Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On Righteousness and Being Righteous”

Sadio Mane, who was one of Liverpool Football [soccer] Club’s top players and top earners, with a salary of £150,000 per week, was once spotted carrying an iPhone with a broken screen before a game. When asked about it, he said, “Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people … I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me.”

This is very impressive, no doubt. It is rare to find people with such a sincere desire to help.

A few days ago, someone asked me if Mane is a righteous man. Here is where I need to explain something about the meaning of the title “righteous” and the term “righteousness.”

In Hebrew, the word tzadik (righteous) comes from the word matzdik (thinking that someone or something is right). In other words, it is something that comes to a person who debates between two options and decides which of them is right.

Most people are not natural born givers like Mr. Mane. For him, the logic is simple: He grew up poor, he knows how it feels not to have what you need, he cares about his people, so he wants to prevent as many of his people as possible from feeling that scarcity. Mane is not debating between two options; he knows what he wants to do and follows his desire. This is great, but it is not “righteousness.”

“Righteousness” means that you face two options, one of which is very tempting but not good, and the other one is good but wholly undesirable. Specifically, it is a choice between doing what is good only for me or what is good for others. My decision, therefore, is not between two things that feel good, but between what feels good and what feels right.

Since Mane feels good when he gives, he is not regarded as a “righteous” in that sense. A generous person toward his people, certainly, but not “righteous” in the sense that he debated between two options and chose the right one over the pleasurable one. As he himself said, “I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes,” etc., meaning he does not want them, or wants them less than to help his people.

There is an idiom in the wisdom of Kabbalah, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and did not sin.” Another idiom says, “A thousand times will a righteous fall and rise.” In other words, righteous people are individuals with very strong selfish desires, who have fallen into their selfishness, then chose to rise above it having realized that they need to do what is right, and not what pleases their egos.

On a side note, but even more important, being righteous or not righteous is not the issue in our society. We do not need to look for righteous people or for generous benefactors; we need to make all of society just and balanced, and then we will have no destitute people who are forced to rely on others’ generosity.

To achieve this, we must set up educational systems that will teach us values, not information. Humanity could live very well, without any deprivation or paucity, if only people felt connected and cared for one another. Our problem, therefore, is not that not enough people are as generous as Mr. Mane, but that all of us, almost without exception, are absorbed in ourselves. We need a global education system that will teach us how we are all connected and ‎dependent on each other. Since we are mutually dependent, it is mandatory that we ‎learn to care about each other. Only such a global educational system will enable us to ‎think of each other and build a better world together.

I wish all of us to be wealthy not with money, but with love for one another. This is all the affluence that we will ever need.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Age of Togetherness”

Why does it feel more and more like humanity is the bully in the neighborhood? Between nations, in personal relationships, with coworkers, among peers at school, and toward nature, we are as clumsy as an elephant in a china store, breaking everything we touch and leaving a chaotic mess behind us. There is a reason for this: The world around us is changing. While we are trapped in a mindset of having to work only for ourselves and that if we are weak, others will eat us, life has revealed its connected nature and shows us that if we act alone, we fail. Reality has ushered in the age of togetherness, and if we want to succeed, we will have to adapt.

In this new age, we cannot succeed alone. People’s strength comes not from their own abilities, but from their ability to connect and collaborate with others.

When we think of collaboration, we often think of having to compromise and give up things we would like in order to maintain a connection. That is no longer the case. On the contrary, the new togetherness requires that we use all of our skills, talents, ideas, and aspirations. However, we will use them for the common good rather than our own.

Currently, we use our abilities to benefit ourselves and prevent others from hurting or surpassing us. This puts us in a constant war with others. As a result, we frequently cancel each other’s good ideas and strengths, they often cancel ours, and we all end up tired, worn out, with unfulfilled potentials, and the whole of society loses.

When we use our individual advantages for the common good, we boost each other’s qualities, enhance each other’s achievements, and facilitate the realization of each other’s full potential. Everyone benefits from this. We feel fulfilled, confident, welcome in our social environment, and all of society benefits from our contributions. The energy we used to spend on self defense is geared toward development, and the achievements spur us on to give even more of ourselves to the collective.

The only thing that stops us from living out this dream society is our obstinate ego. As long as we let it rule, it will continue to destroy us and demolish our society. Eventually, it will destroy everything, and we will realize that we have no choice but to let go of our ego.

If we realize this now rather than later, we will spare ourselves that dismal outlook and bring the future into the present. If we help each other rise above ourselves, we will be able to do this, because in the age of togetherness, even rising above the ego is possible only if we work together.
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Medium published my new article “Success Begins at Home”

A recent study conducted by the Israeli Ministry of Finance has found, unsurprisingly, that where you live has a major impact on your chances of success. The study found that people who live in disadvantaged areas of Israel have lower chances of academic and financial success. The study also found that these people’s chances of mobility — moving up from lower income brackets to higher ones — are also lower if they live in poorer areas of the country.

The solution people most often use if they want to improve their situation is to move to more affluent parts of the country, where the environment encourages achievements and opportunities are more numerous. This perpetuates the poor state of deprived areas. The study suggests that the solution to this problem may be in developing young, local leaders who will create their own environment of success and lift their area to better achievements.

This idea may work, but I believe that success begins at home. If your family encourages you to achieve and gives you examples of success, your chances of success are much better than otherwise. For example, I have three grandchildren who live in Canada. The oldest went to college last year, the middle one went this year, and the youngest is still in high school but will certainly attend college. The role models they see make it almost a given that they will follow the same path. They simply know that a college degree is a mandatory part of their education. Regrettably, in Israel’s underprivileged areas, most people do not even consider the idea of academic schooling.

The cost of higher education in Israel is also prohibitive for many, but there are many scholarships and other programs that allow students from disadvantaged areas to study at a fraction of the actual cost, or even at no cost. So the problem is not one of affordability, but of approach, awareness, and confidence.

Therefore, I think that the first step toward success must begin at home, by creating an environment of encouraging academic schooling. If there is such an environment in a family, it may be able to offset a less positive external environment with regard to higher education.

Subsequently, young local leaders can rise and lift the entire community. If they focus on the common good and try to improve the situation of society as a whole, and if they ‎themselves set an example of success, they can do a lot of good.

Leadership development requires special programs and unique training. The leaders must first learn how to behave among themselves, and then with their community. They should not be raised to be politicians, but leaders who pave the way through personal example. If they can demonstrate how problems are solved by caring for the whole and cooperating with others, they will succeed, and the community will succeed with them.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The odd synchrony between new eras and revolutionary kabbalists”

This week, we commemorate the anniversary of the passing of the great kabbalist Isaac Luria, known as the Holy ARI. It is therefore a good time to reflect on an odd synchrony between his arrival and the global events of his time. However, before we speak of the ARI, we should speak of the founder of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as such, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also known as Rashbi.

Rashbi, author of The Book of Zohar, the seminal book of Kabbalah, lived at a critical junction in the history of humankind. He lived in the 2nd century CE, not long after the ruin of the Second Temple and the exile of the people of Israel from Jerusalem and dispersion throughout the world.

That period, the first CE centuries, was a time of radical global transformations. The world was shifting from paganism to monotheism. Rome was gradually declining, along with its pantheon of gods, and a fledgling religion that became known as Christianity was accelerating its expansion. That time also saw the dimming of the Greek culture and the beginning of a darker epoch in the history of humankind: the Middle Ages.

When the Middle Ages had ended and a revival known as the Renaissance began, a new kabbalist with revolutionary teachings emerged, as well. Isaac Luria, The ARI, lived in the mid-16th century. That was also when the Renaissance was beginning to spread throughout Europe. It was also the time when Martin Luther lived and spread his ideas. These two revolutionary movements, Renaissance and Protestantism, had changed the world forever. Lurianic Kabbalah, named after Isaac Luria, The ARI, was equally revolutionary; it changed the way Kabbalists studied and taught Kabbalah, and paved the way for explaining it in a manner that the world can understand.

The third great kabbalist who lived at a pivotal time in history was Rav Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam. He lived through both world wars and warned of an impending genocide of the Jews years before it happened. He also lived to see the establishment of the State of Israel and the emergence of the Soviet and American blocs.

In his writings, Baal HaSulam wrote extensive and clear commentaries on the writings of his two predecessors, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s The Book of Zohar, and the writings of The ARI. He is the one who truly made Kabbalah accessible to everyone, and who pioneered the spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the entire world.

While I do not see a direct connection between the arrival of revolutionary kabbalists and the advent of ideological, religious, and cultural transformations in the world, there is still a connection between the two in the sense that they both express the appearance of an evolutionary change in humanity. The world changes in its physical expression, and Kabbalah changes in its spiritual expression, but both processes demonstrate the advent of a new phase in the evolution of humanity. Therefore, while they happen simultaneously, they are not derived from one another.

The odd synchrony between the arrival of new eras and the appearance of revolutionary kabbalists is therefore created not because they are connected to each other, but because both are connected to the same source, the engine of reality, the creative force of giving that engenders everything, sustains everything, and develops everything to its ultimate goal: complete unity of all things, bound together by threats of mutual giving and love, in utter oneness.
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Medium published my new article “Redefining Happiness and Security”

For many people, happiness is a feeling that they are loved, accepted, and safe in their social environment. We feel secure when we have a positive image of the future. An optimistic feeling about the future gives us a reason to live. If we lose it, we become dejected and sometimes even suicidal. The future is more important to us than the present; it brightens or darkens the now, so it is vital that we understand how to build a safe future, surrounded by love and friendship.

Currently, to feel safe, we surround ourselves with insurance policies, retirement funds, and the like. But at the end of the day, very few people feel calm and secure when it comes to the future.

In the past, the family unit was a source of both love and security. Today, family ties are so broken that we can no longer rely on them in times of need. We feel alone, living in an age of alienation and isolation.

Rather than being tied to a loving family, today we are chained to the whole world. Humanity has become a global network where everyone feels connected, influencing each other, and dependent on each other. It is as though humanity is sitting in a boat that is drifting over stormy waters; we are dependent on each other for our survival but we cannot stand each other and do not want the others on board to live. In such a state, of course we feel insecure and unloved.

Such a state can make us want to give up, but we can also see it as a challenge, a springboard for the next level in our development. To do that, we need to invert the negative interdependence that has been imposed on us by reality into a positive one, like the family ties we used to feel.

In such relationships, we do not want to annihilate each other. On the contrary, we want to support each other and help each other. By creating a reciprocal system where everyone helps everyone else, we create a society where everyone cares for everyone else, and we begin to generate feelings of love and security on the social level. That level is far more rewarding than being loved by just a few family members; it is a completely different perception of the society, a feeling of closeness to all the people. It is happiness on a new, deeper, and much stronger level.

In a state where all the members of society feel close to one another, everyone contributes their skills for the common good and enjoys the contributions of everyone else. The society becomes a body whose members are its cells and organs: Each of them has its unique function, but all of them work toward the same goal with the same absolute dedication and love.

We are already interconnected and interdependent. We cannot break our connections, so our only choice is to go forward. Since we resist this process, we feel increasingly frightened and alone in a world where we are dependent on enemies. If we embrace the process, we will feel, as I have just described, like cells working in harmony for the well-being of the body, feeling safe and loved by all.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Parallel Universes in Israel”

Recently, it seems as though Israelis live in parallel universes. Everyone seems to have their own perception of reality, and anyone with different views is regarded as shortsighted, misguided, ignorant, or plain dim-witted. The government has been dissolved because of such disagreements; the police and the country’s attorney general are accused of corruption, and no one knows whom to believe; Israel’s former prime minister is on trial, and media reports are so contradictory that you would think they are reporting unrelated trials; the media, as a whole, has lost the public’s trust, and each side consumes only the news that cater to one’s views. As a result, the worlds Israelis live in seem completely unrelated and disconnected, parallel universes indeed.

Yet, these universes exist in the same space, and therefore frequently collide with one another. The perpetual clashes have weakened Israeli society to the point where it is disintegrating from within. The complete absence of solidarity makes everyone pull their own way, regardless of others, and everyone thinks that only their side is right and the other side is wrong. And as people behave, so do parties, until the entire structure crumbles.

The Jewish state is unlike other countries because the Jews are unlike other people. Each of us carries within him contradictory forces, desires, and discernments equal to those of an entire nation. Therefore, the only way to reconcile between us and connect us is to make mutual concessions. As long as we avoid it, we are sliding closer to complete and irreversible dissolution. In the summer of 70 CE, around this time of the year, a terrible disaster had happened to us. Now we are approaching a replay of that tragedy.

From the moment we began to endeavor to reestablish a Jewish state in the land of Israel, we began to feel as though we are locked in a cage with people we cannot stand. We are like wild beasts, gnawing at each other, while our enemies gleefully wait for us to finish each other off or make a run for it.

Even if we attempt to split the country into several smaller countries where people more or less agree with one another, it will still not help. The division is not only between us; it is within us! We need to make ourselves whole just as much as we need to make our society whole. Until we understand who we are as people, as Jewish people, what we need to do as Jews, and accept that we must carry out our calling, we will not make peace with one another, let alone with other nations.

Jews have always had disagreements. Parallel universes have existed between us and within us since the inception of our nature. They cannot be canceled, nor should they. They were given to us; they are inherent in our nature, and therefore cannot be revoked. Our task is not to make them disappear, but to build above these rifts such ties of love that will be stronger than the chasm and fortify our structure as a nation.

The connection and the unity of the people of Israel are very different from those of other nations. Other nations maintain unity by maintaining similarity of views, culture, or faith. Jews, on the other hand, maintain solidarity, if we succeed, by understanding the vitality of contradictions, embracing conflicts as an impetus to foster stronger ties, and building a stronger bond precisely because it has to overcome a deeper gap than any other nation feels.

It is an unnatural bond, a manmade love that challenges the natural hatred that nature has installed in us for anyone who is dissimilar to us. Nevertheless, it is precisely this connection that makes us sturdy, that builds a new nation based on people’s free choice to unite above their hatred.

This unique unity is the secret to the robustness and durability of the people of Israel. Understanding how to form such a bond is the secret wisdom that our nation must teach the world, and our inability to teach it is the reason that so many people hate Jews.

The parallel universes that exist among the Jews and within the Jews will never disappear, nor should they. But when Jews learn to build bridges of love between their parallel realities, they will find peace and happiness, and the world will find it with them.
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My new article on Linkedin “The One Thing AI Cannot Give”

A new pilot at a school in Tel-Aviv aims to overcome one of Israel’s biggest challenges in the education system: the shortage of teachers. Instead of human teachers, the pilot uses a virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) system that replaces some of the teachers. I have no doubt that AI systems, computers, and the internet can teach children anything humans can teach them, if not more. Providing information is not a problem today, and schools in general are not needed for this. The problem is not teaching, but educating, meaning raising children to be social human beings who can interact with their environment in a healthy, positive manner, and form a solid and safe society. AI cannot teach that.

Today, people’s main problem is not that they need to know more. It is easy to learn anything you want through online platforms or traditional ones. Yet people feel unhappy or insecure not for lack of knowledge, but for lack of positive, warm relationships with other people. If people have no one to trust, no one to love, and who would love them back, they will not be happy, they will not be positive elements in society, and they will not succeed in life.

AI cannot teach human relationships. It cannot be a role model that children want to follow. This task—raising children to be confident and happy adults—is the sole domain of human educators.

Although English often overlooks this nuance, the difference between education and teaching is that teaching means imparting people with information, while educating means turning individuals into confident people who realize their potential and contribute to society.

Education, therefore, is the single most important trade. Good education, in the sense I just described, is the basis of any stable and sustainable society. If we want a future where our children are happy and lead a good life, they need educators who guide them into being caring and connected human beings. No AI system can teach that, only educators who teach by personal example that children want to emulate can shape today’s children into tomorrow’s thriving society.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Blinded by Hate”

There is a new “weapon” that Palestinians use against Israelis: blinding lasers. Every night, residents of a certain Palestinian village direct strong lasers into the eyes of Israeli drivers in order to blind them and hopefully cause them to make an accident. So far, there has been no response on the part of the Israeli army, other than stating that the army “is working in a number of ways to uproot the phenomenon.” When people are blinded by hate, there is no end to what they will do to hurt their hated ones. Israel’s response should therefore incorporate two elements: retaliating against the terror and mitigating the hatred.

The first element is relatively straightforward. The response should be one that will deter the perpetrators from repeating their actions. Therefore, the rule of thumb here is simple: When someone comes to kill you, kill him first. In practical terms, it means that the army should fire at the sources of the lasers.

Nevertheless, we should not hope that curbing one mode of terrorism will prevent terrorists from finding other ways to terrorize and hurt Israelis. As long as there is unbounded hatred, Palestinians will find countless ways to hurt us.

Here is where we can make the real difference. The Palestinians’ hatred toward us is not because of a territorial struggle or any other reason they proclaim, even if they believe what they are saying. The Palestinians hate us because we hate each other. Their aversion to us reflects our aversion to each other.

This is true not only for the Palestinians, but for every non-Jew who hates Jews. To the extent that we hate each other, the nations of the world hate us. The higher the mountain of hate between us, the stronger the hatred toward us that we bring down on the nations. In fact, the name Mt. Sinai comes from the Hebrew words Mount of Sinaa [hatred]. Our sages explain that it is called so because of the hatred that came down from it to the nations of the world (Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Shabbat, 89a).

In short, we are generating hatred towards us through our own hatred of each other. We must understand that if we want to “defeat” terrorism, and all the hatred toward Jews and Israelis, we must defeat the hatred within us for each other.

Interestingly, when I say this to non-Jews, they often agree. But when I say this to Jews, they often become aggressive and venomous. They argue that I am making this up, and all the quotes I bring from centuries of our sages writing these exact words do not help. Once, after a lecture in New York, a Jew who refused to accept my words tried to physically assault me.

I can understand the resistance. If we accept this statement, it puts the responsibility for antisemitism, terrorism, and millennia of abuse that our nation suffered in our lap, the lap of the Jewish people, rather than to pin it on the aggressors. Declaring that Jewish inner hatred incites Jew-hatred among the nations pulls the rug from under the arguments that attribute antisemitism to religious, racial, economic, and social causes. It creates one common cause for all the cataclysms that have ever struck the Jewish people, and that cause is our own responsibility. I understand why this would be impossible to accept.

However, it is not my idea, but the idea of all our sages throughout the ages. The people who engendered the Jewish nation, who solidified its peoplehood, and who gave it its unique values and manners, all advocated this exact message: Sinaat Hinam [baseless hatred] has been our curse since our inception as a nation, and the only thing we need to cure.ADVERTISEMENT

Since we are full of hatred, it is hard for us to agree that hatred is the cause of our misfortunes. We tend to blame our troubles on the side we hate. But it is not this or that side that causes our troubles, but the hatred itself. As the two books I have written about it show (see links below), our spiritual leaders throughout the ages tried to teach this to us, yet we refused. We coined the tenet “Love your neighbor as yourself”; it is time we tried it out.

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Read these books for more information on the responsibility of the Jewish people for the hatred toward them: The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “What a Summer of Exclusion Feels Like”

A common form of bullying among children in Israel is exclusion. A few days ago, yet another sad story surfaced on Israeli media, describing the social exclusion of children who are going through the summer vacation without any friends because they were excluded. The story featured regular children, well dressed, articulate, perfectly normal children whose paths crossed with someone who did not like them and managed to turn the whole class against them. Exclusion has become the dread of many schoolchildren and parents, and the phenomenon seems to have no solution at the moment.

I think it is not the children’s fault. It is not the fault of the excluded, and not the fault of the children who exclude. It is the fault of the adults. Because adult society is deeply hostile, and alienation and ill-will prevail, it seeps into all parts of society, including the children’s society. As a result, children are excluded, abused, and bullied by their peers. The problem will not be solved until adults solve it among themselves, and that will mend the situation everywhere else.

With such a fractured society, it cannot be any other way. Everyone feels superior to others, and our egos make us inconsiderate and abusive toward others just to assert our superiority. From here to exclusion of others, there is a very short distance.

When this is the atmosphere in the adult society, it has to trickle down the system and reach the children’s society. But when children who had experienced exclusion grow up, the bitter memory of their ordeal will stay with them and impact their attitude toward society.

This is fertile ground for rearing misfits and psychopaths who seek to avenge society for the pain it had caused them. Because their world was ruined by the society, they will strive to ruin the society in return.

The only solution to the menace we are preparing for ourselves is to work on our cohesion and solidarity. Unless we strive to increase our unity in the adult society, above all the differences between us, we should not expect children to do the same. If we fight against each other, gossip, slander, and vilify others simply because they are different from us, we should not expect children, who learn by example, to be kind and caring toward their peers.

Children reflect their role models, and their role models are us. Since we exclude, so do they.

Once we change ourselves, we should also change our education system. Our games should change from fierce competition to collaboration and inclusion. Through games, we can teach children to find the benefit in togetherness, friendship, and solidarity.

There can still be challenges in games, but the challenges should be such that only when children collaborate, they can succeed. Gradually, they will learn that they are stronger together, and how the unique qualities of every child make the whole a stronger unit. We must do this, and do it quickly because our society is raising angry, vengeful children.
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Medium published my new article “Hunger Is a Rolling Snowball”

The rising inflation around the world and the foreboding food shortage has created a snowball that is rolling down the mountain straight toward us. No one is safe. Some countries are more vulnerable than others, but everyone is in harm’s way. We have the power and the ability to mitigate the situation, perhaps even solve the crisis altogether, but it depends on how we relate to one another, to Earth, and to wars, namely to all the problems that really do disrupt our lives — not hunger, but our hatred for each other, which causes the hunger.

The crisis will affect everyone everywhere. The western world will cope with it better than disadvantaged third world countries, but everyone will feel the heat. In poorer countries, however, it will be a very serious crisis, and the only way to prepare for it is through international cooperative efforts to prepare and mitigate the event.

There are also technological solutions. Israel, for example, has numerous technologies to increase plants’ yields, decrease their dependence on water and soil, boost their immune systems, and make them less sensitive to extreme weather events.

In short, the ways and means to overcome the food crisis are there, the resources are there, and the means of production are there. We could overcome the crisis easily were it not for one glitch: Every country thinks only of itself, and if it does think of another country, it is always around the lines of “How can I use it to benefit myself?” without any accountability or regard for the exploited country.

This is why I am not optimistic. While the problems may not be unsolvable, we cannot solve even the smallest among them, as we see today, because we are failing one another.

Alone, even the strongest country cannot ride the storm unharmed. But together, nothing can harm us. When we let the ego set the tone, we end up with a world of scarcity, hostility, and destruction. But when we rise above it, we ride the whitecaps of the waves like surfboards.

We have turned human society into a snake-pit. The only time we avoid biting one another is when we are afraid that the bitten will bite back harder. But when we see that we will not be hit back, we strike like vipers without any hesitation or remorse.

To make any progress toward a solution, we first need to realize who we are. We need to not only acknowledge our egoism, but also to recognize its deadliness. Unless it hurts us that we are selfish, we will have no motivation to act against it. The only war we really need to fight, if we want to make life better for ourselves, is the war against our own ego. This, in fact, is the kernel of the rolling snowball that is barreling toward us.

It will take a while before we are ready, but in the end, we will have to realize that the only solution to the food crisis is to distribute it evenly. We are not there, granted, but eventually, we will have no choice and it will happen one way or the other.

At the moment, we are so far from such ideas as sharing or caring that countries even burn each other’s crops, which is insanity in terms of the global needs. But when we do not have the world’s needs in mind, and only our own, anything that hurts others seems to make perfect sense.

Therefore, first we must learn how connected we are. We must understand that by hurting others, we invariably hurt ourselves, even when we do not feel it right away. Next, we must learn how to conduct ourselves in line with the understanding that we are all connected and dependent on each other.

Once we understand that we have no choice but to take care of each other as we take care of ourselves, since by doing so, we are actually helping ourselves, we will understand what to do, what not to do, and how to do what we need to do so that everyone gets what they need. Then, everyone will be satiated, safe, and happy. We can stop the ball from rolling; the choice is in our hands.
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