Thrive Global published my new article: “The True Recovery Treatment for an Aching Europe”

The need to implement these laws of mutuality and integration is now more evident in the coronavirus era than ever before.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron leave after their joint video press conference at the end of the European summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium July 21, 2020. John Thys/Pool via REUTERS

Europe’s nerves have not been calmed by the pompous announcement of an unprecedented stimulus fund to rebuild the continent’s economies severely damaged by the coronavirus pandemic. The sharp recurrence of cases in countries such as Spain, France, and Germany, which were thought to have COVID-19 somehow under control, has proven that the virus and its devastating effects are not vanishing any time soon. The problem will not be remedied through the unity of Europe’s pocketbooks but through the unity of people’s hearts.

The $2 trillion infusion into the European economic system was agreed upon by the 27 leaders of the Union as grants and loans to the continent’s hardest hit member nations. The massive deal, still waiting to be ratified by the EU Parliament, has been promoted as the birth of a new Europe, but the fund’s conditions and disbursement plan have raised eyebrows among its opponents within a bloc who consider the medicine worse than the sickness.

Human society has emerged as an integral global system binding together nations, economies, and cultures, and thus, the problems that Europe and the world experience have the same common root: narrow and cruel egoism.

Although the recovery package may appear to be an important response to Europe’s most pressing needs, the deal in the best of cases can only provide a cosmetic solution. Why is it so? It is because, as expressed decades ago when the bloc of nations was created, a match among such partners could not give birth to any good result. As it is written, “The dispersion of the wicked is good for them and good for the world.” (Mishna, Sanhedrin 71b.) By “wicked,” our sages meant those controlled by their divisive egoistic nature of self-benefit at the expense of others. In other words, the European Union is only a camouflaging cover for a false unity, and it will continue to be so until people’s selfish nature is changed.

European imbalances and the bloc’s internal egoistic disputes will not allow members to connect wholeheartedly. They are dry-hearted toward each other. Since the EU’s foundation, its members have not truly shown care for each other’s prosperity and stability, nor have they exerted efforts to raise future generations to become more responsible and caring for each other than our current one. Thus, as long as the person’s egoistic nature remains unchanged, there can be no authentic change in society either.

Nonetheless, the coronavirus pandemic constantly reminds us that we have no option but to move in a different direction, toward a more genuine unity among people than ever before. Human society has emerged as an integral global system binding together nations, economies, and cultures, and thus, the problems that Europe and the world experience have the same common root: narrow and cruel egoism.

The remedy for these problems can be found in an educational method specifically devised to transcend the problem of this underlying egoism. Therefore, the crisis can only be solved with a comprehensive approach that includes human connection as the pivotal factor for enabling a long-lasting solution to the problem. Without human relations deeply rooted in integration and true concern for the other, all bombastic revamps are destined to fail.

Had the EU plan included a main clause calling for education, or a paragraph demanding the spread of new human relations across the continent, or even an appendix declaring an intention to bring citizens closer together, one could still nod and agree that there is a chance that something could work out. But there is no such basis in the agreement, no inclination toward connection, and no motion to abolish the ego. Thus, we can expect nothing good to come out of mere technical actions, from a signature on a document.

Even if the EU had a billion more euros to invest, the decision still would not have yielded positive results. On the contrary, it would have led them to even stronger resistance and clashes, to wars and harsh struggles, and to outbreaks of new plagues.

Why is it so?

It is because the stimulus plan fails to take society’s balance with the laws of nature into account, laws that operate as an integral system where all parts, regardless of their dimension and status, fulfill a necessary role and complement each other in the system’s proper functioning.

The need to implement these laws of mutuality and integration is now more evident in the coronavirus era than ever before. Now, nature necessitates that we realize the bankruptcy of our past egoistic systems in society, and rise to a new unified consciousness. Even a simple thought in the direction of true unification would be a big step, not only toward the birth of a new Europe, but toward the birth of a new world.
— Published on July 27, 2020
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My new article on Algemeinier “Does Kabbalah Suggest a New Approach to Antisemitism?”

The maelstrom of a global pandemic has not kept antisemites and Jew-haters quiet. On Twitter, the antisemitic hashtag #JewishPrivilege, which was originally used to accuse Jews of racism and control over other minorities, rapidly became a top trending hashtag.

In an attempt to push back against the hashtag’s antisemitic sentiment, Jewish celebrities posted personal stories of discrimination, bigotry, and persecution suffered directly by them or their families throughout generations. But, as expected, it failed to ease the animosity.

In another instance of “special treatment” of Jews, Twitter accounts of users displaying a Star of David were locked by the social media platform, which deemed the Jewish symbol as “hateful imagery.” Twitter later said this was done by accident.

Surprisingly, this is all happening at a time when some social media giants face boycotts from international corporations, which are pulling multi-million dollar advertising budgets from what they call a permissive hate-speech culture on those platforms. Apparently, antisemitism is a more powerful exception to the rules against online hate speech than both advertising dollars and boycott threats, since it is still widely tolerated, and the responsible regulators look the other way.

Hatred of Jews, however, does not depend on our actions. It is a sensation embedded in nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that antisemitism first surfaced together with the emergence of the Jewish people around 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon.

While Babylon was experiencing a crisis of social division, with conflicts and hatred tearing up society, Abraham, a Babylonian priest who discovered the path to unity above the growing divisions, began openly teaching his method to anyone who wanted to learn.

Those who felt that social discord was the burning issue of the time flocked to study with him. He guided them to the discovery of the single uniting force necessary to rise above divisiveness. The group he led became known as “the people of Israel,” meaning “straight to God,” (Yashar-El in Hebrew), i.e., straight to the single force of love and bestowal that exists in reality. Later, the group also became known as “Jews,” which derived from the Hebrew word “yehud,” meaning unity.

Since the Jewish people were the first to attain unity above division, they received the mandate to act as “a light unto the nations.” This meant that their role was first to connect, and then to spread the light that emanated from their connection like rippling waves to the rest of humanity.

Why is this role so important today?

It is because in today’s world, the overblown human ego, social division, conflicts, and hatred are all rising exponentially, causing a myriad of problems and crises, and thus there is a renewed urgency and necessity for the Jewish people to carry out their role. The more people suffer, the more they subconsciously blame the Jews for holding the keys to fix the problems, but failing to do so.

If we Jews make no effort to connect, we block the positive unifying force from reaching humanity, and hatred pressures us to perform what is expected of us. Humanity’s positive future depends on us.

If we have a privilege, it is in our role to deliver human society the abundance and fulfillment that comes from uniting “as one man with one heart.” As is written by the most renowned Kabbalist of our generation, Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “It is the wisdom of faith, justice and peace which most nations learn from us, and this wisdom is ascribed to us alone.”

When we as Jews unite, even slightly, we will act as a conduit for the force of unity to spread throughout human consciousness.
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Medium published my new article “Repairing the World from the Pandemic”

The planet is not going back to the “old normal,” warned the World Health Organization (WHO) as more than 14 million people have been infected with the coronavirus globally, with around one third of those cases reported in the US. Also taking into account its severe economic impact, the WHO considers the pandemic to be the “most severe” global health emergency ever. COVID-19 has arrived to erase the old world and draw a new one, and we can look ahead to the new world with optimism and hope.

The new reality demands that we undergo such a perceptual inversion, in which we will each stop calculating everything out of narrow self-interest, and instead develop a broad vision that takes everyone’s best interests into account.

More than a passing crisis, the health and economic devastation from the coronavirus represent the collapse of the world as we knew it. That old reality is crumbling before our eyes. World leaders find themselves powerless to manage the pandemic properly. They have their backs pressed against the wall and their pockets empty of ideas on how to solve the enormous coronavirus challenges, since their approaches are unaligned with the new reality.

We thus need to realize that tomorrow will be unlike yesterday. Although nostalgia for the past is natural, we have no option but to start looking forward, and fast.

New Is Good

The old world collapsed because its foundation needed an upgrade. Even if we found success in the old world, it says nothing about whether we will do so in the new reality. In order to survive and prosper in the new world, we need to transform the basis of our interactions: from egoistic to mutually considerate. The new reality demands that we undergo such a perceptual inversion, in which we will each stop calculating everything out of narrow self-interest, and instead develop a broad vision that takes everyone’s best interests into account.

The pace of human development has accelerated tremendously over the past few centuries. It has manifested in all sorts of revolutions and social changes. Currently, the call for solidarity and equality resounds in the streets of many countries. However, in the new world, even revolutions will be different. They will first and foremost take place inside the person, in people’s minds and emotions, rather than on the streets. We will have to feel that all human beings are equal, close, connected in mutual consideration, and accordingly learn how to treat others as we would like to be treated.

Previous revolutions changed the pecking order: those who were unimportant became important, and those on top lost their status. The next revolution will be different. Its innovation will be the connection of everyone together as one.

When we feel as one, social systems will emerge that mirror our new connection. Some of the new systems will be voluntarily built out of informed participation on our part. However, as much as we lag behind in our grasp of the developmental trend toward unity, nature will painstakingly force the construction of more unifying systems against our will. Thus, we will gradually bear witness to the dismantlement of the egoistic society, and its replacement with an altruistic society where all parts are equal and connected in mutual complementation.

An Inverted View to Advance

How long will the change in question take? That is up to us.

As of today, we are very far from the goal, both socially and personally. There is nothing more contrary to human nature than to think of the good of others as if it were our own good. And yet, our evolution requires such a change. Humanity now faces the challenge of matching nature’s integrality and unity if it is to survive the 21st Century.

How will it be possible to reverse our selfish view? The method to reverse our nature can be explained with the following example:

Under the current circumstances, we worry about contracting the coronavirus from others and decide to take measures to protect ourselves, such as wearing face masks and keeping our distance from others. An inverse perception, from inward care to outward concern, could be explained as following precisely those same measures as before, but with the intention to avoid our own involuntary transmission of the virus to others.

It is no coincidence that it is currently impossible for us to get rid of the coronavirus, since doing so would require a level of mutual responsibility and guarantee that we do not have. This global pandemic might just turn out to be the first in a series of blows that will show us, with ever-increasing force, that in nature’s view, we are all one, and our good future depends on taking care of each other as if we are members of the same family.

Therefore, we should try to think about what it means to act positively to others — not only to those who are naturally close and dear, but just as much to those who seem foreign and distant. What we do for the sake of others comes back to us, because the system’s every detail exists interdependently with everyone and everything in a single complete whole.

When we function as a single body we will experience the good life: Nature’s cohesive force will flow in our connections, and the world will become filled with abundance, health and tranquility, giving us all a new lease on life.

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My new article on Linkedin “How Exactly COVID-19 Changes Us”

I see how from one day to the next, the world is becoming more accepting and accustomed to its new conditions.

Of course, there is a lot of reluctance and tension at the boundary of this acceptance.

Human nature—the so-called “evil inclination” that prioritizes self-benefit at the expense of others—received a few major blows, and it is still swinging back with all of its might.

We try to hold onto our culture that glorifies wealth, fame and power, where we pit ourselves against each other and have no choice but to compete with each other to reach the top of our respective individual empires.

But nature’s evolutionary steamroller continually flattens out this evil inclination’s throes of death.

It infected humanity with a virus in order to awaken upon us a new sensation of a much greater interdependent reality, outside of our self-serving worldviews.

We have already undergone a major transition from resisting our new restrictive conditions, which we were forced into, to gradually coming to terms with them.

If we knew for a fact that this pandemic has saved us from a much greater hatred-infused blow that we would have inflicted upon ourselves, like a war, then we would be happy for our current state.

I understand that the virus has killed and infected vast amounts of people, and that many more have become financially and personally stressed. But if we could see the overarching global tendency taking place, then we would see that this current direction has spared us more suffering than if we had continued our previous ways.

For instance, I view it favorably that authorities are preoccupied with the health, well-being, and future of their own publics instead of complicating themselves on international scales. Likewise, people across the board fare better by being more essentials-focused instead of letting themselves get confused with the smorgasbord of surplus luxuries, which repeatedly fail to provide any lasting satisfaction.

Nature has given us something to be busy with, through which we can change our ways and start perceiving our surrounding reality afresh.

Also, today’s speed of change is unprecedented. Therefore, I very much hope that in the coming months, we will witness a more understanding and empathetic humanity, one more perceptive of the process it is undergoing, and a humanity that knows how to progress more smoothly to a well connected, safe, healthy and happy future.

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My new article on BIZCATALYST “Making Sense of the Global Anarchy”

When you look at the world these days, all you see is anarchy. America is embroiled in an election campaign that’s so thick with hatred that one can only hope it will not end in a civil war. The EU has just signed a gigantic post-COVID recovery package, but the squabbling leading to the agreement exposed the aversion the member nations in the bloc feel for one another. Besides, we’re nowhere near a post-COVID reality, the package relies on an economic recovery that will not happen, and taxes on revenues that will not come, making the implementation of the package more than unlikely.

Meanwhile, the Middle East has never been a role model of stability, but today even more so—there’s not a single country in this war-stricken region that’s not disintegrating from within or whose economy is shattered and the citizens go hungry or both. Add to it the nearly signed China and Iran trade and military partnership, the tension between the U.S. and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear program, the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington, and you end up finding Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s succinct statement very fitting: “The situation is very bad.”

In fact, the situation is so bad that when COVID-19 first erupted, it imposed a global paralysis that stalled the deterioration of the world toward a world war. But recently, the global outbursts of anarchy are proving that hatred spreads faster than even the coronavirus.

I am not pessimistic. When you look at the current chaos from the point of view of the end of the process, where all become one, it is clear that the only reason for the growing anarchy is to impel us to choose unity over dissension and antagonism. Moreover, because at the moment we are clearly choosing to fight one another for having different views than ours, anarchy is the only way to convince us that hatred doesn’t pay. As long as we are not convinced, anarchy will have to keep growing and inflict more torments on humanity. When chaos takes over and we have nothing to eat and no one to trust, we will be convinced to change course. But wouldn’t it be wiser to choose unity before all this happens?

When unity finally prevails, it will not include agreement among everyone. People were born different and will remain different for a good reason. Their differing views are expressions of the differences between them, which must remain. The problem is not that we are different; it is that we hate other people for not thinking like us, looking like us, speaking like us, and behaving like us, namely for not being us. The problem is our sense of entitlement and the conviction that only I am right, and everybody else is wrong. But if I hate people for thinking differently, even if they’re wrong, can it be that I am right? Can one nurture hatred and yet be right?

Hatred is the denial of another person’s right to a different opinion, character, race, faith, or anything that is not me. If I hate it, it means that I think it shouldn’t exist. In simple words, hatred is the denial of another person’s right to exist. Nothing right can come out of that perspective.

Contrary to our self-centered perspective, the world is one inclusive whole. Its elements complement one another so completely that no part can exist without its opposite. We can achieve unity only when we keep those opposites in balanced equilibrium. Night and day, summer and winter, birth and death, all those opposites don’t create anarchy. On the contrary, they create order, maintain balance, and sustain life!

In order to tap into that perspective, we must aim for the final outcome—the unity of all of humanity. When you place the unity of humanity at the end of the process and examine past and current events with union in mind, you realize that human development is moving inexorably in that direction. It is not a bad outcome. It is not a future of shortage or stress. It is a future of calm, prosperity, and mutual care for everyone. But because our egos resist caring for others, it depicts that future as grim and forbidding.

But calm and prosperity cannot be grim or forbidding. We can choose to approach our promising future quickly and pleasantly, working hand in hand on creating a thriving, diverse society whose members care for one another, or we can spurn the inevitable, insist on separation and hatred, and wait for reality to drag us to happiness against our will.

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My new article on San Diego Jewish World “Lack of Jewish unity spurs anti-Semitism”

The longer the pandemic lingers, the more the world will turn a blaming eye toward us, the Jews. Anytime affliction grows around the world, it directs its anger at the Jews. A few days ago, far-right white nationalist Canadian politician Travis Patron released a video stating, “What we need to do, perhaps more than anything, is remove these people, once and for all, from our country.” He’s not alone, and these ideas do not come only from the far-right. There is ample evidence of anti-Semitism on the left, as well, and even people who aren’t known for their extreme views express or share anti-Semitic social media posts.

Just like the Jews in Germany before World War II tried to convince the Nazis that they were good Germans but to no avail, Jews today are trying to convince the world that we are good people. They say that Jews donate to charity more than any other nation or faith, that they contribute to high-tech innovations that advance the world far above their proportion in the world, that Jews have given the world many great physicians, thinkers, artists, and entrepreneurs, and that they are ardent human rights activists. But the world largely responds with contempt. It may be ironic, but it seems very natural for anti-racism protesters to yell “Dirty Jews” at counter-protesters, as The Jerusalem Post reported on June 15. In other words, many people don’t even relate to anti-Semitism as a type of racism.

Jew-hatred is irrational. It doesn’t need justification (though one is always found) and it always grows when times are hard. But there is a very good explanation for it, though most Jews and most non-Jews are unaware of it.

The first Hebrew, Abraham, left his hometown, Haran, in ancient Babylon, when his countryfolk rejected him. Midrash Rabbah, Maimonides, and many other sources describe Abraham’s findings—that his people had become alienated from each other. He tried to bring them together, to help them rise above their egocentric attitude to one another. But instead of gratitude, he suffered their disdain. Eventually, they excommunicated him and drove him out of Babylon.

But Abraham succeeded. As he wandered west toward Canaan, more and more people joined him since they felt that unity above hatred is the right way to live, while those they had left behind wallowed in their hatred and eventually disintegrated. At the same time, Abraham’s people became a nation and continued to work on their unity, despite the many conflicts that arose within them. That ancient schism between Abraham’s group with its method of unity, and the rest of the Babylonians with their mindset of individuality, is the hidden root of all forms of Jew-hatred. And since the Babylonian culture had spread across the globe, there is not a single place on Earth without latent antisemitism waiting for a crisis to trigger it.

And if the ancient rupture isn’t enough to justify anti-Semitism, upon their exodus from Egypt, the Jews not only achieved complete unity (although it soon faded), but were also tasked with being “a light unto nations”—to spread that unity to the rest of the world. For nearly two millennia, the Jews had fought to keep their unity and be faithful to their mission. But some two thousand years ago, they succumbed to their egoism, which they called “unfounded hatred,” and were dispersed. Since then, they have become unfit to carry out their mission as a chosen people since their hatred for each other prevents them from spreading unity.

Because the Jews fell from brotherly love, from the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself,” into unfounded hatred, the world does not view them as the carriers of unity. But even so, it still regards them as responsible for the world’s troubles, and especially the wars. Ask any anti-Semite who is responsible for all the wars in the world, and they will tell you it’s the Jews. Although they are unaware of it, by holding the Jews responsible for all the troubles in the world, anti-Semites are saying indirectly that the Jews aren’t bringing peace. Inadvertently, they are admitting that the task the Jews were given at the foot of Mt. Sinai is still valid, and that not carrying it out is the reason for their hatred.

What then should the Jews do about it? Exactly what the anti-Semites (subconsciously) expect them to do: unite and project that unity to the world, be “a light unto nations.” Since the Jewish people are descendants of Babylonians from tribes and clans that were often sworn enemies until they joined Abraham’s group, if the Jews unite above their hatred, it will set an example and pave the way for the rest of the nations.

Ironically, the only cure for anti-Semitism is Jewish unity, and sharing it with the world. It turns out that the greatest danger to the Jewish people is not knowing their task.
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Medium published my new article “Millennials at the Forefront of the Economic Pandemic, Why?”

REUTERS/Nora Savosnick

While the elderly are much more vulnerable to the coronavirus disease, the brunt of the economic pandemic certainly has a young face. Millennials in America and around the globe face a particular economic upheaval due to massive job losses in the service-related industries that provided their main source of income. This is no coincidence; the hardship comes as a call to action for the new generation to lead the world to a more promising future by rebuilding the old, failed economic and social systems.

The crisis demands a new education for a new lifestyle based on the same laws of mutual support and reciprocity that exist in nature.

For millennials — those born between 1981–1996 who are now 24–39 years old — the coronavirus epidemic has been especially harsh. They had not fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis before being hit hard by this new crisis caused by COVID-19. Their limited savings affect their capacity to weather the crisis. A recent study revealed that 76% of surveyed millennials said their household income has been negatively affected by the pandemic, making them the hardest hit demographic and one struggling to cover their most basic needs.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed how our current economic system founded on destructive competition at the expense of others leaves large swaths of society vulnerable and in danger of crumbling into dust in the blink of an eye. It shows how our current structures do not offer young people what they need to prosper. Feeling discouraged and frustrated, they see no future within such systems.

The millennials will be the pioneers, and they need to realize that all this upheaval is happening to them specifically to push them to take their future in their own hands and start creating a new and better world for everyone.

Although we may not yet grasp it, a huge change in reality is now underway. The pandemic has placed on the shoulders of a new generation of young people, one now suffering greatly, a special role and responsibility to build a new social structure that fosters stable connections above all the differences and disparities in society for the benefit of all.

Millennials beg to be heard, but we do not know how to listen since our generation still operates according to old paradigms. Until now, the careless patterns of human interactions that permeated our economic and social systems have created a vast chasm between the generations. To make matters worse, we have failed to build an educational system that is suitable for them. We have built a narrow and conflicted worldview around us that divides the world and forces everyone to fend for himself and compete with others at all cost.

The crisis demands a new education for a new lifestyle based on the same laws of mutual support and reciprocity that exist in nature.

A new wind is blowing in the world, changing orientation and old ways. Young people are sucked into a whirlpool of despair, the depths of which will push them to anchor on new safe shores. The safeguard and life-buoy in this scenario must be the tenet “love thy neighbor as thyself,” the most important principle for reaching endless fulfillment — the kind of perfection every human being aims at, and which is achievable only when all the contradictions within man connect in the mind and in the heart.

Meanwhile, the young generation fights a war for survival. We have yet to realize that something in reality is resetting, the old world is dying and a new one is being born. The change is rapidly evolving, so we have to hurry to keep up by quickly opening many courses and education centers to help young people transition smoothly between the two worlds. The millennials will be the pioneers, and they need to realize that all this upheaval is happening to them specifically to push them to take their future in their own hands and start creating a new and better world for everyone.

It would be wise on the part of countries and nations to provide young people with alternative shelters
in hotels and sponsor studies in how to survive in a new world that is founded on improved social relations and more balanced systems. Teach the young pioneers how to be citizens, not in the sense of habitants of a specific country but as builders of a new human society, founded on good connections that encircle everyone in brotherhood. From these young citizens tomorrow’s leaders will emerge. They will understand what forms the new state should take, what connections should prevail among people, and how to educate new generations. They will create a good and beautiful atmosphere that the entire society will enjoy.

This is the time for millennials to exert leadership by uniting all factions of society and merging them into one system with a common vision — a vision that America and the world needs for this generation and for those to come.
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Medium published my new article “COVID-19: Painful Symptoms of Recovery”

Everyone is waiting for the coronavirus pandemic to finally end. But COVID isn’t going anywhere. It has come to change our thinking and will not leave before it’s done. And it will take some time. Humanity is a huge mass of very different people. We need time to adjust, to feel the new reality, understand where it comes from, and why.

If we could think about others rather than ourselves, the virus would not pose any danger. We would be able to go anywhere because if we care about others, we will not harm them.

We will get used to COVID. By autumn, we should already feel more familiar with it. After all, people can get used to anything; they even get used to chronic diseases and learn to live with them, so the same will happen here.

At the moment, the system is still unstable; it is still jerking and jolting from the impact of the virus. But the transition phase will subside and the system will take on a new appearance: a perception of humanity as one whole. Humanity is suffering from all sorts of problems: hunger, fires, droughts, hurricanes, the list is endless. But even now we are beginning to perceive these problems integrally, together, as one whole.

The next blow after the coronavirus is going to be a shortage of the most basic necessities: food, water, medicines, and electricity. This will lower people’s demands and will force them to become more modest. People will have no drive to travel around the world.

As it continues, the coronavirus will teach us the wisdom of life. We only need to know that we are in an integral system that is moving toward a new state of balance, preordained in nature. As this process unfolds, it takes us through different states. If we support the process, we will experience the states as good. If we resist it, we will feel it as painful and oppressive. But it’s all in order to lead us toward complete recovery from egoism.

Nothing happens by accident, but only for the purpose of correction. If we examine what is happening today with the final goal of unity in mind, we will find that there is a clear line leading from the current position to the end point. If we can see that, we will see that everything is done with purpose.

The essence of the process is an ever-increasing connection. Currently, we feel divided, strangers. We suffer because of our oppositeness from the rest of nature, but that suffering will impel us to connect. As we connect, we will become increasingly similar to the rest of nature and as a result, the pain will invert to pleasure. The sooner we transition to the state of connection, the sooner we will invert any suffering to pleasure.

Although we naturally oppose connection, since our nature is inherently individualistic, nature guides one state at a time until we agree to connect. When we agree, we will discover its myriad benefits. Just as brothers quarrel and fight when they are young but become close when they grow up and grow wiser, so we will come to see the benefits of connection after we grow out of our sense of entitlement.

We were given COVID-19 to cure us. At the end of it, we will be much healthier and our relationships will be much kinder — both between people and between countries. Now the borders are closed due to the pandemic. But in time we will realize their futility because connection is the only solution that allows us to overcome the problems that the virus has imposed on us.

It turns out that COVID is not a disease; it is a symptom of recovery. This is what happens with every disease: We do not feel the disease itself, but the body’s reaction to it as it tries to recover. Painful symptoms are signs of recovery. The coronavirus pandemic is showing us the way to recovery from self-centeredness. It is propelling us forward and we should respond accordingly.

We shouldn’t simply hide from it. Although at first we must distance ourselves from each other, subsequently, we should examine how we can grow closer. If we could think about others rather than ourselves, the virus would not pose any danger. We would be able to go anywhere because if we care about others, we will not harm them.

I know that most people still do not see it this way, but in a few months it will be clear that the coronavirus is building the correct connections between us so that everyone thinks about others rather than about oneself. When we achieve this, we will all be healthy.
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Medium published my new article “COVID-19 Will Unite Us (even if against our will)”

Alongside rumors of a near-to-come vaccine, governments and municipalities face the reality of a lingering and fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. Some are reinstating lockdowns, others are begging residents to abide by instructions, maintain a six-foot distance, and wear masks. Still others are fining residents, and in places where central governments are too weak to enforce, such as El Salvador, gangs enforce closure with baseball bats or — as in Colombia — with guns.

Governments, citizens, affluent, afflicted, capitalists, and socialists, everyone must transcend their restricted visions and look at the whole, the integral, which is all of humanity, and all of reality. Only if we act as one will we know what to do to heal our society and heal from the virus.

But a lockdown is not a work plan; it’s an emergency measure that can, at best, inhibit contagion but not finish it off. As soon as restrictions are lifted, infections return with a vengeance.

Worse yet, in some cases, such as that of the Argentinian trawler Echizen Maru, the virus seems to appear literally out of nowhere: The ship’s crew was all tested and came out negative, went into two weeks of isolation prior to sailing, and set out to sea. Somehow, after weeks at sea without contact with anyone besides the crew, all of a sudden, virtually the entire crew got COVID.

The coronavirus is a mysterious bug. At first we thought it affected only the lungs and the sick and elderly. Then we realized it affected much more than the lungs, that it causes blood clotting and affects other parts of the body. Then we realized it affects not only the elderly, but everyone, even embryos and infants, such as the mass contagion where 85 infants less than one year old have tested positive for coronavirus in one Texas county.

As if this is not enough, the UN “warns of global mental health crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic,” and patients and doctors are reporting “brain disorders found in mild, recovering COVID-19 patients.” It is no wonder that the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres says that the world is “at the breaking point.”

Mr. Guterres not only observes the state of the world, he also points out the reason: lack of mutual responsibility. According to the Daily Mail, Guterres stated that the COVID-19 crisis “is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: The lie that free markets can deliver health care for all … the delusion that we live in a post-racist world, the myth that we are all in the same boat,” and that developed countries are strongly invested in their own survival and have “failed to deliver the support needed to help the developing world through these dangerous times.”

Reconstruction after the Breakdown

Before our very eyes, the invisible menace is crumbling our civilization. It has placed a mirror that exposed our disconnection and alienation from each other, as Guterres phrased it so well. It has shattered our illusions about ourselves. Our civilization of entitlement has come to its end, and out of the wreckage, a new humanity will rise.

Bit by bit, we will grasp, truly, in our hearts, that humanity abides by the same laws that govern the entire universe. We have yet to realize that we are part of nature, created by it, and therefore subject to its laws. Just as homeostasis, namely equilibrium between different but interdependent elements, governs all of nature, balance between receiving and giving must govern human society.

Humanity is an integral entity, an indivisible whole that seems divided only because of our self-centered perspective. When we look at the world, we seek to gain pleasure or avoid pain. By doing so, we analyze which part of what we are seeing will benefit us more or harm us less. Inadvertently, we divide the integral world into parts and miss the perception of the integral reality.

Because of this fractured perception, for example, our hearts always go out to the hunted animal when we watch nature films. We don’t realize that predators keep the flock healthy by eating mostly the sick and old animals, prevent overpopulation and the resulting depletion of vegetation. Keeping vegetation lush decreases soil erosion, which prevents streams from eroding their banks, and prevents mudslides and flash-floods. When you look through the prism of integrality, there is no good or bad; there is homeostasis, wholeness. When you look through the prism of personal benefit, there is only good or bad, hurting or being hurt.

This is the sad world that COVID-19 has come to end. It has come to admit us into an integral world where everything is one, complete, inseparable, and indivisible. Clearly, the virus is leading us there against our will. But it is stronger than us, so the more we insist on separation, the more we will suffer. No leader will be able to fight it, no protest will be able to restore the economy, and no vaccine will stop the transformation of society.

We are in the same boat even though we act as if we’re not. If we keep this up, we will all sink. Therefore, every person who understands the situation must carry on the message. Governments, citizens, affluent, afflicted, capitalists, and socialists, everyone must transcend their restricted visions and look at the whole, the integral, which is all of humanity, and all of reality. Only if we act as one will we know what to do to heal our society and heal from the virus.
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My new article on Linkedin “Under Pressure – A Society on the Brink of Collapse”

When you watch the news, you might think that the world has gone off the deep end. On the one hand, you have the coronavirus epidemic that’s ravaging the country and the entire world. On the other hand, you have a teetering economy that’s struggling to stay afloat. And in between, you have countrywide racial tensions and an approaching presidential election. Is it any wonder that people are so tense these days, that there is so much violence and anger? Society is on the brink of collapse

Our social relations are the problem, they contaminate our relationships and the disregard toward the doctors’ orders is simply a symptom of our disregard for one another.

There is no point drawing post COVID scenarios since people aren’t blind; they see that COVID isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s only ensconcing itself deeper in the country. As things stand today, I don’t envy the next president. Nothing that any government can do will ease people’s anxiety, get rid of the virus, or get the economy back on track.

But in fact, right now we don’t need to do anything; we need to understand! We need the right perspective, and then we’ll know what to do.

We need to realize that the world around us has changed. We will not return to excessive consumerism, frantic tourism, and the noxious attitude we proudly called “capitalism.” Thank God, the virus killed them all; they were old, had countless background illnesses, and the virus did away with them. In that sense, the virus cured us.

Actually, the fact that the coronavirus is so contagious is a blessing in disguise. People were so hostile to each other and felt so alone that tens of millions of young Americans were forced to find refuge in substance abuse, depression, all sorts of escapism, and extreme violence, both homicides and suicides. If we follow the doctors’ orders and keep our social distance and wear our face masks, we will at least stop hurting each other. Afterwards, we can start thinking about reconnecting in a non-toxic way.

It is no coincidence that staying six feet apart is called “social distance” and not “physical distance,” which is what it is. Our social relations are the problem, they contaminate our relationships and the disregard toward the doctors’ orders is simply a symptom of our disregard for one another. If we wanted to heal the country, we could end it by simply following their orders for a couple of weeks and the virus would be gone. But we don’t care about each other, we do whatever we want, and the virus is having a field day.

If we don’t begin to change our attitude to one another, the coronavirus will destroy our healthcare system, ravage our entire population, disrupt supply chains, products will not reach the stores, and all the money that the government will pour into people’s bank accounts won’t help them feed their children since the shelves will be empty.

This is the future we are building for ourselves just because we don’t care about each other. In today’s reality, one cannot live in disregard for others. It is called “mutual responsibility” and today it is essential for our survival. If we exercise it, we will live, and live well. If we spurn it, we will starve.

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