical purposes, it matters quite a bit to big-picture national trends. In particular, “assortative mating” of this kind is a major driver of household-level income inequality.

“How big? Jeremy Greenwood, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santosreport in a new paper that if in 2005 the matching of husbands and wives had been random, the Gini coefficient—the most common summary measure of income inequality—would have been 0.34 rather than its real-world 0.43, a difference of almost 25 percent.

Of course, saying that inequality would be lower if marriages were randomized isn’t telling us much. It’s long been the case that a college-educated woman’s husband is much more likely to have a college degree than would be suggested by pure chance. But a number of closely related demographic factors have shifted dramatically over the past generation or two in a way that’s made assortative mating a much more potent economic force. And the nexus between marriage patterns and those other trends is an important motor of inequality.”

My Comment: Egoism rules the world, not romance. Only requiring the equal distribution of income for everyone and the education of all, as if we all belong to the same family, will bring the world to calm. In the meantime, we still need to become convinced that our nature drives us to the manifestation of rejection and hatred in all its forms to come to the realization of egoism as absolute evil in order to seek the way to correct it.
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Opinion (Jag Bhalla, entrepreneur and writer): “’Competition creates efficiency,’ is preached as if it were a law of nature. But nature itself teaches a different lesson. Biological competition can create foolish costs, and collective doom. ‘Darwin’s Wedge’ shows why and reminds us of the point of being human. Our competitions, and the myopic logic of free markets, needn’t be dumb as trees.

“Robert Frank coined ‘Darwin’s Wedge’ to describe situations where individual incentives diverge from collective goals (sometimes even risking collective doom). Darwin’s Wedge applies to an entire class of problems wherein supposedly locally rational decisions aggregate badly (see the market fallacy of composition). These include the tragedy of the commons, Prisoner’s Dilemma games, and Nash equilibria. In them using myopic self-maximizing logic ends badly for each and all. But tackled as coordinated action problems, with monitoring and enforcement, outcomes can be guided to everybody’s benefit. Free markets aren’t suited to such simultaneous complex cross-agent coordinated change.

“Competition’s benefits arise from the constraints it creates. Intelligent constraints, and creative responses to them, can work better than what emerges from mindless ‘natural’ competition. The human trick isn’t self-organizing, it’s other-organizing. We’ve coordinated team survival for 10,000 generations. Our choices now are either to let the power of markets be dumb as trees, or to guide their competitions for better outcomes.”

My Comment: The world is becoming integrally interconnected. It is impossible to develop a plan according to our discrete abilities. It is impossible to plan all communication services, society, industry, etc., calculating everything, and managing everything as a single organism. This was an unreachable goal for Communists because they related to society as to a single system, they created by their singularly enforced methods.

Now the human community is becoming integral, not through our choice or enforced unification as in a socialist camp, but as a result of our natural development. The solution to the problem of the interconnected society could be only in bringing it to a predetermined integral form.

First, we must realize that we are not free: we are in the system of the upper management of nature. In its development, humanity advances along the path of unconscious development, like a child. This phase ends in our time. The phase of conscious human development ended in our time. Since the end of the 20^th century has come the stage where we have to study the law of nature and follow it. Nature is manifested as a global integral system and requires us, humankind, to match it.

We can fulfill this condition only if we re-educate people, through changing our egoistic relations to altruistic.
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In the News (from Marketwatch): “Facebook could end up shedding a big chunk of its 1.2 billion users in three years, says a Princeton University study that cited ‘disease-like dynamics’ in the social network’s upcoming doom.

“The study, by two Princeton Ph.D. candidates Joshua Spechler and John Cannarella, has created a stir by speculating that the world’s biggest social network could lose ‘80% of its peak user base’ between 2015 and 2017. …

“Facebook, they suggest, is an idea, a fad that, like an illness, can spread — and then eventually fade away. They cited the rise and fall of MySpace.

“‘Ideas, like diseases, have been shown to spread infectiously between people before eventually dying out,’ they write. …

“‘If the disease model holds it suggests that Facebook will need to evolve/mutate in order to begin another curve or it will die out. It has to overcome the immunization cycle.”

My Comment: By its plan, nature drives us to the ultimate goal, to the form of unity, to similarity to it. Only in this way, future integral means of communication will survive and prosper.
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In the News (from the University of California, Santa Cruz): “Astronomers have discovered a distant quasar illuminating a vast nebula of diffuse gas, revealing for the first time part of the network of filaments thought to connect galaxies in a cosmic web. …

“The standard cosmological model of structure formation in the universe predicts that galaxies are embedded in a cosmic web of matter, most of which (about 84 percent) is invisible dark matter. This web is seen in the results from computer simulations of the evolution of structure in the universe, which show the distribution of dark matter on large scales, including the dark matter halos in which galaxies form and the cosmic web of filaments that connect them. Gravity causes ordinary matter to follow the distribution of dark matter, so filaments of diffuse, ionized gas are expected to trace a pattern similar to that seen in dark matter simulations.”

My Comment: With each passing day we become increasingly convinced that the whole of nature, our universe, the Earth, and we ourselves are elements of a single system that is permeated with all types of connections so that there is no distancing from one to another, but rather absolute interconnection is manifested.

Humanity, as part of nature, is obliged to bring itself into compliance with this universal law of nature that is increasingly manifested. Otherwise, we will constantly and progressively experience all the consequences of our incongruity with nature.
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In the News (from Encyclopedia of Safety): “Bill Gates, Founder of “Microsoft” …

‘The world today has 6.8 billion people. The population is rapidly approaching nine billion. If we did a good job on new vaccines, health care, assistance in the area of reproductive health, we may be able to lower it by 10 percent — 15.’

“John P. Holdren scientific adviser to the U.S. President Barack Obama… ‘It would be easier to implement a program of sterilization of women after the birth of their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, than trying to sterilize men.’

“’Development of sterilization time capsule, which can be sewed into the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. Capsule sewn to the period of puberty and have seized official permission for a limited number of births.’

“The founder of the news agency CNN  Ted Turner … ‘The entire population of 250 — 300 million people, 95% reduction from current levels — would be ideal.’

“David Brower, the first executive director of the environmental NGO Sierra Club …

‘Childbearing [should be] a punishable crime against society, unless the parents have a license of the government … All potential parents [would oblige] to use contraceptive chemicals, the government provides antidotes to citizens chosen for the birth of a child.’

“The founder of the American Federation of Family Planning Margaret Sanger (Margaret Sanger) … ‘The highest manifestation of mercy, which the family can have one of their children — is to kill him.’

“The philosopher at Princeton University Peter Singer …’So why do not we be the last generation on the planet? If we all agreed on its sterilization, then it would not take any sacrifice — we could celebrate our way into extinction!’

“Thomas Ferguson, former official of the U.S. State Department for the population: ‘There is only one theme throughout our work — we must reduce population. Either governments do it our way, through good, clean methods, or they will have trouble in the likeness of the ones that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population – a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it …’

“John Gvillebod, professor of family planning at University College London … ‘At the global scale the effect of the fact that families will be less than one child, it is much more than all the other measures, for example, turn off the light. Another child – the equivalent of a large number of flights across the planet.’”

My Comment: If we are against each other, we will never have enough room, and if we are together, there is enough for everyone. The only solution is in integral re-education of humanity, including the elite.
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In the News (from Oregon State University): “In ecosystems around the world, the decline of large predators such as lions, dingoes, wolves, otters, and bears is changing the face of landscapes from the tropics to the Arctic – but an analysis of 31 carnivore species to be published Friday in the journal Science shows for the first time how threats such as habitat loss, persecution by humans and loss of prey combine to create global hotspots of carnivore decline.

“More than 75 percent of the 31 large-carnivore species are declining, and 17 species now occupy less than half of their former ranges, the authors reported.

‘Globally, we are losing our large carnivores,” said William Ripple, lead author of the paper and a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at OregonStateUniversity. …

“Ripple and his OregonState co-author Robert Beschta have documented impacts of cougars and wolves on the regeneration of forest stands and riparian vegetation in Yellowstone and other national parks in North America. Fewer predators, they have found, lead to an increase in browsing animals such as deer and elk. More browsing disrupts vegetation, shifts birds and small mammals and changes other parts of the ecosystem in a widespread cascade of impacts.

“Studies of Eurasian lynx, dingoes, lions and sea otters have found similar effects, the authors reported.

“Lynx have been closely tied to the abundance of roe deer, red fox and hare. In Australia, the construction of a 3,400-mile dingo-proof fence has enabled scientists to study ecosystems with and without the animals, which are closely related to gray wolves. In some parts of Africa, the decrease of lions and leopards has coincided with a dramatic increase in olive baboons, which threaten farm crops and livestock. In the waters off southeast Alaska, a decline in sea otters through killer whale predation has led to a rise in sea urchins and loss of kelp beds.

“The authors call for a deeper understanding of the impact of large carnivores on ecosystems, a view that they trace back to the work of landmark ecologist Aldo Leopold. The classic concept that predators are harmful and deplete fish and wildlife is outdated, they said. Scientists and wildlife managers need to recognize a growing body of evidence for the complex roles that carnivores play in ecosystems and for their social and economic benefits.

“Leopold recognized such relationships between predators and ecosystems, Ripple said, but his observations on that point were largely ignored for decades after his death in 1948. …

“’Nature is highly interconnected,’ said Ripple. ‘The work at Yellowstone and other places shows how one species affects another and another through different pathways. It’s humbling as a scientist to see the interconnectedness of nature.’”

My Comment: Only if people stop in their headlong pursuit of maximum consumption and switch to rational consumption, i.e., to the extent of necessities, and apply their efforts in everything else to spiritual development in order to achieve, even in this world, eternity and perfection, only in this way they will come out of the crisis. Otherwise, they face a terrible path of suffering to the same goal.
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In the News (from News.com.au): “A recent study by researchers at the University of California Berkeley Campus has found a clear connection between wealth and a disregard for a fellow person’s feelings. The Berkeley research team is lead by Paul Piff, a psychologist with an avid interest in the power of money over human interaction.

“In one test Piff’s research team set up games of Monopoly between more than 100 pairs of strangers. A coin was flipped and randomly determined which person out of the pair would be the ‘rich’ player in the game. The game was clearly rigged in favour of the ‘rich’ player, with fascinating results.

“The rich player was given twice as much money as their poorer competitor, and when they passed ‘GO’ they collected twice the salary they were entitled to. They also got to roll two dice on their turn instead of one, and thus moved around the board quicker.

“The videos showed that the language and comments of the richer players became more confident as the game progressed. They began to move their piece around the board much louder, at times smacking it down.

“We were more likely to see signs of dominance and non-verbal signs, displays of power and celebration among the rich players,” said Piff. …

“’The rich players actually started to become ruder toward the other person, less and less sensitive to the plight of those poor … players,’ said Piff. They became ‘more and more demonstrative of their material success, more likely to showcase how well they were doing.’

“Numerous surveys and studies made over seven years found that wealthier individuals are more likely to moralise greed as being good, and the pursuit of self-interest as being acceptable. …

“Individuals who made between $15,000 and $25,000 a year gave on average 44 per cent more of their money to the stranger than the individuals who earned between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.”

“They even tested hundreds of vehicles and found that drivers of expensive cars were more inclined to break the law, failing to stop at a pedestrian crossing when there was someone waiting to cross.

“Nearly 50 per cent of drivers of expensive range cars cut off pedestrians, while none of the drivers of the least expensive cars did. As the price of the car increased, the driver’s tendencies to break the law increased too.

“Other studies have tested whether richer individuals are more likely to lie in negotiations, to endorse unethical behavior at work like stealing cash from the cash register, taking bribes or lying to customers.

“What these studies have found is that, “the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to pursue a vision of personal success, of achievement and accomplishment, to the detriment of others around you.”

My Comment: How can we get back on the right track? Only by implementing re-education that will lead to the leveling of wealth in a voluntary way. Otherwise, we are faced with civil war.
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Opinion (Michael Khazin, economist): “The Forum in Davos is no longer such an interest to the public. The economy is in the stage of recession, and businessmen and politicians know that very well. It is necessary to discuss what and how to change, but there is a need for people who can do that, but such are not visible in Davos.

“Today’s Davos is called a ‘post-crisis’ forum, which is funny and silly: the reduction in private demand and the disappearance of the middle class indicate that the crisis continues. The refusal to discuss the real problems of the modern economy produces illusions that the crisis is over. As a result, the discussion in Davos, as in the recent years, gives no real solution to the situation in the world economy.”

My Comment: In general, everyone is in low spirits and continues in the old way, and habit creates the illusion of a normal state. But nature (the forces that manage humankind and our developing properties) does not stay still; everything in it is developing towards general harmony, and humanity’s delay in becoming similar to nature, in moving towards a harmonious (integral) state will be felt as a growing all-encompassing crisis.
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In the News (from Wired): “Now, thanks to new observation technologies, powerful software, and statistical methods, the mechanics of collectives are being revealed. Indeed, enough physicists, biologists, and engineers have gotten involved that the science itself seems to be hitting a density-dependent shift. Without obvious leaders or an overarching plan, this collective of the collective-obsessed is finding that the rules that produce majestic cohesion out of local jostling turn up in everything from neurons to human beings. Behavior that seems impossibly complex can have disarmingly simple foundations. And the rules may explain everything from how cancer spreads to how the brain works and how armadas of robot-driven cars might someday navigate highways. The way individuals work together may actually be more important than the way they work alone. Aristotle first posited that the whole could be more than the sum of its parts.”

My Comment: The concept of the universality of any unity in which each ceases to feel himself but feels the collective whole is not new. Only it slips away from us who look at everything through our narrow egoism. Today, nature tells us the way to integrality because it is manifested so before us.

“The unification of pieces into a coherent whole creates a special power and property that does not exist in a simple sum of them because they are united above and overcoming their egoism.
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Opinion (Yakov I. Gilinsky, Doctor of Law, professor, legal scholar, criminologist): “Unmotivated fear, apocalyptic predictions, depression are the most common psychiatric diagnoses today. There is a feeling as if we were flying in a plane without a crew to the airport that has not yet been designed.

“The best representatives of Homo Sapiens have always strived to present and implement the project of ideal society. But the hopes for a brighter future were not realized. The ever growing scale of violence spawned series of dystopia.

“Humanity is heading towards self-destruction. Violence accompanied humanity throughout its history. It is an element of social life and is characterised by totality (domestic, social, criminal, political, economic, religious, sports, educational, violence).

“Over time, violence becomes systemic; it permeates all spheres of society, including cultural, educational, violence of economy, criminal violence. Violence is incorporated into the system. Humanity is fundamentally and irredeemably committed to suicide (nuclear, biological, technological, environmental…).

My Comment: When we realize the absolute hopelessness of our condition, we can come to an understanding of the solution proposed by Kabbalah—yes, a bright future, not by our hands, but by the highest power of nature.
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