Medium published my new article “Covid-19 — the Next Stage”

We’re entering a new stage in our “relationship” with the coronavirus. We’re pretty much done with the denial stage and people are beginning to accept that it is here and there is nothing we can do to chase it away. Although we seem to be deep in the stage of anger, and it could still create a lot of damage, we are also beginning to tire of the war and give up. We don’t have much to look for. We search for the old ways to have some fun, to get something, make some profit, compete, but there is none of it. We’re just going aimlessly from day to day. This aimlessness is not as passive as it sounds. In some, it arouses anger and aggression; in others, it causes apathy.

We search for the old ways to have some fun, to get something, make some profit, compete, but there is none of it. We’re just going aimlessly from day to day. This aimlessness is not as passive as it sounds. In some, it arouses anger and aggression; in others, it causes apathy.

Worse yet, the frustration and hopelessness can stream from the personal level to the social level and lead to social disorders, revolutions, and disintegration of societies and countries. From there, the hopelessness can spread to the international level and lead to clashes between countries, which, seeing no future for themselves or the world, might lead to an all-out world war where they will strive not to win, but to destroy one another. If matters come to this, it will be a nuclear world war, humanity’s worst nightmare.

It’s not as if our lives were so meaningful before Covid-19, but prior to the pandemic, we could camouflage our emptiness with trips, shopping, careers, frequent relocation, frequent change of partners, and Netflix. Now all we have is Netflix. But with the dying movie industry, even Netflix seems more like a monument to a past life than a nice pastime in the present. It’s as if the virus has choked our previous ways of enjoyment and left us gasping for air, seeking desperately for a new way to find vitality, to find a reason to live.

When we are at that stage, we can really start building something new. Only when we give up entirely on finding ways to please ourselves, we will begin to look more favorably at pleasing others. This is where Covid is leading us, because when it comes to pleasing others, there is no end to what we can do, and what others can do for us.

Humanity is heading toward mutuality of a kind we’ve never known. Until now, we were used to thinking of society, friends, and even family as sources of benefit and pleasure for ourselves. The coronavirus is making us invert our attitude to the people around us and begin to see them as opportunities for giving, and in the giving itself find new meanings to our lives, new sources of pleasure and enjoyment, new vitality and energy as we engage in reciprocity rather than in self-absorption.

The transformation will not happen overnight. We are still at the very beginning. The plague is very “young,” only a few months old, but we can already see the trend. Little by little, the virus will make us similar to the rest of nature: giving and receiving, balanced and harmonious. It will make us conscious individuals who feel as part of a great and grand design that nature has created and that manifests in the reality around us. Instead of constant emptiness from seeking pleasures, we will celebrate life. Instead of draining and depleting our social and natural environment, we will become like open faucets, springs that always satiate yet never run dry.

In striving to give instead of receive, we will find more than a reason to live; we will find the meaning of life! We will discover that true joy and satisfaction exist in creating life, not in extinguishing it. In the process, we will unearth the integral nature of reality, where everything is connected and evolving. We will feel as parts of the common reality rather than as distinct units whose existence ends as soon as their physical life expires.

By robbing us of our past-life toys, Covid-19 isn’t punishing us. It is rather making us raise our heads and see where real pleasure lies. Had it not taken away our former lives, it would have taken us decades of human suffering, wars, and mutual annihilation to finally look up and see where real pleasure lies. Despite the toll, Covid is the least painful means that nature could employ in order to show us the way to a happy and sustainable existence. The sooner we follow its lead, the less we will have to ache before we find happiness and meaning in life.
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Israel and the Diaspora Jews – Very Distant Brethren”

Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Omer Yankelevich, is promoting a proposal that will obligate the Israeli government to consult representatives of World Jewry on matters relating to them before making decisions. The idea, although essentially correct, highlights the chasm separating Israel from the Jews outside of Israel.

Before we make any decisions, we need to get to know each other. How can I make a decision concerning other people if I don’t know how they live, what they aspire for, how they make a living, or what they aspire for? Jews have been disconnected from each other in the Diaspora for nearly 20 centuries. If previously, religion kept some sort of similarity among Jews at least in prayer books and services, today even that aspect is gone. As far as their Judaism is concerned, there is nothing in common between American Jews, for instance, and Russian Jews or Israeli Jews. They are literally worlds apart.

For this reason, I think that if we want to rebuild the connection among Jews, we have to do it not through religion or relation to the State of Israel, which has become a contentious matter for many Jews, but through the ideology of Judaism, namely the idea of mutual responsibility.

If there is one motto that Jews the world over relate to, it is Tikkun Olam [correction of the world]. While each denomination interprets the term differently, there is consensus that hate is not part of Tikkun Olam. Therefore, this is where we must begin, with the acceptance that even if we disagree with one another to the point of hatred, we do not let hatred take over, but rise above it and form unity. King Solomon said about this, “Hate stirs strife, and love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 10:12). In other words, we do not deny our ill feelings toward each other, but raise the importance of love above it all.

Why is this important? Because by doing so, we set an example of Tikkun that the world will see. In rising above our hatred, we will help the world correct by setting an example. No other nation is expected to do this but the Jews, and the internal rift between us is on everyone’s minds (just read the news headlines). Therefore, if we unite and show the opposite example, it will prove that it is possible to rise above hatred and will set an example that other people will follow.

We don’t need to teach Tikkun Olam; we only need to set a good example. If we want to mend Israel’s relations with the Diaspora Jews, this should be our focus.
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My article in Newsmax: “Ignoring COVID is Playing Russian Roulette With Our Kids’ Health”

For all our efforts to deny its severity, COVID-19 is not a joke. It’s a serious illness and the more we ignore it, the more serious it becomes.

If at first we thought that it affected only elderly and unwell people, we now know that it affects everyone, at all age groups and at all levels of health. But the most frightening aspect about the coronavirus is its impact on children. While most infected children remain asymptomatic, some develop a very severe condition known as Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PIMS), which affects their brain, and can even lead to death.

Ignoring the risks from COVID-19 is in many ways like playing Russian Roulette. The odds of dying in this case are much slimmer, but the head at the gunpoint is that of our children. Are we willing to take the risk?

The more we stall with dealing with the virus, the more infectious and more violent it becomes. What will happen if we stall for another six months? How much worse will it impact us and our children? Do we want to wait for the mortality rate to rise? Do we want to sit by until hospitals are unable to treat people with any illness because their beds are taken by COVID patients? We really should know better.

The novel coronavirus isn’t here on a brief visit. I said it when it first arrived, and now science is beginning to recognize it. A few days ago, John Edmunds, a member of the U.K. Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told lawmakers that “We are going to have to live with this virus for evermore. There is very little chance that it’s going to become eradicated.” In simpler words, the life we had until 2020 will never return; we have to build a new and better one.

The first place to start in reconstructing our lives is our society. If we examine each crisis that humanity is grappling with, we will find specific causes for each of them. But behind each crisis, whether it is climate change, forest fires, COVID-19, hunger, war, water pollution, air pollution, substance abuse, poverty, obesity, domestic violence, racism or any other crisis, they are all caused by our lack of consideration, by our alienation from each other.

We patronize some, demonize others, abuse, manipulate and cheat our way to wealth and power. Some are more aggressive, some are less so, but this is the dominant mindset around the world. This is also the mindset that has inflicted on us the countless crises plaguing our planet. We will never overcome them until we uproot our constant mistreatment of each other.

We know that mutual responsibility is great for all of us; we feel it instinctively. But whenever we want to implement it, the “voice of reason” awakens in our heads and says that it is pointless to attempt to implement it since too few people are willing to make the effort, that it’s against human nature, that we’re dreaming if we think that this can ever work, etc.

But is it against human nature to want to feel safe? Is it against human nature to want to be able to trust people? Is it against human nature to build networks of mutual responsibility in order to secure everyone’s health and well-being? On the contrary, nothing is more natural than these behaviors. Every settlement provides its residents with exactly these benefits; it is why people live in settlements and communities, and when we choose our leaders, we look for the ones who can best provide us with these necessities.

But while we are living in systems that secure our lives, we mistreat each other — the building blocks of the systems that sustain us. It does not make sense. It’s as if cells attacked an antigen that came to help them fight a virus, and then complained that they were sick.

We must stop yielding to our egos. They are warping our perception and make us think all the wrong things about each other. They make us hate each other when in fact we’re all dependent on each other and wouldn’t be able to live if it weren’t for all of us.

And if we’re not strong enough to fight our egos for our own sake, let’s at least do it for our children. It is not their fault that we are letting our egos run amok; it is not their fault that we are heartless, gutless and cannot look beyond our noses. Let’s at least give up on our egos for their sake, so they, too, will have a future, and let’s not play Russian roulette with our kids’ heads at gunpoint.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Satire of Antisemitism”

On Twitter and Facebook alone, a staggering 1.7 million antisemitic posts were made this year, said U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Elan Carr. That is no laughing matter. But what if we fight hate with satire like comedians try to do? Could that be an effective way to tackle conspiracy theories against Jews? I think, “Yes.” Regardless of whether it is done in a straightforward fashion or from the flip side, what matters most is to awaken the question of why the endless Jew-hatred exists, as an important step to solving the problem for good.

Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.

The coronavirus comes from “a place called Wuhan, which is in Israel” joked Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen on a popular US television show, and was reported in some media outlets. People certainly don’t take him seriously and it is clear that his intention isn’t to stir up provocation, but to use sarcasm as an effective way to disparage antisemitism. Why could this be a great strategy? Because we need a creative approach to address the increasing animosity against Jews around the world. It might help us to highlight this phenomenon bluntly and vociferously on social media where antisemitism crops up and spreads like a virus.

The world’s attention is currently focused on the other epidemic, Covid-19, which has upstaged Jew hatred slightly but not erased it from the playbill, as statistics show. As soon as the plague weakens, the voices of our enemies will intensify again, blaming Jews for the pandemic and other libels, as antisemites so openly do at every first opportunity and through any means at their disposal.

However, we waste our time trying to combat the haters head-on or by struggling to remove unwanted content. These actions will not help, nor do we have the immense power and resources it would take to eradicate the problem. As soon as the measures to eliminate antisemitic posts are implemented in one place, they rapidly reproduce like weeds in a field. Therefore, the only strategy that will bear fruit is to learn how to take the negativity thrown our way and contrast it with all the goodness expected from the Jewish people.

In fact, let’s take a step back and think about this clearly for a moment. When antisemites blame Jews for all the calamities in the world, they are actually pointing to Jews as the only force capable of causing change in the world, as the only people who have the power to solve any crisis humanity faces but who are failing to fulfill this goal.

That is a true statement—they are absolutely right. Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.
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Medium published my new article “Trouble in Paradise, the World in Peril”

Natural disasters have doubled globally in the last two decades. The world is in danger of becoming “an uninhabitable hell for millions of people,” warns the UN, unless actions are taken on climate change — floods, hurricanes, heat waves, earthquakes, fires, and now a pandemic. Calamities are more intense and more frequent than ever before. What does this acceleration mean? Humans look at nature as a force that is out of balance, which is out of control, but feel it has always been like that since catastrophes have been constantly omnipresent, as if this attitude would make our life easier. It will not work. Nature is precisely pushing humankind to take responsibility and fix the mess it has created once and for all.

More than 7,000 major natural catastrophes were reported between 2000 and 2019, affecting 4 billion people around the globe, according to a recent UN study on the human cost of disasters. That is almost twice the number of calamities registered from 1980–1999, an extraordinary rise mostly due to the climate crisis which threatens our very existence.

We need to understand that all the plagues and increasing suffering appear for one reason: to guide people to find the actual cause of what is happening and tackle the problem at its source, since it’s obvious that the efforts of scientists and politicians are ineffective and have failed to stop the avalanche. Why now the rise of unfortunate natural events? Kabbalists who study the details of the structure of reality provide the answer. Foremost Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag succinctly explains it:

“Nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments surrounding our sustenance and existence also multiply… the right conclusion must be drawn — that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its laws with all the measure required of us.” (The Peace).

Simply put, as the world has evolved to this point, it has now entered a new stage of development, a completely different level in which humanity must fully recognize the unity of nature as a holistic system, one whole.

However, there is a bug in the system, an exception that is the source of the problems. Inside this system stands the human species, the center of the world, who is given the freedom to choose to do as it pleases in spite of the consequences, and who is currently acting as a negative influence in opposition to the trajectory of the rest of nature which is global, integral, and united. Therefore, it is the human who is throwing the system out of balance, transforming its well-oiled operation into a disjointed machine whose pieces are constantly colliding and grinding against each other, a network that needs urgent repair to continue functioning before it falls into total collapse.

If we want to save the planet, and ourselves as a consequence, our task is to rebuild human society to bring human activity in balance with the laws of nature. If we were to see in depth the intricate interconnections of the network of nature, we would realize how we, as the rational element in creation, can and does drastically affect the rest of the parts.

Thus, now comes the time when each of us must look in the mirror and say, “Enough blaming others for my problems; I have to take responsibility.” How can this be done? It can only be done by all of humanity deliberately uniting to achieve equality, interconnection, and mutual understanding. All of our development, where human innovations ripple through and transform the lifestyle of each and every one, demonstrates the extent to which we are interconnected. When we understand this, we will understand the true meaning of balancing ourselves with nature and thus, we will balance nature. We cannot escape from this requirement that we must synchronize with nature.

Thus, now comes the time when each of us must look in the mirror and say, “Enough blaming others for my problems; I have to take responsibility.” How can this be done? It can only be done by all of humanity deliberately uniting to achieve equality, interconnection, and mutual understanding.

However, we should not have high hopes for any leader. Each leader ultimately only cares about honor and is inherently selfish, even more so than the rest of us. That is how and why each one of them managed to climb to the top of the political ladder. But once they reach its peak, the nice words promoting the common interest become hollow promises. So we, as the general people, must work together to repair the planet, through our unity, from the wounds we have inflicted and demand from international organizations to advance a global plan for the creation of positive qualitative connections between human beings of all countries, all societies. Only such a protective and luminous ring of light as this surrounding the planet can save it from the impending hailstorm and transform our lives to paradise on Earth, just as was conceived for us in the thought of creation.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “From Ingathering Exiles to Escaping Clans”

Israel, the land that was meant to host the ingathering of the exiles and reunite the Jewish people, is tearing at the seams. There has never been real unity in Israeli society, but we always knew how to rise above our partisan interests in the moment of truth. We cannot do this anymore; hatred and division have taken over. It seems as though we are going to split into myriad groups and clans, and many will seek asylum elsewhere, and I am not sure they will be welcome anywhere.

The truth of our makeup is surfacing; we are not a nation, but a horde of ruthless, selfish individuals, descendants of the most anti-social individuals who lived in ancient Babylon, whose self-absorption was so intense that they escaped, or were chased away, from their birthplace. Those ancient outcasts met Abraham, who taught them about love and caring, and forged them into a new nation whose kernel was unity above hatred. After all, they had nothing else in common.

Since then, the Jewish people have been in one of two states: unity and love, or division and hatred. For the past two millennia, the latter has been our mindset, and the recent turmoil in Israeli society exposes it more vividly than ever. If we do not muster the strength to rise from our low, society will disintegrate and the State of Israel will dissolve.

Abraham’s entourage followed him because they knew what kind of people they were. They were highly developed, intelligent and sensitive, but their development manifested in negative expressions. They wanted to transform themselves, and Abraham offered them an outlet from their meanness.

Today, we are once again together, but there is no Abraham among us. Instead, we must be our own unifiers. We have to help each other rise above our egos and establish mutual responsibility, our people’s motto throughout the ages. We must teach ourselves how to care for one another despite our differences, how to see that our nation is in fact a fabric made of contradictions, and whose strength lies in its diversity. We have to help each other see that our unity makes us “a light unto nations,” and our division makes the world despise us. We have to help each other because no one else will, because our lives depend on it, and because choosing whether to unite or separate means choosing between existence and extinction.
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My new article on Linkedin “I Think, Therefore I Am”

“I think, therefore I am,” said French philosopher René Descartes, and he was right. We are living in the world of thoughts. In fact, our entire world is a thought, and our perception of it keeps changing and evolving. As our perception changes, so does our world. We may not realize it but we can control our thoughts, and in this way determine the kind of world we want to live in.

Although our thoughts seem to come into our minds of their own accord, so to speak, they are actually a product of our environment. We absorb ideas and thoughts from people around us, social media, and every interaction we have with people, whether real or virtual. If the streams that create our thoughts projected positivity, we would become positive people.

Although our thoughts seem to come into our minds of their own accord, so to speak, they are actually a product of our environment. We absorb ideas and thoughts from people around us, social media, and every interaction we have with people, whether real or virtual. If the streams that create our thoughts projected positivity, we would become positive people. Since they currently project negativity, ill-will toward others, and promote concentration on ourselves, this is what we end up doing, and we end up thinking that the whole world is as selfish and as mean as the sources portray.

These sources tell us that this is the real world, and if we want to present a more optimistic, considerate, or caring perspective, they tell us we are unrealistic and make us feel as though we’re out of touch with reality. The truth, however, is that they simply want to keep pumping negative ideas into our minds since fear and negativity benefit them. But they don’t benefit us, and they are not the truth.

The truth is that life could not exist without balance, without equilibrium between good and bad, negative and positive. Everything in life gives and receives. Every cell in our body loves the body it lives in and gives it all it can. In return, the body sustains and nourishes the cells in our body. We wouldn’t be alive if this weren’t so.

The true reality is reciprocity and balance, but people think that ill-will rules the world, a ruthless desire to receive, to take, to plunder and abuse. In fact, people are the only species in all of reality that’s warped this way, and this makes us more miserable than any other being.

So if we change what impacts us and accept more balanced messages from the environment, we will change our thoughts. If we change our thoughts, we will change reality. This is all it takes to fix the world.
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My new article on Linkedin “On the Merits of Hypocrisy”

If you make a list of the current “weapons” against Covid-19, you will be quite disheartened. All we have are the masks, social distancing, and our “weapon of mass destruction,” better known as closure. But people are sick of wearing masks, longing to close the distance between themselves and the people they love, and cannot stay indoors indefinitely, so none of these weapons really works. As a result, Covid-19 is not only spreading, but it is becoming increasingly aggressive and difficult to cure.

We can change the way we feel by changing the way we behave. All it takes is mutual determination and the understanding that we have no choice, since Covid-19 is smarter and stronger than any of us, if we stand alone, but cannot beat us if we act as one.

There are rumors about vaccines, but nothing has been approved, and no one knows if and when it will happen. So much for conventional medicine fighting a non-conventional bug.

Instead of uselessly struggling with the virus with inefficient instruments, we should remember what Einstein said, “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

He’s right. We created this problem, and in fact all of our problems, with our egoistic, self-centered thinking. This is why only if we adopt an inclusive thinking, one that takes everyone into account rather than only ourselves, we will be rid of the virus and the rest of the problems plaguing the world.

In fact, we can look at the virus as a teacher who forces us to change our thinking, our relation to each other. Against our will, Covid is teaching us how to build a more just and integral society. Look at what it’s done so far: It’s forced us to give out money, to realize that some people will never have jobs but we must still look after them. It’s forced us to start thinking of the elders in our community and make sure they stay healthy and safe. It’s forced us to accept that we are all responsible for one another because anyone can spread the virus that may kill others even if we may not be affected whatsoever. In short, the virus is teaching us to think of one another. So if we think of one another, we won’t need its teaching and we’ll be virus free.

You could argue that you can’t think of others because it’s insincere. That may be true, but how sincere are you when you smile at a salesperson in a store, when you say “Sorry” if you bumped into someone on the street, or when you say “Have a good day”? We see that we agree to insincerity as long as it serves our interests, but when we have to do something that does not seem rewarding, we promptly call “sincerity” to our defense.

This “double standard” is the real insincerity. Since we are already insincere, let’s put it to good use. Let’s make the best of hypocrisy. Let’s be nice even when we don’t see the benefit of it, because if we do it together, we will change the atmosphere in our society and people will become genuinely nice. Let’s pretend that we care, fake being kind, and let’s do it all together. Chances are that in no time, everyone will be kind and caring.

We can change the way we feel by changing the way we behave. All it takes is mutual determination and the understanding that we have no choice, since Covid-19 is smarter and stronger than any of us, if we stand alone, but cannot beat us if we act as one.

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Medium published my new article “Coronomics — The Covid-Induced Economy”

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, or in short, SARS-CoV-2, is the strain of coronavirus that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019, a.k.a. COVID-19 — the pandemic that’s killed over a million people in just ten months and is only growing more virulent and violent. It’s also smashed the world’s economy.

Not seeing better a better option, governments are printing money as if there’s no tomorrow. But if they keep this up there will really be no tomorrow, at least not one we want to live in.

With countless houses and apartments standing vacant, and millions of people living on the streets, clearly, there is a fundamental flaw in the system.

Such a time, when the familiar is failing you, is the right time to think outside the box. We know that there are basic needs that people must have no matter what. Food, clothes, and housing are such basics. If people don’t have them, they will destroy the country simply by trying to survive. Therefore, the government, any government, must provide these basics or see that they are provided to every single citizen.

To guarantee provision of basic needs to everyone, the government must see that distribution reaches all the people. Currently, approximately half the food that is produced does not reach consumers either because its sell-by date expires before it’s bought, or because it’s trashed by manufacturers and/or retailers in order to keep the price up, or because transportation costs make distribution unprofitable.

What is true of food is just as true of clothes, tons of which are dumped at the end of each season, and even of housing. With countless houses and apartments standing vacant, and millions of people living on the streets, clearly, there is a fundamental flaw in the system.

You might say, “This is capitalism,” but it doesn’t make human sense to keep people on the street while there are plenty of houses they could occupy. And if capitalism doesn’t make human sense, then capitalism doesn’t make sense, not in today’s world anyway. In other words, it’s time to say goodbye to capitalism and adopt a more considerate and humane approach (though I suggest we leave it nameless for now).

The important thing right now is to help people understand that we are all accountable, and we are all responsible for one another and for all of nature. Our way of life has turned our planet into a giant dumpster. We are living in a dumpster but we complain when we get sick. It’s time we make the connection between how we live and how it all affects us.

So after everyone gets the basic needs for survival, it’s time to change our way of life, namely our attitude to one another. Capitalistic competition is destructive. It did let us out of the caves, but look where it got us. If we must compete, we should compete over who brings more people together, who unites them, who makes them caring and considerate rather than indifferent and selfish.

Of course, we can shrug this whole Covid-induced economy notion off and head back to capitalism, but it won’t work. Covid will kill every attempt to get back to 2019. And the longer we stall with the change, the harder and more painful Covid’s prodding will be. If there is one thing I wish for humanity, it is that everyone will quickly understand where we are going and use the cure I have just outlined before we suffer the blow.
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My new article on Linkedin “With the World Racing to a Cliff, Where’s the Responsible Adult?”

The August Complex fire has already burned more land than all of the recorded fires in California between 1932 and 1999, combined! It’s still burning. Since the turn of the century, there have been more than 7,000 major natural disasters affecting 4 billion people. In the twenty years prior to the turn of the century, there were only half that many disasters. Clearly, planet Earth is accelerating toward a cliff, and no one’s attempting to be the responsible adult.

If we choose solidarity over alienation, we will get rid of the virus in no time. Better yet, we will get rid of all the troubles plaguing the world from East to West and from North to South. Everything we do that’s harming the world is a result of our drive to be superior to others.

Initially, the coronavirus slowed us down, but now it, too, has become a global cataclysm in its own right. Worse yet, since we already know the trend, we know things will not get any better down the line. Is there nothing we can do?

Actually, there is a lot we can do. The world is the way it is because everyone thinks only about him or herself. If every cell in our body thought only about itself, we would die in seconds. This is what we’re doing to our planet, our home. We’re killing it.

We also can’t expect anything from our leaders, since our leaders reflect our society. In a selfish society, the most selfish people reach the top. In a kind society, the kindest are on top. So if we want to have a different world, we have to change ourselves, and help each other in the process.

We needn’t look for anyone to tell us what to do; we must simply remember that we are all parts of one system. Each one of us who acts in contrast to the well-being of the system hurts everyone else, and ultimately oneself.

It doesn’t take any major transformations to change the world; it simply takes awareness. We all need to eat, go places, work, and live our lives. But we don’t need to define our success by our superiority over others. We also don’t have to compete; we can choose to cooperate instead. We are free people; we can decide what kind of people we want to be, and what kind of society we want to build.

If we choose solidarity over alienation, we will get rid of the virus in no time. Better yet, we will get rid of all the troubles plaguing the world from East to West and from North to South. Everything we do that’s harming the world is a result of our drive to be superior to others. If we took only what we needed to make a good life for ourselves, there would be abundance for everyone and we would not be depleting and polluting the earth. Consumption and rejuvenation would be in balance and we would lead a safe and pleasant life.

But all those great things will not happen unless we become our own responsible adults. We are living in a time when everyone is responsible for everyone else. Accountability differentiates a grownup from a child. We have grown up, and we must act the part.

We needn’t go too far; we can begin with our family and friends, the closest circles to us. The trend of caring will catch up. Everyone needs it; it’s the most required commodity today. And best of all, we needn’t worry about spending it because it restocks itself. The more you give of it, the more you get back from everyone else.

I’m not talking about polite smiles or courtesy. I’m talking about being responsible, accountable for one another. I’m talking about knowing that if we don’t act responsibly, we will simply kill many of our fellow human beings, and possibly ourselves. There are as many ways to act responsibly as there are people. Each of us needs something else, but if we think of ourselves as a community rather than as isolated individuals, we will all be better off. This, in fact, is all we need in order to save ourselves, our planet, and the future of our children.
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