In the News (BBC): “The ‘wisdom of crowds’ doesn’t always apply – sometimes group-think nudges people to make wrong-headed decisions.

“The decisions people make as a group tend to be more prejudiced and less intelligent than the ones they make individually. ‘When people interact, they end up agreeing, and they make worse decisions,’ he [Daniel Richardson] says. ‘They don’t share information, they share biases. We’re trying to figure out why that is, and how we can make collective decisions better.’

“Richardson’s work on conformity follows a tradition in experimental psychology that goes back more than six decades. In the 1950s, the Harvard psychologist Solomon Asch demonstrated that people frequently adopt the view of the majority even when it is obviously wrong, and even when they have to deny their own senses. …

“Group conformity stands in marked contrast to the “wisdom of crowds” effect, whereby aggregating the opinions of large numbers of people gives answers or predictions more accurate than those of any individual. This happens only when members of a crowd make their judgements independently of each other, and it is most effective when a crowd is diverse. In cohesive groups, on the other hand, where members share an identity, the urge for unity overrides all. ..

“’We think of the internet as an information superhighway. It’s not, it’s a bias superhighway. Twitter and Facebook are wonderful ways of sharing information, but it may be that because we’re sharing our prejudices, they’re making us dumber.’”

My Comment: The connection between opinions, which brings capability and not stupidity, is realized only in the connection of the ten principles. It is not the addition of opinions; on the contrary, there is a connection of denial of independent opinions. The members of the group aspire to annul their personal opinions and to unite efforts in creating one desire that is capable of receiving the idea from a higher level of nature.  Only in this manner can we rise about ourselves, and grasp the plan of nature, our goal, and follow it, remaining in a reasonable and comfortable condition.
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Opinion (socialeurope.eu): “We are living in the framework of a financial system that provides stability to the American dollar. This can be beneficial if the interests of the world financial system don’t clash with the interests of the economy and financial system of the United States.

“But the American part of the world economy decreased from 50% to below 20%. Under conditions of an absence of income from issuing securities, the world financial system found itself at a loss and economic growth stopped. The crisis is so great that the victory of one of these forces will inevitably annihilate the other. Peace cannot exist here, for conflict can only be ended through collapse of one of the sides, for there are no resources for the livelihood of both. Therefore the struggle will only become stronger and deeper.

“The question is whether the American economy will be saved at the expense of the world financial system or the world economy will be saved at the expense of the United States.”

My Comment: To save humanity should be through unity. The solution is not on a financial level, but through resembling the entire system of nature, with which humanity is in opposition.
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In the News (hozimaster.in): “There haven’t been wolves in Yellowstone Park for 70 years. During this time, the elk dominated the park. They multiplied at an uncontrollable rate and caused great damage to the local vegetation. 14 wolves were brought to the park in 1995 and they forced the rams to choose their pasturing places more carefully. As a result of this, the vegetation began to grow again and within six years five times the number of trees as there had been before have grown.

“The number of berries has increased; ducks, fish, and muskrats (a type of rodent) have appeared in swamps, coves and rivers, and also beavers that needed trees for building dams. The wolves have reduced the population of jackals, something that has bought about an increase in the number of rabbits and mice, and these have attracted hawks, ferrets, and foxes to the park. Bears who came to the park after looking for food drove away the wolves from prey and ate the leftovers.

“But the most amazing thing that happened is that the wolves have changed the flow of the rivers. The banks of the rivers straightened, reducing erosion on the shore; this happened because the influence of the wolves on the elk brought a tremendous growth of trees and grass on the banks of the rivers. The entire geography of the park has been changed because of the 14 wolves that were released less than twenty years ago.”

My Comment: I think that basically we see a small segment of the picture of changes. Consider the number of distortions we have created in the harmony of nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah says that we have inserted many more distortions through our egoistic thoughts and activities.
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Question: American scientists have discovered that in extreme situations people rely more on robots than on their common sense or manuals.

Researchers at the Georgia Technological Institution asked 30 volunteer students to perform a certain task in a medium size hall. Suddenly, the fire alarm went off and the hall was filled with smoke. The students had a choice of either leaving the hall by using the door through which they came in or to leave the hall through a small side door, toward which a robot pointed at, intentionally erroneously. It turned out that most of the volunteers, 26 out of 30 obeyed the robot and went toward the dead end.

On the one hand, this is progress since we are creating these advanced machines ourselves, but on the other hand, we obey our robots and become as foolish as they are. Could you explain this paradox?

Answer: I don’t understand the actual experiment. How can you not believe a sensor that shows you exactly where you should run to in time of an emergency? What can a person obey? His own instinct? Even if a person knew where the exit door was because he came in through it, perhaps there was a fire there and the robot indicated another exit and determined the safest way out. So why shouldn’t a person trust it? I would also obey the robot’s orders.

Comment: It seems that there were also other people who showed the students which way to go and yet they trusted the robot. Many times, when we use a navigation system, for example, we feel that it is the wrong way but still follow its instructions blindly.

Answer: This is natural, because we begin to respect these instruments in which our confused logic and doubts don’t exist. So I would also trust such instruments more. We launch satellites that orbit the earth, fly, and dive into deep waters, all thanks to such instruments. The human factor can play a very negative role here. This is the reason that I believe that we should trust instruments more than people.

Comment: We don’t totally trust people even in everyday life.

Answer: Why should we trust them? It is actually because of the human factor that there are explosions in nuclear power stations.

Comment: Many say that robots will become stronger than us.

Answer: Nonsense.  Only primitive people who don’t understand how mechanical systems work can say that. A mechanical system can never be smarter or stronger than the person who created it, but in critical situations it is safer since it has no self-doubts.

Question: Will personal relations between people be able to exist in the presence of such technology?

Answer: We are advancing toward such technologies not in order to communicate with each other. Who needs mutual communication these days? Even when we hear one another on the computer, we don’t actually communicate with one another; we read or see something on the screen and that’s it.

Our developing ego pushes a person to be an individualist who is isolated from everyone. If we provide a person with the basic necessities and lock him in a room with a computer, he will not need anything else, absolutely nothing. Even if he is in jail in conditions that are comfortable for living alone, he will not need anyone else.

This trend will continue until people feel that despite this convenience it is as if they are dead. On the one hand, it is very comfortable for our ego, but on the other hand, it is death. We are such a state when we are separated from one another, we are comfortable. On the other hand, we draw away from one another and disconnect the ties between us and then we feel that we cannot live without one another. This is the paradox, like between two lovers who love and hate each other.

This paradox will continue in human society as long as people draw away from one another. This will lead us to a contradiction and oppositeness that we will not be able to solve in any way but only according to the Biblical rule “love will cover every transgression.”

In other words, when there are huge egoistic distances between us, we will be able to build a bridge of mutual love, mutual cooperation and connection, above them. Egoism and altruism will not operate on one level but on two levels. It is actually the combination between these two levels of love and hate that couples lack. We have to make sure that permanent love will overcome hatred.

The greater the distance between these two parallel levels, the greater the love will be than the hate and the stronger the connection. Love is actually built on mutuality when there is an opposition below and connection above.

Question: Will technology help us here?

Answer: Nothing will help us except the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the only thing that will enable us to establish such a connection; this is the technology.
[178605]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/16

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In the News (washingtonpost.com): “The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface.

“Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.”

My Comment: Through the selfish relationships on the level of Adam (Man), people cause an imbalance in the lower levels of nature: still, vegetative, and animate. And leads itself to the threat of self-destruction.

The solution cannot be on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, but specifically on the human level, through balancing relationships between people and bringing humanity to a good mutual connection. Therefore we must implement global education.
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Question: What do you think about the increasing presence of nuclear weapons in different nations?

Answer: This is very good. If there had been no nuclear weapons, Russia and America would long since been at war with each other instead of not since the Second World War. What stopped them was only nuclear weaponry because they understood its significance. For the first time in the life of the military, for whom war always promoted power, they are afraid of war, of nuclear war.

Everyone is afraid of nuclear war, therefore people who “hold the button in their hands,” understand that one shouldn’t play with it. There are limits to where we can fight a bit, mainly in third world nations: I trip you, you give me a slap, etc.

Hitting each other in a political lobby or through the third world is understood by everyone and is perceived as being normal. If 100 people die here and 100 there, it is not taken into account. In contrast, everyone understands that a nuclear war is unpredictable, to the point that it would be impossible to rein it in.

Question: And what if every small nation had nuclear weaponry?

Answer: Is Saudi Arabia a big nation? It is a rich nation that can buy anything.

Comment: But don’t you think that some crazy person could press the button?

Answer: I don’t think that there are that many crazy people in the world, it only seems that way to us. Gaddafi was not crazy, as we now understand. Neither is Fidel Castro nor the present leader of Korea.

The leader of Korea is a smart man and if he makes some noise with the help of the weaponry, it is for one purpose only, “Give us food” because they are starving. Gradually we feed them, placate them, and we don’t even know about it., Even the Americans directly or through a third nation, and also Russia and China. What can you do? Everyone understands each other perfectly.

So I don’t think that there is any uncertainty here. When you understand that you have a serious trump card and the other one does too and you are both holding each other by the throat, that is everything. So I think that nuclear weaponry is an excellent means for restraining and sobering up humanity from childish behavior. I very much hope that in the future care and wisdom will prevail.
[178431]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah have a formula for a happy family life?

Answer: Of course, after all, the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the unity of people and the private level of unity is the family.

Question: Do you mean that people who educate society according to the wisdom of Kabbalah can replace family psychologists? After all, preserving the integrity of the family today is a great problem: There are domestic difficulties daily; life isn’t easy, and the nuclear family is starting to fall apart.

Answer: Families are not breaking up because of the daily troubles but because it is in the interest of industrialists, advertisers, and the like. While a couple needs one apartment, a divorced couple needs two apartments. Today’s global economy is interested in having more consumers, and divorce doubles the number of consumers. Moreover, the elite don’t need millions of people who procreate.

Comment: But the industrialists also live in families.

Answer: They are merely 1% of the world’s population and have no need for all the rest. Why do they need seven billion people! As far as they are concerned it is better to reduce the world’s population even without wars by simply reducing procreation. Thus they will be able to cut down the world’s population by half during one generation.

Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah know how to keep the family together?

Answer: It isn’t simple. The wisdom of Kabbalah gradually tells people how to interact with each other correctly.

Comment: I heard in one of your lectures that if one partner studies the wisdom of Kabbalah while the other partner is far from it, they don’t have many chances of keeping the family together.

Answer: Of course there are problems. If one partner is greatly interested in life on the spiritual level and the other is interested in life on the corporeal level, there are disagreements and conflicts and they feel that they have different impulses. But even then no one says that they should get divorced. On the contrary, it is necessary to keep the family together no matter what.

We try to do it by any means. I understand that it isn’t easy today. Still, it is better to keep the family together, especially if there are kids. First, I am against divorce. And second, one should somehow interest his or her partner and make it understood that you have a dream, something that you are really interested in. The right thing to do is to interest your partner in your field of interest, since by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person begins to discover the real meaning of life.

Everyone is interested in this matter to some extent.
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From the Webinar on zahav.ru 2/10/16

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Comment: A famous blogger wrote that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to astonish people with news about what is happening in the world. People digest the frequent bloody news about terror, about youth that can stab a man with a knife, and don’t mourn the casualties anymore because you would have to do it every day.

Answer: We have had the thirst for such sights since ancient times when they used to kill and maim people, stage battles, etc. Humanity cannot do without it. It isn’t only the need of modern man but a human need for blood.

We are undergoing a serious crisis of consciousness and it is becoming clear that we are miserable nothings. And somehow this has to break. Therefore, the Internet, different problems, ISIS, and radical Islamic organizations push the world forward quickly. These are vital forces in our evolution. Changes occur very intensively and we are beginning to perceive and realize everything very quickly. If people were stuck in the past at one point for ages, today they undergo a lot during one generation.

Question: What will this feeling lead to?

Answer: It will lead to a great outcry stemming from the recognition of the meaningless of our existence. We will not even be able to choose whether to live or not, whether to leave this life or not, so we are controlled by our egoistic nature. In addition to the fact that we exist, we were given a mind to understand that we are miserable and worthless and exist for no reason and for no purpose.

This unclear outcry will be revealed in humanity, and then we Kabbalists will be able to say: “We know what to do in this situation. We have actually been waiting for it for almost 6,000 years and today we can tell you how to turn this deep, terrible hopeless cry into a sigh of joy, a merriment that has no limits. It is possible. We will be very happy to share this opportunity with you.”
[178413]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/26/16

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In the news (openquaternary.com) : “The explanations for a rapid dispersal of modern humans after 100,000 BP remain enigmatic. Populations of modern humans took new routes – crossing significant topographic and environmental barriers, including making major sea crossings, and moving into and through risky and difficult environments. Neither population increase nor ecological changes provide an adequate explanation for a pattern of rapid movement, including leaping into new regions (saltation events). Here it is argued that the structural dynamics of emotionally complex collaboration and in depth moral commitments generates regular expulsion events of founding populations. These expulsion events provide an explanation for the as yet elusive element to dispersal. Alongside cognitive and cultural complexity we should recognise the influence of emerging emotional complexity on significant behavioural changes in the Palaeolithic.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly egoism grew in each and every generation, arousing more and more problems between fathers and sons and between a person and society. This required correction, meaning connection and unity in opposition to the egoism.

But since the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method for uniting above the ego, had not yet been revealed in those generations because of its smallness and the specific lack of the ability to determine individual egoism as evil, people preferred to stay away from each other to mitigate the hostility.

And only in ancient Babylon did egoism show itself as the only problem in humanity. But even then, only a small group of people accepted the method of unity above and against the ego and began to call themselves a people, not on the basis of their local origin, but freely chosen by them ideologically.

And in our time we must finally choose unity as the principle for a new society, specifically in contrast to the global egoism and the involuntary global connection between us. Balancing opposing tendencies is possible only when we elevate global connection above global hatred.
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Opinion (Vardan Baghdasaryan): “The world in the past year significantly shifted in the direction of fascism. Clearly identified are three major ideological projects.

“First, fascism – postmodern. … liberalism was transformed into neo-liberalism.

“Neoliberal ideology – it is not so much liberal ideology as fascist. It claims hard power of the minority. And the majority is to be suppressed for the sake of power “archaic” minority. The legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States was a fundamental landmark of neo-liberal fascism.

“Second, fascism – the religious-fundamentalist. It is largely caused by a life post-modern fascism is the response to it from the traditional society.

“This reaction, as can be seen from recent events, purposefully provoked. The flow of refugees and migrants sent from the Middle East to Europe, making conflict practically inevitable.

“Perhaps the formation of fascism under any religious signs. But if in the center of any of the traditional religions is the principle of humanity, the ideology of fascism – differentiation into friends and foes. …

“Third fascism – a classic Nazi. As fascism programs postmodern reaction to jihadist fascism, so it, in turn, triggers in response the reaction of Nazi fascism. Neo-Nazism combined the idea of ‘defend Europe against alien’ and an increasing migrantophobia sentiment among European populations. …

“And now, the nationalist and Nazi party are close to the political center, gaining more votes of the electorate.”

My Comment: Exiting the deadlock of fascism is possible only through going beyond its framework.This means it will be necessary to present a new global governmental ideology. This government must resist all versions of fascism and get support from the next level of human development. A government like this can exist only according to the unique practical method, which is consolidation according to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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