Opinion (Richard Duncan, chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Mgmt): “Richard Duncan, formerly of the World Bank and chief economist at Blackhorse Asset Mgmt., says America’s $16 trillion federal debt has escalated into a ‘death spiral,’ as he told CNBC.

“And it could result in a depression so severe that he doesn’t ‘think our civilization could survive it.’”

“Since the recession, noted economists including Laurence Kotlikoff, a former member of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, have come to similar conclusions.

“Kotlikoff estimates the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion when unfunded entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are included. …

“A team of scientists, economists, and geopolitical analysts believes they have proof that the threat is indeed real – and the danger imminent.

“One member of this team, Chris Martenson, a pathologist and former VP of a Fortune 300 company, explains their findings:

“’We found an identical pattern in our debt, total credit market, and money supply that guarantees they’re going to fail. This pattern is nearly the same as in any pyramid scheme, one that escalates exponentially fast before it collapses. Governments around the globe are chiefly responsible.

“’And what’s really disturbing about these findings is that the pattern isn’t limited to our economy. We found the same catastrophic pattern in our energy, food, and water systems as well.’

“According to Martenson: ‘These systems could all implode at the same time. Food, water, energy, money. Everything.’

“Another member of this team, Keith Fitz-Gerald, the president of The Fitz-Gerald Group, went on to explain their discoveries.

“’What this pattern represents is a dangerous countdown clock that’s quickly approaching zero. And when it does, the resulting chaos is going to crush Americans,’ Fitz-Gerald says.

“Dr. Kent Moors, an adviser to 16 world governments on energy issues as well as a member of two U.S. State Department task forces on energy also voiced concerns over what he and his colleagues uncovered.

“’Most frightening of all is how this exact same pattern keeps appearing in virtually every system critical to our society and way of life,’ Dr. Moors stated.

My Comment: Since we have found ourselves locked in a single integral network of full connectivity and interdependence, of course the overall crisis is global and penetrates all the levels of our work and life. Collapse will be simultaneous in all the areas of human activity in the world.
[91992]

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“Uniting: Building the Future Together”: Dozens of organizations and youth movements have rallied and organized a joint event during which in one day, October 24, 2012, “Roundtables” were held in the central squares of the 12 major cities in Israel. These discussions gathered representatives of Israeli society.

[Show slideshow]

The central event took place at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, at the Congresses Center in Haifa from 4:30 to 10:00 pm. The event was attended by more than 35 organizations, including 8 of the leading organizers of the event; the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) movement was among them.
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Question: As egoism continues to grow in every integral education group, will the leaders have to explain the inevitability of this process: quarrel, make peace, then again bicker?

Answer: Of course! All the work of the group and its advancement from one day to the next are impossible without rising above the ego. Growing egoism is the material above which we build ourselves. And such is the nature of this work.

Thank God we are arguing today; that’s great! Now we should try to rise above it. We will continue to rise while falling and clarifying on the way.

The tendency should always be to rise, only to rise! And we should examine all the descents, throes, and conflicts because otherwise we could become stuck in them forever, continuing to be at each other’s throats.

On the contrary, we need to really scrutinize them, to analyze them from the perspective of whether they cause us to advance—only in this light, in this direction. Our whole egoism rises in us only so that we could overcome it to the goal above it.
[91899]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman,” 03/10/2012 

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Question: It seems to us that people in a group gather by coincidence. But in reality it isn’t a coincidence and each person serves a unique role, which corresponds to a certain Sefira, a certain quality?

Answer: Absolutely! However this is not important to us right now. What’s most important is that people connect. It doesn’t matter what anyone’s role is because they all complete each other. In an integral system even a small screw carries the same meaning as the entire system because without the screw the system wouldn’t function.

Question: So the person doesn’t realize or understand what his role is exactly. But can you conduct an analysis of the groups?

Answer: What would be the point of this because without my sincere and voluntary participation, you can’t force me to do anything? Only an inner realization of the truly voluntary and free participation in this system will give it a state of freedom and perfection. There is nothing you can do against a rat or against any person.

Therefore, no matter how you examine this system, the only thing you can do is strengthen integral education. This is the only thing that can uplift people and further unite them. Of course different research will be done. But basically we should understand that only this type of action is good.
[91789]
From KabTV’s “Talks with Michael Laitman” 3/10/12

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Opinion (from The Voice of Russia): “Nature warns humanity of the impending disaster, but humanity does not want to hear it. Recent natural disasters are becoming more destructive and less predictable, but humanity hardly learns from disasters. …

“Nuclear reactors and defenceless cities still rise on the way of tornados and tsunamis. …

“Hurricanes have become more powerful and occur more often. Their path is difficult to predict, they are more difficult to prepare for. …

“For example, the current storm Sandy has a completely non-standard path. It made its way through Florida, Louisiana and made an impact in the northern latitudes. This is very unusual; in the past, hurricanes did not behave in this way. In addition, Sandy was nearly twice the size of other massive hurricanes. …

“The number of hurricanes has increased by 20-30%, and above all very powerful hurricanes. That is why it is necessary to prepare for a range of surprises. … Hurricanes of such power will not reach Russia, and they cannot be created locally, as they are born over oceans. But our own natural disasters will reach us. … There is a sharp increase in tornadoes in central Russia.”

My Comment: We do not fulfill the condition of balance with the global integral system of nature due to our intervention at all the levels: the still, vegetative, animate and especially human. Our society is not integral, but individual, it is not in homeostasis. The failure to observe the unity of nature threatens us with disaster.

Nature will force us to change from hatred and competition to unity and cooperation against our will. Like its smart children, we can understand and reduce the path of suffering in advance of the disasters, by correcting ourselves.
[91936]

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The path of suffering doesn’t mean that we will be getting a single blow. We have to learn our lesson and eventually turn into intelligent human beings. We have to cease being little egoistic beasts that strive to grasp everything around them for their own sake at the expense of others. We are acting this way subconsciously. We should learn how to act differently and regard every person around us as a blood relative and close friend. It will eventually cause the “butterfly effect” in its absolute form among us.

It will come together with our awareness of the integrality of nature. Our perception of nature will deepen. We will sense the upper layers of nature; thus, we will realize that nature is eternal and that we can go beyond it, beyond time and space, as physicists are already saying.  So we become observers who sense the true nature and rise up to the level of its forces; we live at this level and not in the form of our temporary earthly body.

We have to share these things with all of humanity in a gradual and slow manner; otherwise, people will consider us not quite normal, since it doesn’t conform to their commonly accepted picture of reality; everything that is beyond their routine range, doesn’t exist is unreal for them. Therefore, we must be very careful in our explanation of where we are heading.

But physicists speak about this quite openly now. They are allowed to, since they are physicists. Their conclusions are based on discoveries they have made. It’s not a theory for them anymore; it is a reality because they have been observing this in their experiments since Hugh Everett in the middle of the last century and even earlier.
[90776]
From KabTV’s “Building a Social Environment”, 9/25/12

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Question: Creating a new kind of family relations is a process which gradually builds connection among us. With what does it start?

Answer: Everything begins with the course on integral education. It offers an explanation of our nature and our union with clarification of the general network that connects us together, the freedom of choice, our perpetually growing egoism, and the system in which everyone has to help the each other. We have to learn to listen to our friends in order to get inspired by them and to acknowledge the importance of self-rejection and to recognize the significance of inclusion into each other. And the most important way to advance are the workshops where we sit together, two of us (tête-à-tête) or in small groups, and discuss things trying to feel the process and figuring out the ways of building it.

There is a certain process that outlines the structure of our seminars; the instructor should lead us through it. He should constantly add questions and bring up new topics for discussion. He is the one who leads us step by step, stage by stage, and gradually allows us to develop our desires, thoughts, and aspirations. We face the situation when we have no other choice but to acknowledge certain qualities within us and compare them with what other people see in us. We also have to become aware of how we treat the same qualities in others and search for the ways of rising above our criticism.

We have to thoroughly study ourselves; however, the main thing is to learn to rise above our claims. I keep trying many times and finally achieve it! Have you seen a cat that is preparing to pounce? If it wants to leap from the floor onto the table, it flexes several times as if trying it on, and only then jumps. Similarly, we need to do the exercises and then jump.

Each seminar has a theoretical part, but the main thing is the discussion during which we get to know each other better. We learn from ourselves and bring up our doubts, problems, and difficult times that we would never bring up otherwise because of our manliness. A man (Gever – גבר) is the one who overcomes (Mitgaber – xמתגבר) himself instead of following his instincts. A hero (Gibor – גבור) is the one who conquers his egoistic predisposition.

So, we have to see our weaknesses, and what the true hero is, is overcoming them. In regular life, when people are arguing, fighting and screaming at each other, they look like little kids. Each seemed to want to demonstrate what a big egoist he is. In our workshops, we clearly demonstrate that we are the heroes, since the word “hero” (Gibor – גבור) has the same root as the word “overcome” (Hitgabrut – התגברות)

We have to talk about it openly and directly. Thanks to this mutual work, we will really start to feel each other. And never again will there be such reproaches as women frequently make to their husbands, “Why don’t you ever talk with me!” Her husband won’t even have to talk with her at all since at our workshops we’ll learn to sense each other internally. A powerful internal communication will be initiated among us.

It’s like people who have lived next to each other for many years. For example, I have lived together with my wife for 45 years now and we don’t need to talk a lot. Conversation is not a necessity anymore, but rather a tradition. If we were newlyweds who just started their married life, I would have to talk with her a lot. However, after so many years together we know each other so well that we communicate internally.

The same results can be achieved through the workshops that connect people together. If we rise beyond the family matters and talk about the world problems, the environment, society, the countries we live in, and the entire planet, all of them stem from the incorrect connection among people.

It is from this that the economy and finance are suffering. In some places, people are dying of starvation and in other places there are obese people throwing away surplus food. The reason for such a state of affairs is the wrong connections and lack of equality. That’s why it’s clear to everybody that if we manage to correct the family issues and go beyond them, we’ll achieve success.
[84774]
From a “Talk About New Life” 7/12/12

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Opinion (Andrew Sheng, President of the Fung Global Institute, adjunct professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Xiao Geng, Director of Research at the Fung Global Institute): “Given the crisis weighing down the world economy and financial markets, it is not surprising that a substantive reconsideration of the principles of modern economics is underway. …

“The British economist Fritz Schumacher understood that human institutions, as complex structures with dynamic governance, require systemic analysis. He defined meta-economics as the humanizing of economics by accounting for the imperative of a sustainable environment; thus, he included elements of moral philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and sociology that transcend the boundaries of profit maximization and individual rationality.

“Similarly, Eric Beinhocker, at the newly established Institute for New Economic Thinking, argues for ‘a new way of seeing and understanding the economic world.’ Such an approach requires incorporating psychology, anthropology, sociology, history, physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, and other disciplines that study complex adaptive systems.

“We believe that the framework of ‘micro-macro-meso-meta-economics’ – what we call ‘systemnomics’ – is a more complete way to analyze human economies, understood as complex living systems evolving within dynamically changing complex natural systems.”

My Comment: This is a move in the right direction. Really, it is not simple for economists to change their approach of “maximum profit at any cost” to some unaccountable values, such as connection, care, and love. They will have to develop a system of complete interconnectedness of humanity engaged in meeting its reasonable needs, from the point of view of the rational economy, the maximum output with the minimum cost and destruction of society and the environment.
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Question: Is there a place in the integral system for a person’s individual work?

Answer: A person’s individual work is how he makes himself an integral part of the entire system. His individual work is enormous.

Being a small wheel of the general system, he should see the entire mechanism in front of himself, how he starts it and how everything depends on him. He must perceive this whole mechanism as perfect, depending only on him.

That is, his personality is not lost, but, rather, it becomes unique.

He is the only one that runs the entire world.
[91194]
From KabTV’s “Building the Social Environment” 9/25/12

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