Entries in the 'Health' Category

Why Does Childhood Depression Occur?

543.02Comment: In the last 15 to 20 years childhood depression has become very common. Doctors do not know what to do about it. They cannot find the reason. There can be some reasonable explanations for adult depression.

My Response: It is not just that. We can restrain adult depression. You can force a person to be lower, more limited. But we need to develop our children.

A person who is depressed is given sedatives, tranquilizers, even some drugs just to “put him to sleep.” How can we do this to children? By doing this, we detach them from their natural growth. The manifestation of depression in children is opposite to the tendency that they must develop, overcome, and grow. We encounter a phenomenon here that we cannot conquer.

Question: The fact is that patients are five to six years old children. Why is a six-year-old child depressed and finds that nothing pleases him?

Answer: The question of the meaning of life! Many great Kabbalists wrote about this and in particular Rav Kook and Baal HaSulam.

As long as I can remember, as a child, I had this question. Not explicitly, but it was: “Why? What for? What is all this about?” This question did not allow me to live, did not allow me to rejoice. It was necessary to find an excuse to have fun: to go on a spree, to get carried away with something in order to escape this question. And it was all during childhood.

But let us assume that the soul has no age. Then it will be easier for us. Let’s not look at the young generation as being children.

A soul is a soul. We received it from our past incarnation in which we lived to our old age. And today, in our brand-new young body lives an old soul that has lived on this earth for many generations and has been through a lot.

The fact is that you evaluate a child by its small body, but you should look at its soul. It is already old, wise, and understands that all this is pointless. It has already lived for so long that you cannot confuse it. What will you do with it?

So through depression it gives you its external emptiness and lack of fulfillment. So what if it manifests itself in a small child? And if it was in its thirties, in its forties, is it different?

Depression does not come from life. Absolutely not! We see that there is a lot of depression and suicides among people who have everything in life.

Comment: Usually they say about such people: “They get mad from fat” [unsatisfied from prosperity.]

Answer: No, not from fat. A person simply needs to know what he lives for. And when he has everything and his daily bread is not in question, he really does not see what to live for.

As long as you are forced to take care of your body, you have no opportunity to free yourself for other matters. And as soon as you provide it with everything you need, the question of the meaning of life immediately arises.

This question also appears in children. Why not? I don’t see much difference. The fact that it occurs in children suggests that, after many reincarnations in this world, our souls have come to a state where they actually need the answer to: “Why do we exist?”

Question: You want to say that we incorrectly approach a person from the very beginning by focusing on him as the biological body?

Answer: Of course! After all, this is not a person at all but his animal body. An animal! And how does it differ from other animals?

But its inner part, our “I,” has nothing to do with this body. It goes through many different improvements, dipping into the body, coming out of it, accompanying it. As a result, these metamorphoses lead it to such a development, when—that’s it! We already live in a generation in which we must necessarily answer the question: “What for?”
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From KabTV’s “Close-up. Depression in Children” 8/24/09

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Where Will The Coronavirus Generation Take Us

962.4Comment: Now a generation is coming into the world called the coronavirus generation. Analysts believe that this generation will be familiar with free money from the state and have the desire to receive an unconditional basic income. They say there will be a lot of emptiness, drug use, and longing in this generation. We are bringing into the world a generation about which we speak in advance as “lost.”

My Response: It is not our fault. It is nobody’s fault. This is the order of development, this is the evolution of our desires.

To begin with, this generation does not have such desires as we had: to achieve something, to be someone, and so on. This athlete, that writer, this rich man—there is no such thing anymore! There are no desires whatsoever for anything. There is no special ambition.

But I hope that at the same time with the feeling of emptiness, they will begin to feel a radically new filling of giving, a loving attitude toward others.

I cannot fulfill myself, and I do not want to. I am already detached, I no longer have any of that in me. I am too lazy, I do not want to get up or do anything, I do not have anything for myself. But toward others, I can develop such qualities in myself that when I fulfill the other, I begin to feel that it makes sense. There is a desire in it, there is a fulfillment in it.

Question: So, now I am blocked from anything that concerns fulfilling myself directly? Life for myself is blocked for me from all sides.

Answer: Yes. Man has simply spent himself. And here he begins to understand that by fulfilling others, he can fulfill himself. This is a kind of self-filling, but of a different type.

Question: That is, by loving someone else, giving to someone else, I fulfill myself?

Answer: Yes, I fulfill myself. But the point here is that you have to come to a state where you fulfill the other not in order to be fulfilled yourself, but because you want to be in the other and feel and enjoy his fulfillment, and not to think of yourself, absolutely not! Otherwise, you will be back to where you started from, just like in a circle.

I think people will be able to realize this quickly. That same egoism will lead us to this, which is interesting. It buries itself and brings out another type instead.

The masses will come to this from the inevitability, from suffering, from the feeling of insignificance, worthlessness, emptiness. Like how we came to Kabbalah. Only with them it will be more prominent. Because it will be a massive sense of the end. And through this end, through this void, they will see the light. Through the thorns to the stars, from the darkness to the light.

Question: That is, it is necessary to completely destroy everything, practically lay a man down, and then he will see a way out of this state?

Answer: And at the very last stage, when you are completely done, “that’s it, the end!”—that’s where you start to see: no, this is not the end, this is just the beginning! It will be so.

Question: But this is inhumane. And what does the word “humane” mean to you?

Answer: I think that the demolition of both the past regime and the method of filling up the ego is the greatest humanity that the Creator could do, when He exalted man with all his egoistic impulses, goals, and conceit, and then gradually, time after time, century after century, destroys, again and again, all this in man, showing him how unreal it all is.

But we will be able to realize this only at the very last stage.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/7/20

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How To Get Out Of Apathy

565.01Question: Recently, I see how people close to me seem to have turned over. They were full of feelings, the meaning of life, joy, hatred, and love. And suddenly indifference to the goal, to others, to the troubles of others, to the happiness of others. There is not even envy.

Suddenly such a state came after all this crises, all these blows. Suddenly the person hid in this niche and it is good for him to live in it. What is it?

Answer: First, it is the awareness of a person. That is, a person must realize and say that he is in such a state. “I was struck by this state. I am in it, and I do not see how I can get out of it.”

Comment: But if so, this is already a prayer. He already wants to get out of this state.

My Response: No, he doesn’t want to. The fact of the matter is that he sees that he does not want anything, he is absolutely apathetic to what is happening, and has an unwillingness to change anything because he sees that nothing can be changed! And no matter what he does, it will, perhaps, only get worse.

“Therefore, we do not need to change anything! So we will live as long as we need, we will live, when necessary, we will die. Everything will be fine. Why twitch? We see that from all our interventions in what is happening things can only be worse. Let’s not do anything, let’s leave it all. Like in a boat, we see that we can’t get anywhere and do nothing. Let’s throw away the oars, we’ll sit quietly.”

Question: And he even sort of feels good?

Answer: Of course he feels good. You understand that you surrender yourself to the will of the waves.

Question: You made an accurate diagnosis. Now, how can we get a person out of this or not?

Answer: Who can one withdraw? Who has the ability and understanding of where to withdraw?

Comment: Sit down and talk to him.

My Response: About what? What can I tell him?! I can tell him the other way around: “You have come to the correct conclusion. Sit down and don’t fuss.”

Exactly. Because he has no solution, he does not know or understand anything. He is not in connection with the forces of nature that attract us to somewhere. And therefore, the best thing about it is to surrender to the will of the waves.

When Rabbi Akiva was asked how he escaped from the sinking ship, he said: “I grabbed the board, bridled it, sat on it, and for all the waves that passed, I bent my head, and they passed over me. And so these waves pushed me to the shore. Why? Because I did not resist them.”

Question: That is, you propose, as a recipe for a person in this state, first of all, not to interfere. Secondly, that he be in this state of floating at the behest of the waves?

Answer: Yes. And this is the most true when you surrender to the will of nature. Because you still have no other choice. And in nature you know that there are great forces, there is a great mind, and there is something that is above us, some laws, unknown to us, eternal, and so on. And there is something in it that still controls us. So why should I resist? I will only drain my strength, fall to the bottom of my boat, and that’s it.

Comment: So your advice is to wait? Time will take its toll.

My Response: It’s not just waiting. This is a type of prayer, this is agreement with the higher nature: “I am ready to obey you.”

Comment: Do what you want with me.

My Response: Yes. And in fact, you always do what you want with me. But now I finally begin to feel that I don’t need more. This is already a stage of comprehension, a stage of communication.

Question: That is, if a person comes to this thought, this is already a great advance toward the Creator, one might say, toward the law of nature, which governs everything?

Answer: Of course. He does not climb with his limited thoughts when he wants to spoil nature even more and more. Enough! Do not get involved, do not interfere with the flow of nature and what it does to us! So it is said in the Torah too: “Sit and do nothing—it is preferable.”

Question: Is that how you feel about a person who has entered the spirit of indifference?

Answer: And he has nothing else. Where will it come from? Therefore, he is right. This is the surest way out in his condition.

Question: And what is your advice to me, as his friend?

Answer: It depends on how this friend can understand where he exists, in what forces of nature and if he can use these forces correctly. That is, add yourself to the same direction in which nature wants to lead him. That is, in this case, I do not resist the will of the waves. I am ready to go along with the waves in the same direction, also including my forces in this.

So everything is very peaceful, calm, and good.

Comment: So you have sung such a hymn to the indifferent now.

My Response: This is not indifferent, but reasonable.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/22/21

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Why Cancer Affects Everyone

510.01Question: Humanity has been living with cancer for many, many centuries. Even ancient Egyptian papyrus from the 7th century BC describe breast cancer and so on. Humanity is always fighting this disease. We have invented chemotherapy, created all sorts of drugs, and still, this disease is defeating us.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that the cancer cell is unique, and in general, cancer is different for everyone. Thus, the approach should be very individual with each patient. What do the Kabbalists say about this disease, and how do we break free of it?

Answer: It is a violation of the program in the functioning of a cell or of an organ in a human or animal body. Cells and organs experience disruption. It is like in a computer, for example, when there is a failure, and it is already doing who knows what and destroys itself.

Only from the point of view of Kabbalah, we do not say a failure occurs and it destroys itself. A failure occurs, and everything goes according to a different plan. It is still going according to a plan, they are not some completely random forces. There is no such thing as random in nature. In nature, everything is predetermined, everything is totally interconnected. Therefore, cancer is a violation of the correct, healthy program of the existence of protein cells.

The right, healthy program of existence is when the body functions in order to lead its master, the owner of the body, to the right connection with others and to unite, to reveal a common unifying force through it.

Since the master is not engaged in the correct assembly of these cells, there is a disruption between them such that they begin to multiply incorrectly among themselves.

Question: What is the proper development of the cell?

Answer: It is in proper care between themselves.

Question: Does it stop caring about other cells and care only about itself and start destroying everything around it including itself?

Answer: Yes. It is a purely egoistic attitude to the environment, to its surroundings, because it cannot find the correct positive interaction with it.

Question: So, in fact, can you call the relationships between us, between people, cancerous?

Answer: Of course!

Question: Meaning that we live in a world afflicted by this disease?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And the same thing is happening within us?

Answer: Absolutely the same processes.

Question: What is the solution, what is the cure?

Answer: To realize what has gone wrong in the development of cells, in the wrong relationships between us, in the wrong human relationships between ourselves, and to correct the way we relate to each other.

And we will see almost immediately according to the changes between us toward good relationships, the correct interaction between malignant cells and tissues.

Question: Can a person break free of this disease by himself?

Answer: There may be a chance, possibly. But only through very serious work on oneself and others. If one is even allowed to do so. The fact is that cancer is actually an egoistic tumor of all of humanity. Therefore, it can affect people who are completely unselfish by their nature, by their character. They are affected also.

Question: It is as if reflected from all of humanity onto them, right?

Answer: Yes. And in general, in this respect, we misunderstand nature. Because nature does affect people who, perhaps, are the least likely to relate to such evil manifestations toward each other.

Comment: So the righteous can be the first to suffer.

My Response: True.

Question: Why?

Answer: Well, because they are above the others and, therefore, they get the first blow.

Question: It is a shame.

Answer: No, it is not a shame. This is a universal law of nature, thus, we need to think about everyone.

Comment: You once said that when a person feels bad or is gravely ill, if he finds the strength not to think about himself but to think about others, by doing so he can conquer the illness.

My Response: It can defeat the disease but, in our time, when everything is so tied and interconnected, it is very difficult.

Question: What is your prescription?

Answer: You should still think about others. This is the surest and the greatest remedy for such an evil egoistic disease as cancer.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/22/21

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How To Deal With Stress Effectively?

564Question: For the past 50 years, the topic of stress has been very relevant. In the process of self-development, people who try to improve themselves often reach stressful states of dissatisfaction and powerlessness. How does one deal with stress as effectively as possible?

Answer: Only through participation in the right communities that strive for good, mutual help, and mutual spiritual upliftment.

Only such an environment can give a person the strength to overcome any troubles and obstacles. A person should rise to this environment, invest oneself in it, and feel like a small cogwheel in it.

Question: In principle, in order to receive from this environment, one must give to others?

Answer: Exactly in the measure of bestowal a person receives.

Question: What is primary, what is secondary: first the bestowal, then the receiving, or vice versa?

Answer: It depends on the mutual relations between people. It is quite possible that a person comes into this environment as a newborn child, at first it gives him everything, and then he gradually fits into it and begins to mutually work with it. And it can be the other way around.

Question: Is there any formula for the existence of such communities?

Answer: Mutual giving without any criticism, verification, or measurement of who gives me what. The main thing is that I have the opportunity to give.

Question: Is it important to strive for this here? After all, it is difficult to imagine that people who will be able to implement this will gather.

Answer: Naturally. It is the highest management that gives us such an opportunity.

Question: So, when you have such an aspiration, can you count on help from above?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/12/21

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Smart Generation

289The coronavirus pandemic has made such drastic changes in the world that it has thrown it in disarray. And we will see how governments, leaders, and all kinds of organizations cannot find ways to work with people. The need for the science of Kabbalah, for the method of connection between us and the Creator, will be revealed more and more.

Divinity is only those souls, those desires, directed to the Creator. The souls who have awakened to the Creator are called Divinity, and the Creator begins to reveal Himself in them according to their efforts to awaken themselves to connection with Him.

In the end, everyone must join the common soul, each according to his own level. Do not think that souls that awaken later are smaller. On the contrary, souls awaken starting from the lightest to increasingly heavier ones. The light corrections are done first, which then help us make larger and more complex corrections.

Therefore, those souls who must rise after us are heavier and more important. And the souls that are awakening now, which are called Israel, i.e., those who strive “straight to the Creator” are not so difficult to correct compared to those who will come after them.

Generation after generation the desire grows, and the ability to be smarter and more inventive, grows accordingly. We will see how after the pandemic, the Creator will perform other exercises with us to awaken the understanding of how to get closer to the spiritual. He will act on our entire generation so that everyone feels the need to approach Him and connect with Him.

The whole world will feel that the main thing in life is not the coronavirus, not material success, and not the illusory values with which we filled our lives. The Creator will begin to shine a little deeper into the thickness of our material and will illuminate our inner darkness. We will discover such desires in ourselves that we did not even know about.

Blow by blow, people will gradually begin to discover how much they lack the meaning of life.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/21, “Chasing the Shechina

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“The War Never Ends For Some Warriors” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “The War Never Ends for Some Warriors

On the eve of Israel’s Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism, Itzik Saidian, a wounded soldier, set himself on fire. He was not physically hurt, but his soul has been shattered for years. In 2014, an APV (Armored Personnel Carrier) carrying nine soldiers from his platoon was hit by an RPG shoulder-fired missile. Seven of his friends died in the fiery explosion, and the two who survived were injured by the explosion and the barrage of bullets that followed. Itzik was not on that APV; he came to rescue his friends and saw what was left of them, and his soul was shredded for good. He kept fighting; he wouldn’t back down, and he stayed with his unit even after the battle. But that day, when he saw what had happened to his friends, prevailed over him. He never recovered. Itzik is not alone. For many warriors, who experienced the horrors of war firsthand, the war never ends.

People need hope. If there is no hope in sight, if their present is full of torment and their future is bleak, I can see why they would see no point in living. But if their pain has a purpose, a worthy goal that is within reach, even if only in the long run, then life has meaning and existence makes sense.

The other day, a student asked me a hypothetical question: “If you were to meet Itzik Saidian a few minutes before he torched himself, what would you tell him?” When you meet a person with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), the clinical name for the state such people are in, the most important thing is to listen to them, be with them in their pain. Only afterwards can you say anything. But when the moment comes to speak, I would tell him that for all the pain, life has a higher, more sublime and beautiful goal than he can even imagine. And even though at the moment, he is agonizing, he can still reach that goal. Despite all the pain, it is precisely from that state that he can rise to eternity, wholeness, and beauty, and be happier than any person on the planet.

I, too, have had my share of trauma. I grew up in a family that was wiped out almost entirely by the Nazis, I was in a car accident when a bus collided head on with the car I was driving, and I remember every second leading to the collision. I was clinically dead for days, and when I came to, I couldn’t breathe because my lungs were filled with blood. I remember the anguish. In fact, toward the end, it got so bad that when the doctors finally told me they were going to operate on me to clear my lungs, I literally jumped on the bed in the surgery room and said, “Cut me open!” And I meant it!

Despite the pain, I know what I have gained from these ordeals; I know what they have given me. The purpose of life is to rise above it to a higher realm that we can find if we truly seek it. And sometimes, it takes great pain for us to start seeking, but it is always worth it.

For this reason, I would tell Itzik, and anyone who is suffering unbearable pain, that the hurt is precisely the lever that can lift us above any injury. I would stress that nothing ever happens without a reason, and the pain he feels right now is only the beginning of a road whose end is bliss and beauty. And precisely this place of unbearable heartache is where that road begins.

People need hope. If there is no hope in sight, if their present is full of torment and their future is bleak, I can see why they would see no point in living. But if their pain has a purpose, a worthy goal that is within reach, even if only in the long run, then life has meaning and existence makes sense.

In truth, the states we go through are imprinted in nature’s system, and they all lead to happiness. However, how we experience those states depends on us. The path is paved, but we determine how to walk it. It will lead us all to rise above our selves, and immerse ourselves in humanity, and ultimately in all of creation. Life provides each of us with opportunities to take initiative and move in that direction of our own volition. We often miss these opportunities or decline to take them, and then nature leads us to our predetermined, yet blissful goal against our will. Our predicaments, our trials and tribulations are the levers that life hands us to propel us toward a better reality, a more transcendent one. Itzik’s trauma, however dreadful, is such an opportunity, and so are the traumas of countless people who suffer for no apparent reason.
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“Food For Thought” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Food for Thought

In modern times, food has become not only a vital source of nutrients used for our survival as an organism, but it has transformed into an obsession with us. Over the last fifty years we have started consuming countless industrialized, processed foods, and at the same time, a new trend of so-called “healthy diets” has taken consumers by storm.

Each one of us should eat a healthy simple diet and drink clean water. All the foods we put into the body should be as natural and simple as possible, close to the source. We should eat in moderation, just enough to live. That is, we should not limit ourselves through abstinence but eat normally. The main thing is not to become sidetracked and dragged into the “healthy” hysteria to make a cult out of it while missing the essence of life.

There are lots of foods that are produced for the sole purpose of filling someone’s bank account, and as a consequence, for the purpose of filling the hospitals with patients. We consume products processed with chemicals and preservatives used in both agriculture and food production. It turns out that it is possible to make a profit on every food product that is invented, a way to make it into a successful business. So accordingly, entrepreneurs who identify an opportunity to rake in profits, advertise forms of food and diets that are supposedly healthier. They recommend to the public what to eat and hire their own experts and researchers who will validate and promote the product or lifestyle they sell. And the experts do as they are requested: “Indeed yes, this is the way to eat, this is the right way to live!”

Despite all the studies and advertising, there is usually not necessarily any real benefit to this or that food. Even if we were to prove that we would extend our lives from 80 to 90 years through some special food, what would be the benefit of living another ten years? The end is the same, so exactly what does the person gain if we focus on the length of life instead of the quality of life?

Each one of us should eat a healthy simple diet and drink clean water. All the foods we put into the body should be as natural and simple as possible, close to the source. We should eat in moderation, just enough to live. That is, we should not limit ourselves through abstinence but eat normally. The main thing is not to become sidetracked and dragged into the “healthy” hysteria to make a cult out of it while missing the essence of life.

Since the human body is similar to that of any other animal, the care it requires is like the care of any animal, simple and basic care. If we truly want to reach a more holistic and balanced approach to life, we should turn our attention to the development and investment in the soul. These are the essential questions that should feed us: What do we live for anyway? Where is the world going? What is the purpose of it all? What is our special role in this life and world?

We will find the answer to these intriguing questions by observing the various forms of existence in nature. How all its levels—inanimate, plants, and animals—consume only what they need and nothing more. How the power that governs all forms of life, the supreme mind acting in creation, causes them to exist in perfect integration, in reciprocity, without omitting or neglecting a single detail. We must admire the ramified connections in nature which sustain the world, and we should strive to resemble them in our interactions.

In the pursuit of the intellect operating within nature, we will develop our higher functions—our mental, intellectual, and social capacities. Most importantly, we will develop the soul. In an attempt to liken ourselves to the system of natural laws, we will create a healthy, strong, and robust society that will eliminate the morbid relationships of mutual exploitation and profiteering at the expense of others. Thus we will live not only a better life, but also an existence full of much deeper meaning.
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New Life 1097 – What Causes Disease?

New Life 1097 – What Causes Disease?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The root of all disease is bad thoughts either about the person himself or about the person’s environment. Imbalance at the level of thought disrupts balance at the corporeal level through the nervous system. New disease appears as the human ego becomes stronger. Cancer, for example, is an endless, excessive desire to receive that causes a cancerous cell to devour surrounding cells. If a person would only want to give to others, think good thoughts about others, and bring about a positive connection between everyone, nothing bad would penetrate that person and the situation throughout the entire network would improve. Healing is also achieved through thoughts. When the principle “and you shall love your friend as yourself” permeates the world, all of us will be healthy, whole, and happy, even in the face of death.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1097 – What Causes Disease?” 3/21/19

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“World Leaders’ Call For Pandemic Treaty Exposes International Ill-Will” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “World leaders’ Call for Pandemic Treaty Exposes International Ill-Will

On March 30th, AP’s Maria Cheng reported, “More than 20 heads of government and global agencies called … for an international treaty for pandemic preparedness that they say will protect future generations in the wake of COVID-19.” Cheng added that World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and several heads of state proposed “a renewed collective commitment” that will provide “a framework for international cooperation and solidarity.”

The future may seem forbidding, but I think that in fact, we should be grateful that we are living through such a transformational period in history. We are transitioning from a self-centered society to a connected humanity. Since we already know the direction, we can choose whether to go there fast and easily, or slow and painfully. How many generations could say that they have a clear path for all of humanity? I think we are lucky, but we should seize the opportunity and ride the wave. We shouldn’t be afraid; there is no need to suffer. We can join hands and build together a world where people care for one another, where there are no pandemics, no wars, and no alienation. The choice is ours; we can take it or leave it.

On the face of it, it is a good idea. In practice, it will lead nowhere. Cheng herself noted that “Although the 25 signatories of the commentary called for ‘solidarity,’ and greater ‘societal commitment,’ there was no indication any country would soon change its own approach to responding to the pandemic.” Moreover, “China, Russia and the United States didn’t join in signing the statement,” she wrote, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki went as far as stating that the treaty “could divert attention away from substantive issues regarding the response, preparedness for future pandemic threats,” effectively sealing its fate before it was born.

Once again, alienation prevents an initiative from succeeding. If every country caters only to its own interests, how will they be able to solve any global problem, especially when they are as widespread as the Covid-19 pandemic? And since they can’t, they are paying the price. Already, Europe is facing a third wave, Brazil is nearing 4,000 Covid fatalities per day, and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky passionately warned of a fourth wave saying, “Right now, I’m scared …of impending doom.”

We are approaching a tipping point; we will have to choose between solidarity or pain, great pain. Reality has given us an ultimatum, and we must choose whether to stay selfish and suffer, or start thinking of each other. This choice will manifest on every level: international, national, social, and personal. Solidarity is the call of the hour; if we do not heed it voluntarily, it will force itself on us or punish us. Nature has created the virus; nature has created us, and all our innovations will not outsmart nature, our creator.

The future may seem forbidding, but I think that in fact, we should be grateful that we are living through such a transformational period in history. We are transitioning from a self-centered society to a connected humanity. Since we already know the direction, we can choose whether to go there fast and easily, or slow and painfully. How many generations could say that they have a clear path for all of humanity? I think we are lucky, but we should seize the opportunity and ride the wave. We shouldn’t be afraid; there is no need to suffer. We can join hands and build together a world where people care for one another, where there are no pandemics, no wars, and no alienation. The choice is ours; we can take it or leave it.