Medium published my new article “COVID-19 Has Given Us a Lesson in Humility”

Quite probably, no danger has been downplayed more than the coronavirus. Since case 1, the virus has been described as a type of flu, a negligible threat to health, and basically, a non-issue. Yet, we can already see that this bug has a huge impact on human society. Covertly, COVID-19 has smashed the foundations of human civilization. Within two months, humanity has capitulated to an enemy it cannot see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, and whose noxiousness is questionable.

“We’ve all learned how vulnerable we are, how dependent we are on each other for our most basic needs, from health and food to human compassion.”

Flu or no flu, one by one, governments revoked all public activities, religious and political congregations, professional conventions, sports and entertainment, shopping centers, factories, hi-tech companies, transportation, and recreation. Despite the unimaginable cost, heads of state succumbed in droves to the bug and stopped their nations in their tracks.

Even more extraordinary, now, as governments are trying to restart their countries, people aren’t excited to partake. It’s not only that they’ve had no income during the lockdown, though this is true as well. It is deeper than that: Humanity is losing interest in a civilization that hails people according to their wallets.

Though policy makers and tycoons are urging people to pick up where they left off two months ago, as they stand to gain the most from the recovery, at our expense(s), this will not happen, not this time. People have changed.

Not only tycoons and policy makers have been given a humbling lesson by the virus, we all have. We’ve all learned how vulnerable we are, how dependent we are on each other for our most basic needs, from health and food to human compassion. We have learned that what really makes us happy is warm families and good friendships, not hot trends and smirking colleagues.

We are learning to be equal. We are realizing that it is more rewarding to complete than to compete, that it is so rewarding to share, to care, and to be free at last from our egoistic selves. By submitting our egos, COVID-19 has given us life.

And as every toddler does, we are taking baby-steps. At times we will stumble, at times we will fall, but our goal must be clear all along: We are learning to unite. If we strive to live in unity, life itself will teach us what we must keep from the past, and what we must cast away. We need not make decisions in advance, just try to bond with one another and see what kind of society emerges, how it caters to its members, rewards its champions, and reproaches its foes.

As our values change, so will our causes for joy and for sorrow. Our aspirations will effortlessly adjust themselves to the new environment, and we will thrive when everyone around us thrives.

Since human bonding will be the ultimate goal of society, we will not be afraid for ourselves, for our children, or for others in our care. We will not need to worry about food, housing, health care, education, friends for our children or friends for ourselves. Simply, we will not need to worry. And the only demand of us will be to do the same good for others as they do for us.

We should fear the virus and tend to our health, but we should also be thankful that it came to our aid. It saved us from killing each other and destroying our planet; it gave us a chance to start over. So in all honesty, I am grateful for the lesson in humility that COVID-19 has given us all.
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Medium published my new article “Who’s Afraid of High Unemployment?”

We’re not returning to business as usual. China’s air pollution is back, as the factories are running full steam again, but shoppers will not return to the pre-COVID days. Bankruptcies and higher taxes are in store for America says Larry Fink of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager; Europe is likely to raise taxes to cover their “grants for post-COVID recovery,” according to Reuters, and the global luxury market is “headed for 18 per cent drop,” writes the South China Morning Post.

“As people learn about the importance of solidarity, mutual responsibility, and other social assets, their self-esteem will grow as they become active members who realize these values in practice.”

So we’re not returning to business as usual. But it’s not only because of higher taxes and unemployment. We are not returning to the way we were because the way we were got us into where we are — coming in and out of lockdowns, anxious about the future, unsure about the present, and generally stumped. Many people simply don’t want to go back to their previous lives; they weren’t that great.

Since unemployment will remain high and many people will be stressed for cash, and since those who are employed will also not jump giddily back to the days before the virus, many businesses will not survive. And if we still have any extra cash, the rising taxes and bankruptcies will stifle the little drive we have left for going out or shopping.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Despite all that I just wrote, I am very happy about where we are right now, though I wish we’d gotten here in easier ways. Be that as it may, we have finally come to the inevitable state where the authorities must address the problem. Unemployment benefits and food stamps will not solve anything. Tens of millions of people are permanently out of the job market, and the prediction is that the numbers will only grow.

This requires an overhaul, a complete rethinking of the structure of society. The only way to avoid a total social collapse, eruption of violent riots, installment of martial law, and who knows what other catastrophes, is to do two simple things:

1. Provide every person entitled for government benefits with a scholarship that will replace all other benefits. The scholarship will be sufficient to allow for respectable — though not lavish — living. Food, clothing, housing, health care, education, and some recreation and vacation must be a given for every person. These are basic human needs, not luxuries.

2. In return for reception of the scholarship, each person will attend courses that will provide information about the world we live in, both in terms of governance, basic finance, and other life skills, as well as more inclusive information about the situation of the world today following the coronavirus crisis.

The goal of the studies is not merely to educate people, though that, too, is important. The goal is to help them connect socially and emotionally to one another, to their families, their city, and their country. People who feel that they are where they belong don’t go out and destroy their own cities or countries, especially not if their personal finances are secured.

Over time, graduates of the program will themselves become teachers as more and more people find themselves permanently out of work. But unlike today, where unemployed people often feel degraded and lose self-esteem, the social contribution of the studies program will be so substantial that people will gladly get on board.

As people learn about the importance of solidarity, mutual responsibility, and other social assets, their self-esteem will grow as they become active members who realize these values in practice. Just as today we offer social services and regard it as important, people engaged in these studies will become so connected, so caring, that they will change the whole atmosphere in their neighborhoods and communities. Their immense contribution to the cohesion of society will be so substantial that they will become the pillars of society, the basis for building sustainable and happy communities.

If this bright future seems obscure to us, it is because we haven’t fully grasped the depth of the transformation that COVID-19 has done to all of us. It has changed us forever. When we come out on the other end of the plague, we will be thankful for it, and perhaps regret only that we needed a pandemic to show us the obvious.
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My article in Newsmax: “The Pandemic That Removed Humanity’s Mask”

If there is one visible element that epitomizes the drastic change in our lifestyles due to the pandemic, it is the massive use of masks. Our new, almost faceless society, opens up a whole new perspective on personal interactions, as some studies suggest that the covering of faces may raise suspicion between people. On the other hand, COVID-19 managed to slip through humanity’s mask to reveal our egoistic behavior, giving us an opportunity to rise above the external barriers between us and penetrate deep into each other’s hearts.

Wearing masks to prevent coronavirus contagion is a cultural paradigm strange to us in the Western world so “we may initially become extremely distrustful of one another,” said Francis Dodsworth, U.K. senior criminologist at the University of Kingston, in the current context when scholars around the world debate on how this new social condition will impact interpersonal relationships.

The face, just like the entire body, conveys information that helps us absorb non-verbal communication clues. The face helps us understand the other and know who is the person in front of us, and what are his sentiments and intentions. Therefore, the requirement to wear masks in public places because of the coronavirus has cut down on interpersonal message transmission and obstructed the non-verbal communication between us.

A Blessing in Disguise

I, for one, think that our mask-wearing reality is a good and interesting situation. It is beneficial to understand that we do not know or recognize the person in front of us. It is better to relate to the person as a stranger whom we do not really understand. After all, we do not know another’s desires and intentions — we have no clue or way to know.

Such a foggy situation demands of us to conclude that we simply have to make a big effort to know the person behind the mask. We should reach a level of communication that will activate an internal demand in us so that the person in front of us will open his heart. We should not look for signs in the other’s facial expressions, a smile or twist of the person’s mouth, all this is external. Rather, we should connect to the other person’s heart, and then we will feel certain that they mean well toward us. And if we behave with the same good intention toward others, in mutual responsibility, cooperation, and a positive attitude, we will not need any more masks or disguises because trust will be built.

COVID-19 is very sly. Its actions are not merely a biological matter, but through matter, the virus is operating on us and teaching us how to be human. Nature, as shown by the coronavirus, demands of us to change our interpersonal connections. If we maintain good interactions between us, we will be able to enjoy mutually beneficial relations. If we make no effort to improve the quality of our interactions, we will not be able to come closer to one another in any shape or form. We will be blocked from each other, unable to communicate, with an enormous sense of rejection that we will be unable to bond above, even without a mask and inches away from each other.

In order to reach the correct form of communication between us — which is the solid basis for any relationship — we must change and adapt ourselves to the standardized form of interaction that exists in nature, which is symbiotic and cooperative. Our next stage will be to create something more qualitative than a give-and-take connection, to focus our connections on truly benefiting others through a bond rooted in friendship and closeness of hearts.

Until our hearts are close and we consider ourselves as one society characterized by consideration and good attitude, we will continue to wear masks. In fact, what we need to do right now is pull a curtain over all our selfish desires and communicate heart-to-heart with our fellow people through the cover over our egotistical desires. It means that the intention and thoughts should be for the benefit of others and not at their expense. As we pull the curtain over any egotistical desires that pop up, we will gradually open our hearts to one another, like a channel of positive communication and understanding. Then humanity will put its best face forward.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Surprising Way to Come Out of a Bad Mood”

Many people want to show their pain when they are suffering or in a bad mood, as in, “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” But if you project negative emotions and burden others with your pain because it makes it easier on you, this is simply super selfish. What you should do instead, is put a smile on your face and act as if everything’s fine. If you do that, you will find that you really have come out of your down, since when you put on an act, you become what you’re acting.

For example, think of a mother with her baby. Even under the worst circumstances, she will try to look cheerful for her child. And at the moment she does this, she is emotionally with her child and she really is happy. If she has big problems she will probably fall back down later, but at least for that moment, she came out of herself and felt good precisely because she tried to make someone else feel good.

The only cause of suffering is our ego. Once we rise above it, we do not suffer. My teacher, RABASH, used to laugh at himself when he felt down; he was laughing at his own ego. And once he did that, he was no longer down.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism Was on Lockdown; Now It’s Back”

A few days ago, The New York Times wrote in relation to Secretary of State Pompeo’s visit to Israel that there is a “thinly veiled allusion to a bone of contention between Israel and the United States” regarding China. The aftermath of COVID-19 will be horrendous to the Jews and to Israel.

If last year saw a record number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world, this year, the anger and anguish from the stress caused by the pandemic will turn against Israel and the Jews.

It is no coincidence that Israel is finding itself stuck against its will between China and the US and is being asked to choose which side it wants to be on. The two superpowers attribute to Israel power that its people don’t feel they have. Does it really matter what a tiny country like Israel decides? Clearly, it does to China and America.

One way or the other, the pressure on Israel and the Jews the world over will grow—politically, socially, economically, and in the military sense. One way or the other, the only right choice Israel can make is for its own people to unite among themselves.

Currently, when Israelis and Jews alike are setting new records of internal hatred every single day, the world is setting new records of Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred. As I have shown in my books, Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, there is a clear correlation between internal solidarity, or lack thereof, within the people of Israel, and the intensification or decrease of anti-Semitism.

Unity is the key to solving all of Israel’s problems. Unity is also the key to solving the world’s problems, but the world is looking at Israel for example. Before Israel begins to unite, neither will the world. This is why as long as Israel sets an example of internal bickering and hatred, it will get the exact same attitude from the world. When its people change their attitude toward each other, the world will change its attitude toward them.

American Jewry in Deep Trouble

The state of the Jews in the US has never been worse. Many on both sides of the political map are suspicious of them and blame them for many, if not all of America’s numerous plights.

The coronavirus disease did not help the state of American Jewry, and many Americans blame Jews for either bringing or spreading the pandemic in the country. History is plagued with Jews being blamed for transmitting diseases, and the consequences of these libels have always been catastrophic. Now, it seems, we’re headed for another such libel. But this time, there will be nowhere to run as the pandemic has impacted the entire world, as will the anti-Semitic feelings that it stirs.

In fact, despite the existence of Israel, the state of the Jews today is in many ways worse than it was prior to World War II. Israel is not self-sufficient and can easily be placed on internationally imposed quarantine. The Jews all over the world are feeling the intensification of anti-Semitism in their countries, and there seems to be nowhere to go.

In the late 1930s, the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe were all diplomatic in their disinclination to take in Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. When the wave we’re seeing now becomes as bad as it was in Germany, these countries will be just as active as the Nazis in their efforts to expel the Jews from their midst.

We may think that there is no connection between COVID-19 and anti-Semitism, but there is indeed. It is not only that anti-Semites blame the plague on the Jews. The virus showed us that we are all in one boat. As NY Governor Andrew Cuomo put it, “An infection anywhere is an infection everywhere.” This means that only joint action can defeat the virus. But instead of sharing resources and information in joint efforts, international tensions are growing as countries vie for anything from PPE to creating a vaccine. And in the end, the Jews will be blamed for creating the virus, spreading it, and cashing in on people’s suffering. It is already happening. When these rumors take root, they can become a cataclysmic point in our history.
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Medium published my new article “Living Instead of Just Making a Living”

Could we call the period before the pandemic “life,” or was it just a compulsory race to make a living? This question arises now, as we are forced to rapidly transition to a new state, a new reality. We can make the best of our new beginning if we realize that there are more fulfilling goals in life than chasing passing fads and pointless ambitions.

“This is what is happening with humanity right now. It is going through a phase of growing up, and the push we have received toward it is not easy for us.”

I remember myself as a child, how my parents spoiled me and gave me everything I wanted or needed. Suddenly, at a certain age, they began to pressure me and demand self-discipline in my studies, making sure I lived up to what was required of me. I did not understand what was happening. If they wanted me to be so successful, why didn’t they arrange it? Why was everything on me all of a sudden? I remember how this question troubled me.

It took time for me to be able to gladly accept that my life is divided into two periods: The first one is childhood, when I was under the complete protection of my parents, and the second period, adulthood, during which I needed to stand on my own, no matter how much my parents loved me and wanted the best for me. I had to achieve maturity by myself.

This is what is happening with humanity right now. It is going through a phase of growing up, and the push we have received toward it is not easy for us. It requires that we begin to approach life differently, and we don’t want to. We want to be left alone in our private world and do as we please, just as we have done until today.

If “growing up” in our world means entering the job market, going to bars, and traveling around the world for no real purpose or fulfillment, it is actually the definition of “childhood.” Until now, people have primarily focused on short term goals, on what was in front of their eyes and immediately relevant.

Material gadgets, running from one indulgence to the next, endless competition to outdo others, struggles and wars over dominance, building and tearing down and building once again — these have been our childish games. Suddenly, the moment has come when we, as a global society, are required to lift our eyes from the playground and realize our situation in the larger landscape. What is the purpose of this world where we find ourselves? What is this life? These thoughts are something that we are not accustomed to.

Until today we had expected to live life to its fullest but we tried to achieve this satisfaction artificially, focusing on having a good time without considering our surroundings. We hadn’t paid any attention to the examples that nature’s behavior has given us, which take into account the balance of the whole ecosystem.

The way we have conducted our lives is not real life. We haven’t even begun to grasp what life really means. Adulthood will be reached only when we begin to grow according to nature’s plan, when we begin to measure ourselves according to its rules and characteristics which are integral, connected.

To live life means to understand it, to feel its essence and its goal. Real life is the capability to taste the supreme meaning of our existence, to feel the intricate networks and links within the universe. This is what we can call true life: when we apprehend that everything born or created has a purpose and goal for its existence.

What do we live for? Why were we created? This is something we have yet to discover. It will be revealed when we grow up not only chronologically, but also through our internal discernments. This exercise that nature has given us today with the coronavirus is our first test in growing up, that is, to reveal the meaning of life.

If we want to be smart children, we must understand what life holds in store for us and gladly, enthusiastically, and with great anticipation move toward it. Otherwise, we will experience our exercises in adulthood as suffering. One way or the other, we will have to grow up. The time has come to leave behind the toys of wealth and honor and find the true treasure, the real purpose of life, which exists in cohesive and harmonious relations between us.
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Medium published my new article “Predators that Heal Their Prey, and What We Can Learn from Supermarkets”

With air pollution rising in China to levels that were “normal” in the pre-COVID days, and with countries all over the world celebrating the reopening of their economies, the hope for change that many had nurtured during the clean-air-clear-water lockdown days seems to be fading. But nature has already shown us that it does not want us around the way we were. If we revert to normal, nature will revert to punishments, with a vengeance.

The problem is in our relationships. Nature doesn’t want us not because we eat other animals or emit carbon. It doesn’t want us because we’re mean to one another, and through our atrocities against each other, we are destroying the entire planet.

Humanity, the apex of creation, has harmed creation more than any other creature. In fact, it is the only creature ever to go against its maker: Mother Nature. The coronavirus was the first time nature has shown us that it can hit all of us, anywhere, anytime, if it so chooses. But it did it with compassion. The death toll from COVID-19 is really not much more than that of a seasonal flu, but it scared the living daylight out of us. It was the first time that common folk and state leaders alike stood stumped and helpless before Mother Nature.

Nature sent us a message: I will not tolerate our self-centered wantonness. It will not tolerate our looting and killing, depleting and polluting, poisoning and smothering everything and everyone just so we can be at the top of the heap of debris we have created along the way.

Every other creature but humanity behaves just as it should, and in doing so contributes to the common good. In children’s movies, we often paint cruel faces on predators such as tigers or wolves. But the truth is that these predators prevent overpopulation of their prey and a resulting depletion of their sources of food, and keep their herds healthy and strong by eating the weak and sick.

A wolf will not kill more than one deer or moose at a time. After the kill, it will eat all it needs and will go to rest until the next time it is hungry. Humans are the exact opposite: They kill far more than they need in order to eat, and take pride in killing the strongest and healthiest animals. People don’t kill to eat; they kill to show off their strength.

Let’s take another example. When you go to the dairy section in any modern supermarket, you will find an endless array of cheeses. Twenty, thirty, or forty years ago these cheeses didn’t exist. They only appeared because dairy food makers compete over customers, so they produce an ever growing diversity of foods hoping to get more and more shelf space at the expense of other producers. In the process, more than half of the production is thrown out, the product price spikes, more resources are needlessly extracted from the ground, more animals are mistreated, the air becomes more polluted with emissions of machines and trucks, traffic becomes more congested, and employees of competing companies lose their jobs because their company couldn’t bring their product to the store shelves. Every time we choose one cheese over another, we inadvertently make a lot of people miserable.

The problem is not what we consume, and certainly not that we enjoy good food and other amenities that life has to offer. On the contrary, I’m all for it. The problem is in our relationships. Nature doesn’t want us not because we eat other animals or emit carbon. It doesn’t want us because we’re mean to one another, and through our atrocities against each other, we are destroying the entire planet.

This is why I am putting such an emphasis on education and not on reduction of consumption or other restrictions. They will not help unless we fix the problem where it lies — between us, in our desire to destroy one another.

By forcing us to stay home, the coronavirus forced us to stop competing, and with it, we stopped destroying Earth. If we return to biting at each other’s throats, nature will send another envoy that will set us apart more firmly until we learn the lesson.

Since we are already permitted to congregate and interact, let’s use the break that we were given to start over, to try to be better to each other. Just as our ill-will toward each other sickened the Earth, which then sickened us, our good will toward each other will heal us, then heal the Earth.
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Thrive Global published my new article: “A Caring Mother for a Better Humanity”

Humanity’s Labor Pains Could Give Birth to A Healthy World

After the current pandemic, no other power in the world is more crucial for the birth of a new society than the mother figure. The world is now being revealed as an integral, global system. This means that the world is forcing us to treat each other the same way our mothers treat us, creating an environment filled with the qualities of bestowal and love.

Beyond the celebration of Mother’s Day, marked on the calendar as a reminder of the important role of those women who have given birth to every generation, there is a profound significance in their essential contribution to a new world. It is precisely in the quality of motherhood that a special power exists that can change reality for the better.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has sped up the labor process in the birth of a new reality.
Michael Laitman

Although with the help of the man, we see that it is the mother who conceives, delivers the embryo, nurses, feeds, and raises the baby until it becomes ready for life. In the same way, all the mothers, every woman in the world, needs to see in this critical transition process the world is going through, her opportunity to take humanity to a higher level of existence, to harmonious relations between us, just like an embryo about to be born.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has sped up the labor process in the birth of a new reality. It is causing pain and hard work, but the outcome could be a robust and healthy world instead of the previous one that brought us to the crisis we are currently trying to overcome.

Humanity Is Learning to Crawl

Our human development has gone through two overall stages. The first stage unfolded through men and was characterized by wars, financial instability, various unfortunate global events, and blows that would not have happened under the care of women. Now we are moving into a stage in which specifically the mother, the woman, must take up the role of educating the world and delineating the future world we have to envision. Therefore, this critical time is the time of the woman. However, in order to implement this noble goal, women must learn how to connect to other women by rising above their personal egos for the sake of the correction of the world. However difficult, there is no choice and the job must be done.

Unity is a nice word but hard to put into practice. Neither men nor women are born with the inclination to unite, but we have reached a stage in our development where we are left with no other alternative but to connect. It’s a matter of survival for our own children and humanity as a whole. Thus, any step toward connection, no matter how small, is a huge step toward truly giving birth to a new humanity and making it grow, inch upward, and stand firm. Only women will be able to carry out this crucial role, educate, and provide an example to follow on how to unite. We will demand that men connect correctly, and by showing the way, we will lead the entire world toward correction.

What kind of connection are we talking about? As part of human evolution we are now required to develop a new quality: concern for all of society. When this shared desire arises to connect as if we are a single person—the desire for the wellbeing of all the people like they are our own children—a special unifying force manifests, a positive force which changes reality for the better.

To connect with one another, mothers must learn to overcome the natural distance between them and transcend their personal interests. Women must gradually come to feel that if something happens to someone, it is like it is happening in their own family. Mutual concern will allow us to build and ensure peace, security, and happiness for all children of all generations.

Through the example of the mother, nature teaches us that by connecting, we can be saved from all the harms . If mothers form a common desire to keep everyone together, if they create a strong demand that everyone truly connects as one, they will be able to change the world. Nothing can withstand a united feminine power. Happy Mother’s Day!
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— Published on May 10, 2020

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Medium published my new article “Above Our Petty Selves”

Detecting new phases in the development of humanity is easy: If a new level of interconnection and interdependence emerges, it’s a sign that we’ve moved into a new phase. COVID-19 is a classic case of emergence of a new phase.

Until now, even in the worst blows that humanity had suffered, such as the two world wars or the Black Death, not all of humanity was involved. The coronavirus brought about the first pandemic that truly merits its name. This is a clear sign that the evolution of reality has entered a new phase. The sooner we accept this and stop expecting life to return to the pre-coronavirus mode, the better it is for all of us.

This supergerm isn’t just another virus. Its impact on the world is forcing us to rise to new levels of connection. Until recently, very few people would as much as think about someone else’s health. Now, all of us are thinking about everyone’s health. Although there is clearly a self-centered motive in this thought, it is nevertheless a level of connection we could not achieve before. Even as the level of contagion in society decreases, we will continue to think about others’ health since we will not want them to become sick and endanger our own health. In this way, the virus has inadvertently connected us and made us considerate of each other.

Once such a level of interconnectedness and interdependence manifests, it does not decline. From now on we will have to calculate all our moves as a society rather than as individuals. Clearly, this is a very difficult shift that our egos shun, but evolution does not cater to our egos. Evolution advances in its path, which has always been toward increasing complexity, increasing interconnectedness and interdependence, and therefore increasing consideration of others. The fact that our egos are uncomfortable with it is irrelevant. This virus or the next, or the one after will impel us to learn to think of others no less than we now think of ourselves. To the extent of our obstinacy, so will be our pain.

Nature’s goal is not to torture us. Its goal is to lead us to greater and much deeper joy than we can even imagine today. It aims to open our eyes to all of reality, to make us omniscient. Yet, nature can do this only if it lifts us above our concentration on ourselves. It has to lift us to heights from which we will be able to see the whole world, not just our own little bodies. To do that, it needs to raise our gaze above our petty selves.

Just as a mother painfully presses her baby out of her womb through a narrow birth-canal, all of humanity is now being pressed out of its old worldview into a new reality, a new world. And just as a baby has no choice but to be born, so will we be born into the new world, as pang by pang our consciousness accepts the reality of our interconnectedness. But once we accept it, we will discover that the world we had lived in before was dark, cramped, and inhibiting.

Through sympathy with others we will learn what true love means, what mutual responsibility is all about, and how each of us is so unique that the whole world will not be complete if we’re not there to give it our share. We will live in a reality of total personal expression and absolute devotion to humanity all at the same time. We will feel satisfied and safe, and we will give that feeling to everyone around us and to all of reality. Life will stop being a nightmare and will start being the dream world that we all feel it should be.

Achieving these rewards depends entirely on our mutual contribution. Only if we all pitch in, the new world will emerge. And until we pull together, we will have to endure the likes of the coronavirus.
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Medium published my new article “You Cannot Step into the Same River Twice”

We may be relieved that the economy is reopening and we are coming out of the lockdown, but as Heraclitus said, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” Our pre-coronavirus way of life will not return. We have entered a new era, and the quicker and more consciously we step into it, the easier will be the transition. The more we resist the transformation, the more traumatic it will be.

COVID-19 has ushered us into a new reality. It is the first time we truly see that humanity is one entity whose parts are all interdependent. It is also the first time we realize that thinking of ourselves is useless, since others can infect us no matter how careful we are. This pandemic was the first lesson in mutual responsibility that the coronavirus gave us, and it is one of many more to come.

“Since society will commend people who promote the well-being of the whole society, people will value themselves according to their contribution to society.”

Now that we have learned that we are all responsible for one another, we will gradually learn what that means in every aspect of our lives. At first, we might wish to return to our previous lives of excessive consumerism and self-entitlement, but this will only result in a return of the virus or its “successors.” We already know that our mistreatment of the environment inflicted this menace on us, so as we suffer more and more blows from nature’s “retaliation,” we will accept that we cannot keep living as we have.

The abandonment of unbridled capitalism and ruthless competition will inevitably result in high unemployment rates. At that point, the virus (or its implications) will teach us another lesson: Authorities will see that every person gets a basic income that enables provision of all staples — food, clothing, healthcare, housing, and education.

As more and more jobs become automated, the level of joblessness will grow and force authorities to rethink priorities. Provision of basic income will sustain people on the physical level but their idleness and lack of challenges will impair their mental health and make them apathetic and unruly.

This is where the next lesson of the coronavirus will come into play. To cope with growing apathy, authorities will be compelled to stipulate reception of basic income benefits on participation in courses and trainings. This will begin the actual transition of society into the new era.

The trainings and courses will focus on two categories: technology and society. The courses in technology will equip people with the professional skills required in an era where jobs change quickly and evaporate even more quickly. People’s learning skills will need to be honed so they can become flexible and open to changes.

The more complicated training will deal with society. First, people will learn what it means for them that the world is an integral system whose parts are all interconnected and interdependent.

Since people feel good when they can live according to their values, the training will focus on the merits of individuals who contribute to society. Gradually, people will shift from perceiving success as gaining possessions to perceiving it as advancing society. Since society will commend people who promote the well-being of the whole society, people will value themselves according to their contribution to society. At that point, they will perceive themselves as parts of the common body of society and will function in harmony with it.

Once people have fully processed these lessons, they will no longer mistreat one another or nature. Their worldview will become expansive and complete, and they will grasp reality from the point of view of the whole of society and the whole planet, our common home. By this time, people’s attitude toward each other and to nature will have been reversed from negative to positive. Just as it was natural for them to care about themselves before, it will be natural for them to care about others. And since everyone will operate precisely so, the new reality will actually be a different world — where ill will and mistreatment of others will become contemptible, abominable, and humanity will abandon egoism once and for all.
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