Opinion (Matt Ridley, science writer and former Economist journalist): “Brilliant people, be they anthropologists, psychologists or economists, assume that brilliance is the key to human achievement. They vote for the cleverest people to run governments, they ask the cleverest experts to devise plans for the economy, they credit the cleverest scientists with discoveries, and they speculate on how human intelligence evolved in the first place.

“They are all barking up the wrong tree. The key to human achievement is not individual intelligence at all. The reason human beings dominate the planet is not because they have big brains….

“Human achievement is entirely a networking phenomenon. It is by putting brains together through the division of labor — through trade and specialization — that human society stumbled upon a way to raise the living standards, carrying capacity, technological virtuosity and knowledge base of the species….

“Human achievement is based on collective intelligence — the nodes in the human neural network are people themselves. By each doing one thing and getting good at it, then sharing and combining the results through exchange, people become capable of doing things they do not even understand. As the economist Leonard Read observed in his essay ‘I, Pencil’ (which I’d like everybody to read), no single person knows how to make even a pencil — the knowledge is distributed in society among many thousands of graphite miners, lumberjacks, designers and factory workers.

“That’s why, as Friedrich Hayek observed, central planning never worked: the cleverest person is no match for the collective brain at working out how to distribute consumer goods.”

My Comment: Namely the creation and management of society through the collective mind is the next stage of human development to which the crisis leads us. Not only the collective mind but acquiring a general collective feeling is the key to mutual understanding and harmony in the emerging integral society. It should be introduced to people gradually, through integral education.
[71667]

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Question: There is a theory in psychology that examines a child’s psychological state at all stages of birth. The first stage is fairly comfortable. The second and third stages are when the unborn child experiences pressure, a chemical attack, which stimulates his birth, and the last stage is the most pleasant; it takes place after his birth. The two intermediate states are horrifying. In one case, it is the hopelessness of the situation. In the second case, it is quiet dramatic work between good and evil. Right now, is the entire humanity essentially entering these two stages?

Answer: But we do not have to go through these stages in such a dramatic way. This absolutely is not necessary.

Of course, if we go under the influence of nature, which is the path of evil, since nature only evolves us through obligating forces without softening them, then of course, we will not easily undergo being born into the new world. This way is with lack of understanding, alienation, absolute helplessness, and loss of any orientation! You are cornered, are not able to breathe or turn around, you do not know where to go and how to do it because any move you make causes even greater suffering: internal, external, and social.

Today the crisis in Europe is an example: No matter in which direction a move is made, it only gets worse. Maybe it is better to not do anything? It is even scarier to not do anything. So where are we heading?

It is very interesting to observe the process of the crisis. I think that many will be describing it in the future. It is not yet completed; we still have a long way to go to end it. It will end precisely with our spiritual birth.

The world crisis will only get worse, even if sometimes we observe periods of calm, like between birthing contractions; we know that they gradually become more frequent.

So, if a period of relative calm comes along, people will no longer scream: “That is it. It is over,” like they did last time.

I published many articles then, saying that the crisis will soon resume, but no one paid attention. Now people have learned through blows that everything returns.

We will not understand it until we feel that we are in a constant trap, and that a break is given to us only to figure out how to act and start striving on our own towards the exit through the birth canal (which keeps getting narrower around us, pushing us towards a greater integration). When we first feel this need emotionally through suffering or through social opinion instead of suffering, then we will understand that only our greater integration, concentrating everyone into a single whole, will help us complete this birth with understanding.

The main thing is realization. After all, a person can go through any problems and he even creates them for himself on purpose to attain a desired result.

If we continue to resist, without the understanding of where it is all taking us, then nature will push us through suffering. But we not only resist, but we also make negative movements, like today in Europe, again they want to separate, but there is no way back.

Comment: People who took the drug LSD seem to have experienced all the stages of birth, which have been genetically retained in their subconscious. When a person ends up in the second or third stage under the influence of hallucinogens, it usually ends with a suicide. Now, once you have explained the monstrous states we are headed toward, it became clear to me that such pressure and helplessness will become so unbearable that people jump out the windows and commit suicide.

Answer: These are horrible states, horrible wars, suffering, and extermination, when death seems to liberate, but it can’t be found! So a person must experience enormous suffering.

This is not about death; this suffering must accumulate to make us realize the need to ascend.
[69879]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #9, 12/15/11

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Bestowal as the general population sees it is helping others, which brings a person satisfaction, decorates one’s life and “fuels” him. A person assumes that thanks to this our world becomes a better place. Accordingly we can explain to people what the right connection is and what the benefit in it is.

For example, in Israel there is going to be some social boycott of certain food companies that raise the price of their products in the local market while selling the same products for much less abroad. So why doesn’t the workers’ union organize these protests? Why doesn’t it organize an appeal to the tycoons on behalf of society? This will lead to lowering the prices significantly and the manufacturers will still have enough “fat” left.

But apparently the Union isn’t interested in that.

Comment: The union was founded in 1927 while the state of Israel was founded in 1948.

Answer: The participation of the union in the foundation of the state is felt through this day. Of course, we don’t negate what happened. At first the movement had ideals, but it is impossible to “rest on one’s laurels” for so long.

Question: Tycoons today are trying to erase 40% – 60% of their debt, at our expense of course. Even in the Knesset (Israeli house of representatives) they are passing a law that would rule out such an option. This means that for the first time people disagree and are unwilling to accept the “stew” they are being fed. Something is going on these days. What is going on?

Answer: It isn’t about the tycoons or the poor, the unemployed or the rich. We should see the trend itself, that the Reforming Light is arranging the vessels and tying all the social classes in certain relationships. On the whole the goal is to bring a person to the recognition of the evil of the present state. A person should be “shaken” so that he will see that he cannot exist in the old lifestyle, and that he has to change his outlook of life.

I go to work in the morning, make money, produce unnecessary things, waste natural resources and energy in the process, and produce totally worthless products. In the supermarket I choose from the endless variety of cheeses. All that is because my boss, with the help of good advertising, knows how to push these products to people, thus adding a few more zeros to his bank account, which he doesn’t even use and they just sit there in the bank.

The more money the tycoons make the more it means that we are “growing” and that our economy is “flourishing.” It isn’t clear who is flourishing. I am not even sure the business owner is flourishing; after all, he doesn’t know what to do with all his wealth. Ultimately, It is about an inner feeling: an inner impression and a feeling of control over others; a certain sense of security money gives. Eventually, it is all about a feeling. And we will do anything to feel more secure; to feel control, self-respect, and self-worth.

This period is over and humanity must acknowledge that the present paradigm has ended. Therefore, we go through phases of recognition of evil, but the process is delayed; governments hide the crisis and promise to turn things around. In the meantime an explosive mixture boils ready to blow up; economists recognize this. In the coming year we will see how things develop.

On the other hand, this development must be gradual because the Light arranges everything, not anyone else. That Light is arranged so that the general population will rise above their outlook of life. There is no other choice.

It is impossible to ignore half of the seven billion people “as if” they are not developed enough. It is totally untrue! Everyone, who has a human form must participate in the life of the general vessel and together reach the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun.

Whatever you say, and no matter if it seems that a person cannot develop, understand, or feel, in spirituality he may be closer than you are. He is surely closer than you are because he has fewer barriers than you do. You have many calculations that he doesn’t. His calculations are much simpler, and he is much closer to correction.

Everyone must advance and perceive the new reality, understand that the world is round and that we too should be “round.”

It isn’t easy, it is hard to explain what “bestowal is, even to those who are willing to listen and who agree with you. They think: “Smart guy, but not so down to earth,” “He speaks so nicely, but. …” This means that they listen to you and agree with you, but in the end they applaud and go home as if they heard nothing. People aren’t ready internally yet; the Light hasn’t influenced them yet. It has to go through many actions. We can see it in ourselves: We hear it every day and it is still not easy.
[71526]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/12, The Zohar

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Opinion (Peter R. Orszag, vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup): “A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises.

“The age-adjusted death rate in the U.S. declined by 2 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, projected life expectancy at birth rose to 78.7 years in 2010 from 77.9 years in 2007, an increase of 0.8 year. In contrast, from 2004 to 2007, when the economy was much stronger, life expectancy rose by only 0.4 year.

“Life expectancy appears to have risen more in the states with relatively large increases in unemployment. In Michigan and Illinois, for example, where joblessness rose much more than in North Dakota or Iowa, age-adjusted death rates have had a steeper decline since 2007. (In the states with the smallest increase in unemployment, the death rates have perversely risen.)

“These cross-state data are consistent with historical patterns that economists Douglas Miller, Marianne Page, Ann Stevens and Mateusz Filipski have found. Their research shows that a one-percentage-point increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a 0.5 percent reduction in the state’s mortality rate.

“During the Great Depression, too, life expectancy rose, according to research by Jose Tapia Granados and Ana Diez Roux of the University of Michigan. As they conclude, ‘The evolution of population health during the years 1920-1940 confirms the counter-intuitive hypothesis that, as in other historical periods and market economies, population health tends to evolve better during recessions than in expansions.’

“How could this be? In a series of important papers, Christopher Ruhm, an economist at the University of Virginia, has explored the reasons. It appears that while suicide rates rise during downturns, other types of fatalities, such as from motor-vehicle accidents, fall more. The surprising findings apply even to heart attacks. In a study titled ‘A Healthy Economy Can Break Your Heart,’ Ruhm finds that higher unemployment reduces deaths from heart attacks, perhaps because when there is less economic activity, hazards such as air pollution and traffic congestion are less severe. Smoking and obesity also tend to decline.”

My Comment: To eliminate suicide, it is necessary to give a person a feeling of happiness. The universal network of integral education will create the best conditions for human health.
[71558]

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Opinion (Michael Dittmar, physicist): “…there are currently 440 operating nuclear reactors with a further 65 under construction. Operating nuclear reactors require the equivalent of about 68 000 tons of natural uranium ore every year.

“Given that one-third of the ‘known’ deposits are only an estimate, a more accurate interpretation would be that perhaps enough uranium exists to operate the existing nuclear power plants for about 70 years.

“Many countries import close to 100% of their uranium needs today; this is especially true for the USA, France and the rest of the European Union. Thirty years ago, the USA produced about 16 000 tons of uranium ore annually; today, that has declined to less than 2000 tons, whereas its power plants require about 20 000 tons. Thus, less than 10% of their needs are satisfied by mines on their huge territory.

“Every year, the USA has to import about 10 000 tons of natural uranium equivalent nuclear fuel from Russian military reserves.

“Unfortunately, biogas and wind and solar energy still play only minor roles worldwide. Even if the strong growth in renewables over the past couple of years continues, their share of the total electrical energy mix will remain small. Neither nuclear energy nor new renewable forms of energy will be able to forestall the inevitable decline in energy production in the coming decades. This decline will result from the combination of a slow nuclear phase-out and a decline in fossil-fuel use as a corollary of both the drop in oil extraction after stocks peak and concern about climate change.

“Once we have exhausted fossil fuels and uranium, the alternative energy options will all be renewable. But renewable sources of energy will never be able to compete with current energy production levels, so we shall have no choice but to become more economical with energy.”

My Comment: Indeed, there is no alternative—we need to become more economical, and this is only possible by reducing unnecessary production and transportation, that is, by bringing all our activities to a reasonable (required) level of consumption.
[71486]

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Opinion (Michael Khazin, an economist, from vz.ru): “In November 2011, the industrial production in China declined for the first time in three years. This is explained by the debt crisis in Europe, which has reduced demand for Chinese goods, as well as by reduction in domestic consumption.

“China now cannot quickly replace the falling external demand for the simple reason that it no longer produces any truly cheap goods. Energy costs have increased, labor costs and production costs have increased… In general, only wealthy Chinese can afford Chinese products.

“Excess production and infrastructure built for growth will put much pressure on the economy, requiring permanent and ineffective expenditures for their maintenance. Serious social problems will also burden the economy and the state. Like everyone else, China too faces very serious problems.”

My Comment: The crisis will spare nobody, and all countries and nations of the world will be plunged into it in order to feel the need to change the whole trend of human development from the material goals to the spiritual ones.
[71213]

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In the News (from Budget.ru): “We do not allow children at school to be free, happy people. And without this, education is meaningless.

“We still think that the main task of the school is to fill a person with knowledge as much as possible, rather than developing natural abilities. But schools must look at the natural qualities and develop them, and most importantly, teach a person how to study. Today, schools mostly force students to memorize.

“The purpose of education is to help find a vocation, one’s own path in life. Otherwise, instead of developing what a child is interested in and what he needs, he has to learn a lot of useless information by heart, which he may never use. If we do not change schools, we will not be able to build a happy world.”

My Comment: The problem is deeper: It is not about a vocation, about becoming an expert in something, but about understanding the purpose of life, what needs to be achieved as a result—the revelation of the next dimension, the upper world, from which we come and where we go after this life. Strange as it may seem, this is the reality Kabbalah offers us to reveal.
[71216]

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In the News (From ABC News): “Roughly half of all Spaniards between 16 and 24 are jobless, the highest level among the 17 nations that use the euro. It’s a devastating picture of blighted youth that threatens to distort Spain’s social fabric for years to come, dooming dreams, straining family structures and eroding the well-being of a rapidly aging population.

“‘This puts the whole welfare state at risk,’ said Gayle Allard, a labor market specialist at Madrid’s IE Business School. ‘The young people who are coming on the market now are the lost generation. They are losing the advantage of their youth and energy and that does not come back.’

“The staggering jobless figures — 48.6 percent for Spaniards between 16 and 24; 39 percent for those ages 20-29 — hold dire consequences for a country that grew accustomed to prosperity on the back of a property boom that collapsed in 2008.

“The 1.6 million unemployed teens and young adults in the nation of 47 million risk never having a decent start to a career. They probably won’t accumulate assets like their own homes or savings until they are in their 40s. And they then will likely face much higher taxes to maintain Spain’s costly social welfare system.

“What’s more, they’re expected to put off having children or have fewer than their parents, slashing a birth rate that’s already declining just as Spain’s large baby boom generation begins to retire. That means fewer people to absorb the costs of caring for the swelling ranks of pensioners.

“Anger and frustration among young adults have already taken root. Thousands erected protest camps last spring and summer in Madrid and Barcelona in illegal tent cities set up in central plazas.”

My Comment: There is only one solution: to change the attitude towards production, work, and society, that is, towards life in general. It is given to us to live in balance with nature and society, receiving what is necessary, being content with reasonable things that everybody else receives, working as needed for that, and using natural resources to meet these needs. Advertising is banned; everything is cut back to the necessary level, including the production of harmful pharmaceutical drugs.

To begin with, we need to describe the structure of such a society and then create a preliminary plan of the most painless transition to it. And all the freed time (80-90%  of the former work time), all the free time of housewives, the elderly, and children should be dedicated to upbringing, organized in community centers, vacant huge supermarkets and malls, hotels and former dens of vice.

Spain is an example of everyone’s future; moreover, this is only the beginning of, possibly, a bloody future if we do not organize the upbringing of the masses!
[71387]

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In the News (from The Final Hour blog): “The city of Detroit has become the poster child for everything that is wrong with the U.S. economy – and for good reason. It literally looks like it is in the middle of a war zone or like a hurricane has hit it. The truth is that the city of Detroit is dying and it is simply not going to recover.

“It wasn’t always this way for Detroit. Decades ago, it was a shining example of America’s incredible manufacturing prowess. It was the center of the automobile revolution. At the time, nobody could have ever dreamed that one day Detroit would be the biggest economic disaster in the United States.

“But that is what has happened.

“Just consider the following facts….

“During the boom days of the 1950s, Detroit was a teeming metropolis of approximately 2 million people, but today the current population is less than a million and people are leaving in waves. The mayor of Detroit has admitted that while the “official” unemployment rate in Detroit is 27 percent, the ‘real’ unemployment rate in his city is somewhere around 50 percent.

“House prices of under $1000 are quite common in Detroit now, and there are some houses in the city that you can actually buy for just one dollar.

“Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has announced a plan to close 44 Detroit schools. According to one estimate, the city of Detroit has 33,500 empty houses and 91,000 vacant residential lots.

“So how do you possibly save a city that is dying right in front of you? Well, the mayor of Detroit has unveiled his radical solution – you bulldoze one-fourth of the city.

“But sometimes it is not enough just to read facts and figures. Sometimes you just have to see what is going on with your own eyes before it will start to sink in. The short video news report posted below shows just how bad things have gotten in Detroit. Would you like to live in a city that looks like this?…

“Before you jump on Detroit too much, the reality is that this is going to happen to a lot more American cities before all of this is over. It is not just the economy of Detroit that is dying. It is the entire U.S. economy this is dying.

“The United States has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and now the day of reckoning is here. Millions of Americans have already lost their homes and their jobs, but this is only the beginning. Incredibly hard economic times are on the way, and unfortunately America is going to pay the price for going into so much debt. Please make sure to prepare yourself and your family for the times that are ahead because they are not going to be easy.”

My Comment: Of course, salvation is the immediate introduction of the law of mandatory integral education and upbringing, whereby instead of benefits, participants of integral education courses receive scholarship, and their study is considered as work or study at university (to make it reliable and attractive).

The next part of the program is to make the city crystal clean and attractive to tourists and shoppers. All the residents of the city should voluntarily participate in this, as a result of their integral upbringing. It cannot be done without upbringing. Upbringing makes everything possible!
[71382]

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Opinion (Andres Arrak, professor, liberal economist, Estonia): “It is impossible to restrain the economic crisis. ‘The long economic crisis is happening now. Such crises emerge as a consequence of bad decisions. The 2012 will be a decisive year. This is a crisis of values, rather than finance or real estate.’

“The ideology of ‘more is better’ that represents a triumph of consumerism has exhausted itself.

‘The problem is that the club of the ‘rich and famous’ has no honest way out….’”

My Comment: There is an honest way out: The rich should continue to manage; they can do that, that is why they are rich. But they should channel all their energy for the benefit of society and be rewarded with gratitude, respect, and love instead of hatred, envy, and humiliation!
[71219]

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