In the News (from The Daily Mail): “Professor Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii, discovered that stress can be as contagious as a cold, and that ‘passive’ or second-hand stress and anxiety can quickly spread around the workplace.

“‘People seem to be capable of mimicking others’ facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity,’ Hatfield said.

“‘As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives to a surprising extent.’

“So while men and tougher types might be resistant to workplace stress, more it is notably women who suffer.

“Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune to other people’s feelings, Prof. Hatfield adds.

“With stress a bigger issue than ever in the workplace – the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development recently dubbed it ‘the Black Death of the 21st Century – there is a very real risk of ‘second-hand’ or ‘passive’ stress becoming a potential danger to Britain’s workers.”

My Comment: As integrality and interdependence of our world becomes more apparent, our mutual influence on each other will manifest more and more, up to the common mood, health, luck, and so on.
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In the News (from Global Research): “A series of reports over the past ten days—on poverty, wages, income inequality and social mobility—have painted a portrait of America starkly at odds with the official mythology of the United States as the land of unlimited economic opportunity, the country with the world’s highest standard of living.

“Even agencies controlled by political representatives of the financial aristocracy are compelled to admit that the conditions of life for the vast majority of the American people are disastrous.

“These figures demonstrate that America is a country of mounting social disparities, in which those who labor and produce all the wealth have less and less to show for it, while those who collect the profits of this labor, while playing a parasitic, destructive, and thoroughly reactionary role, see their wealth accumulate to astonishing levels.

“Two reports frame the dramatic social polarization in America, not so much between the rich and the poor, as between the rich and the entire rest of society.

“While the income of this layer [the richest 1 percent of US households] nearly tripled, the income of the middle 60 percent of the population rose only 40 percent over 28 years, and the income of the poorest 20 percent rose by only 18 percent.

“Geographical mobility in America has fallen to the lowest level reported since 1948, one reflection of the loss of opportunity particularly for the young. People cannot sell their homes or buy new ones, and the majority of young college graduates are being compelled to move back in with their parents because they cannot find work that pays enough to set up on their own.

“What these figures demonstrate is both a profound social crisis, and an immense historical transformation. The United States has gone from leading the world in most social indices, including working-class living standards, to a new status as the leader, at least among the industrialized countries, in condemning the majority of its population to conditions of deprivation and misery.

“The decline of American capitalism is shown in the decay of its once powerful industrial base, the crumbling of roads, bridges and other social infrastructure, and the closing of schools, libraries, hospitals and other public services. It is no wonder that more than 80 percent of the American people, according to most recent polls, feel that the country is on the wrong track.

“The overriding political necessity is for the working class to grasp the source of the social and economic decline. It is capitalism that has failed in the United States, and on a world scale.”

My Comment: The solution to the problem is to create a new state, financial, and industrial leadership that understands the essence of the changes taking place in humanity.
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Opinion: (Vasily Koltashov, Head of the Economic research center, Institute of Globalization and Social Movement, from vz.ru): “Cutting one country’s debt will become a form of debt pressure on other European countries.

“The attempts of the Greek government to save at the expense of the citizens caused a strong protest. But this hasn’t made the authorities look for a compromise. Under the impression of these heavy social protests, the EU made the decision to write off the debt because they were afraid of the development of a sociopolitical crisis in Greece.

“The writing off of the Greek debt will take place not as a sign of a new course, but to keep the stability of other debts and of the whole system of financial capital.”

My Comment: The stupid penguin cowardly hides blubber in the rocks… (“The Song of the Stormy Petrel” by M.Gorky)
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Opinion (Michael Khazin, an economist, from odnako.org): “The result was so insignificant that I don’t really know what to write. First of all, no specific measures to save Greece were announced; the scandalous referendum that might have led to Greek exit from the eurozone was cancelled.

“Actually, the fact that the media devoted more time to this cancellation than to the summit is very significant. How Greece can pay even the reduced debt is still a question. After debt relief, the debt level will still be same as in the beginning of the Greece “rescue” operation.

“The media reported that at the summit meeting, which lasted two days, the countries devoted more time to the issue of stimulating economic growth on a global scale, rather than specific problems. But from the summit conclusions it is not obvious how to keep aggregate demand from falling and whether it can be done at all.

“How can one talk about stimulating the economy without formulating the reason for this stimulation, what the effect of the stimulation will be, what the cost of this stimulation is, and finally, when this will be complete? But these issues are a complete mystery for those who follow the world’s political leaders.

“The host of the summit, Sarkozy, announced an increase in the IMF resources to assist with the debt crisis. But the amount of money needed to address all the issues was not specified. And here we are talking about trillions per year, which are non-existent, and thus there is nothing to rejoice in yet. But since the representatives of G20 did not discuss this topic, there is no one to argue with.

“Another significant statement was made by Obama who said that he was able to negotiate yuan flexibility with China. Whether it is good or bad is the question because China is usually not inclined to compromise, and such concession could mean that China’s economy might not be doing too well, and yuan may start depreciating.

“It is important to note that in addition to Greece, the summit also discussed the issue of Italian public debt, which exceeded 120 percent of its GDP, and the fact that the situation in Italy is quickly slipping to the one of Greece. Actually, I do not really know what else to write.

“The crisis is developing quietly, aggregate demand is falling, the risks in the financial sector are growing, unemployment is rising, and social unrest is escalating. And G20 behaves as if everything is quiet and calm, and only some minor blots on the general background of the global economy require little effort to correct them.

“The spectacle is rather pathetic and sad. It is not interesting to discuss it. I have repeatedly written that these guys cannot be reformed: Not only they do not want, they cannot do anything; they have no control levers, even the language that can describe the current problems. Science does not know what to do with them. But while they are in power, we will see nothing but demagoguery. And the crisis will continue.”
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Question: People don’t understand how strongly they are influenced by the environment. They think that they operate on their own. How can we explain the role of the environment to them?

Answer: According to conventional wisdom, “evil” is simply when we harm one another. So let’s be good to one another and unite, not for the Creator, not selflessly, but so that we will all feel good.

In today’s global world we need a good universal connection. People who have nothing to do with Kabbalah speak about it, including military leaders, pragmatic politicians, scientists, and other experts. They all admit that the present situation leaves us no other choice. In order to have a future, we must unite.

But our egoism doesn’t let us unite. In order to rise above it, we have to introduce a new comprehensive upbringing and teach the laws of the integral world. The facts have caused experts to change their minds, and we will have to change the public’s mind in the same way.

I have to work for the benefit of society, not out of altruism, but because I am part of it. That’s the way it is.

This way it will be accepted by everyone. It all depends on how we present it, on our explanations, which have to be based on unquestionable facts. Instead of single shots, it has to be “massive bombing” with quotations from the articles and sayings of outstanding people who unanimously confirm that it is really so. Eventually we will simply open the stage door for them, and they will play their role and do all the work.

We will have to collect data and the opinions of recognized experts and make their voices sound louder. There are plenty of such materials today, we just need to prepare them and bring them to the general public; the sooner the better.

Even the Chinese are starting to talk about connection because they are discovering their own crisis, which is even worse than the crisis in Europe. Everything changes quickly and unexpectedly. You turn an apple that seems red and delicious and suddenly you see that on the other side it is completely rotten. This is a global, not a private problem.

The summit meetings end with zero results. The leaders are not only helpless, but also unable to say anything. Actually, nobody expects them to say anything meaningful anymore. The summit meetings have become a formal routine, and their decisions are accepted with great fatalism.

The world is in despair, and it is in this period of transition, as long as the despair hasn’t spilled over and turned into uprisings and wars, that we should help the world understand the problem and its solution. This is the best time for dissemination. If we miss this moment, the rotten side of the apple will be revealed with all its bitterness.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah”

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According to the laws of interaction between the Light and the vessel, we have to go through the gravest misfortunes on the path toward the goal. And that’s where the science of Kabbalah comes to our rescue, helping us avoid having these blows come down on our animate flesh and instead transferring them to the human level, to the height we should be on.

Today I am receiving blows from three levels: still, vegetative, and animate. They are whipping me along on the human level. Stated differently, I am being pushed from behind by a bad force, evil, suffering. And I can only obtain one means to help me, a yearning, an attraction forward, coming from the wonderful goal that illuminates my path like the sun. In that case, I will still experience suffering, but it will be the sweet suffering of love.

It is easier to bear this kind of sorrow because it is caused by a longing for the good future. I feel disappointed and fall into despair, but I do not run away because I understand that these pains have to reach a specific, total measure (Σ), similar to how penny after penny eventually adds up to a big sum.

I accumulate great pressure within, a great desire to make a leap toward the goal. I need a gap between me today and the corrected me. And this gap has to be felt as suffering, caused by the difference between who I am and who I should be. This is unavoidable. This abyss has to open up inside of me, but there is absolutely no need for it to be created by wars, diseases, and other disasters.

The real correction is just starting now, when humanity is starting to come together, to merge as one man with one heart, either unwillingly, under a torrent of negative forces from behind, or with the help of the Light that flows ahead. It is impossible to describe how these two paths differ. After all, we have to open up Malchut of the world of Infinity, either in the darkness of inconceivable suffering which purifies our egoism, or in the Light that reforms.

Thus, everything comes down to how we will experience the abyss separating us from correction. We can overcome the path willingly, by agreeing with it, by building an environment that supports us; or we can ignore the solution as long as possible until the pressure from behind forces us to understand from where, why, and for what the disasters are happening, which we cannot escape no matter how much we try.

A person may need decades to get smarter and reveal the Light. And that is why the science of Kabbalah was given to us. But one way or another, this gap between the Creator and creation, between the receiver and the Giver, has to be felt inside of us to the fullest.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)” (abridged version): Why is all of Israel responsible for one another? At first it seems unjust for the Creator to collect another’s debt from you for his sin. And Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says all the people in the world are responsible for one another, and each person brings merit or sin to the whole world with his deeds.

This is exactly what we are observing today: The Greeks have amassed debt and the Germans are reaping the sad results; the French are afraid, the Italians are on the verge, and so on. They are nothing but mutual guarantors who are responsible for one another. But how can that be?

The fact is that parts of a single system are inseparable from one another. It is we who draw a deterministic division between them, but in reality, in an integral, analog system, all the parts simultaneously depend on one another. And this system works only if the input, output, and all the inner processes are in balance.

The system has a multitude of mechanisms inside, which are welded together by a single interconnection. When an incoming impulse arrives, the entire system starts uniting and being corrected until it assimilates the disturbance completely. And then it generates an outgoing signal.

Thus, an analog complex is not just a conductor consisting of a chain of blocks (▢▢), similar to a discrete system. Rather, everything in it is welded together and the outgoing signal won’t arrive until the impulse received at the exit is processed completely, until the entire system assimilates it and lifts itself to a new level.

That is how our body works as well. Recently specialists have been creating more and more systems like this because the whole world is gradually taking on qualities of the general, analog structure. All of nature is a “round,” undivided system, and only man with his “square”, fragmentary perception is subjugated by egoism and does not understand the system’s responses.

As a result, humanity has always created linear systems for itself, until the clock struck and now we are seeing more and more clearly that everything around is interconnected and all parts of the universe interact in integral, analog mechanisms, comprising the single system of nature together.

This integral attitude of nature becomes revealed to us gradually. Each of us grew inside of his egoism and it is only today that we are discovering that we are all in one common, integral system.

We have to understand that the changes can only come from us, when every person realizes that he is an integral part of an integral system. That’s because in this system, the particular and the general are equal. Without this, we won’t find out how to treat nature correctly and will always suffer. We still don’t understand that the contradiction between the analog and discrete approaches elicits a big flaw in nature and brings us enormous troubles.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/01/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Opinion: (Alan Greenspan, a former Chairman of the U.S. Fed): “The euro zone is doomed to fail because the divide between the northern and southern countries is just too great, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC in a recent interview.

‘“At the outset of the creation of the euro in 1999, it was expected that the southern eurozone economies would behave like those in the north; the Italians would behave like Germans. They didn’t…’ ‘Instead, northern Europe fell into subsidizing southern Europe’s excess consumption, that is, its current account deficits.’

‘“The only way to have several currencies from divergent nations lumped together is if they are culturally close, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. If they aren’t, it simply can’t continue to work.’”

My Comment: This will happen under pressure and only if we reach mutual guarantee, when all will receive education about and the understanding of how dependent we are on each other, and public opinion will keep everyone in this sensation. Nature will force us to it through suffering, but it is desirable to strive for this earlier by a good way.
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In the News (from Xinhuanet): “Thousands of Americans pledged to switch their money from bank accounts to credit unions for Saturday’ s Bank Transfer Day, a protest against perceived corporate interests in the American banking system.

“Over 84,000 people signed up to join the protest on the event’s Facebook page, and across the United States participants gathered to celebrate their mass departure from the world of corporate banking.

“Many Americans have recently voiced frustration against the policies of the country’s large banks, who despite accepting bailout money from the American taxpayers continue to impose high transaction fees that some customers feel is just too much.

“The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) estimated that since Bank of America introduced their plans for debit card fees on September 29, over 650,000 Americans have joined credit unions, an alternative to banks.

“In today’ s environment largely critical of corporate interests that some say empower a few at the expense of many, [CUNA Communications Senior Vice President Mark] Wolff believes Americans will be attracted to credit unions specifically because they embody the democratic principles of equal ownership and representation.

“‘Credit unions are Main Street financial institutions,’ he said, contrasting them to Wall Street and the big banks. ‘In fact, you can’t really get more mainstream than a credit union, because credit unions are owned by the members that it serves and is a cooperative financial institution.’

“Although Bank Transfer Day is technically unaffiliated with the larger Occupy Wall Street movement, it voices many of the same sentiments against corporate greed and is supported by most of the Occupy groups around the country.

“Unlike the Occupy Wall Street protests that sometimes involve extensive time commitments and political activism, [Occupy Chicago organizer Sam] Abrahamson believes that Bank Transfer Day is something all Americans can easily participate in to voice their grievances.”

My Comment: We witness new forms of revolution. Increasing the awareness of the population regarding the current situation in the world will eventually lead us to the realization of the true cause of the crisis: It is in everyone, and it is namely we who have to change, to become corrected. For the time being, we observe egoism in others, but soon we will see that it is universal, and we will have to get rid of it.
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Opinion: (Mikhail Muntyan, Professor, Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic Studies, Member of the Academy of Information at the UN, from perspektivy.info): “The breathtaking pace of change has created a sense of “compression” of the globe and a belief in the real interdependence of nations and peoples, a growing collective responsibility for the destiny of humankind, caught up in the most acute environmental crisis of the planet.

“The world is moving towards a state of increasing integrity. But will it first go through ‘leveling’ and then unification, or vice versa? Developing their own concepts of sustainable development, Russian scientists link them with Vernadsky’s idea about the sphere of mind (noosphere, a biosphere influenced by the activity of the human mind). Will humanity be able to overcome its egoism, its aggressiveness to create a new society?”
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