From my column in Ynet: “Europe Is Catching A Ride On Trump”
France is the ticking time bomb of Europe: the economic crisis, the wave of immigrants and Islamic terror are threatening to disintegrate Europe from inside. Brexit and Trump’s election have only empowered the right-wing parties that threaten the integrity of the European Union. Rav Laitman examines the global system of nature and offers a plan for coping with the turmoil the world is facing.
Who among the leaders contending for presidency in France is more dangerous for Europe and for the world? Fillon or Le Pen? A close look at the views of both candidates reveals that their views are not so different,
Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right party in France, hopes to do what Trump has done in America. In opposition to her is Francois Fillon, former Prime Minister of France under whose peaceful façade hides a radical revolutionist.
The two leader are expected to run against each other in the 2017 elections for presidency in France, but their common inclination is already obvious, both favor restricting immigration to a minimum and a total war against radical Islam. The main struggle between the two will focus on economic policy. Fillon has promised to adopt the right policies including reforms to encourage the free market, cuts in manpower in the public service and in government expenses, while Le Pen opposes globalization and supports the state’s intervention in the economy. One thing is certain, they will both do everything in their power to buy the hearts of the middle class voters who are afraid of losing their jobs.
Everything that will take place in the French Republic in the coming year will symbolize what the future holds for the other countries in the crumbling continent. The economic crisis, the waves of immigrants, and the loss of personal security are threatening to dismantle the French interior. The Brexit of the neighbors on the British Isle and the Americans’ choice of Trump have heightened nationalism and only encouraged the radical right to rise and to fight for their home.
American Rules of the Game
It is for good reason that the American President Barak Hussein Obama made his last round of visits to European heads of state last week. This is another step in preserving the status of the elite he represents, under the banner of global economy and worldwide politics. In fact, this is a diplomatic charlatan, whose sole purpose is to oblige the countries to continue to dance to the financial interests of America. With or without them, the world economy is stagnating, and it is already obvious that if no significant change is made soon, the next step is global chaos.
America is interested in preserving its dominance at any cost and not all the European elite agree to play by the rules that America dictates. These rising leaders in France, which is more associated with Europe and who feel less cosmopolitan oppose the familiar move and are inspired by Trump’s meteoric rise.
I have already written a lot that the EU will eventually disintegrate and that the Brexit will be the first step in this process. I also predicted that Trump would be elected and bring a new spirit, but in the end, after the upper 10% exploits the middle class in Europe and the US, a huge social vacuum will be created. Even now a quarter of the European youth, which are called Europe’s lost generation, are unemployed…
Class Conflict
The egoistic nature of man is developing rapidly, and it will not leave a penny in another’s pocket. Baal HaSulam wrote extensively about how the wealthy in communist Russia will leave not a penny for the proletariat, “not even to ensure their daily bread and cover the nakedness” ( “The Last Generation”). In America this trend is taking shape, and about 60% of the population falls below the average standard of living to the lower class. One out of every eight Americans today lives on food stamps of $1.60 per day. The same thing is happening in Europe, even though the US moved extensive manufacturing to Europe and China where new plants were built.
But now when we are in an economic slump, there is hardly anyone to sell to or to buy from, and the right is rising: Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, and in Germany, Hungary, Greece, Poland, and Spain voices call to restore nationalism. Everyone wants to steer the global economy so that it will serve the interests of any country locally and not the international elites.
This crystallized humanity into two clear camps: the international elite that dominates industry, banks, and the stock markets that are feeding on the profits of the middle class’ hard work; and the people, a huge camp whose standard of living is declining because resources have been stolen from them and that are becoming increasingly more nationalistic.
It is impossible to return to the prosperity of 30 years ago—a global world that is mutually dependent with borders closed between countries, or trying to replicate the prosperous industry in Asia, to the US and Europe. Industry has changed tremendously and is not profitable anymore. An Asian worker can live on a dollar a day, which is not enough for an average Western worker to live on. And so when dark clouds appear on the horizon, what has the European or the American citizen got to lose? Suddenly joining a Nazi party in protest against the waves of immigration or expressing a nationalistic and even a racist view in public against a foreign culture is seen as a normative act. How far can these movements go? How extreme can the situation get? Unfortunately, in such cases, the economic crisis and the social conflicts usually lead to a terrible world war, as history has already proven to us twice, but then… surely we all lose.
A New Meaning For Humanity
We must realize that the fact our civilization is crumbling before our eyes is inevitable. The world is in a deeper crisis that we realize. The era of coarse capitalism, based on our abusive egoistic nature that began to grow back in the days of ancient Babylon about 3,500 years ago, is over. It was then that the first foundations for trade and the use of money and taxing were laid and fanned out across the globe. But today money is losing its value in the eyes of those who are looking for the meaning of life. If you add globalization, advanced technology, and 3-dimensional printers occupying the world to the equation, you will discover that there will be very little need for a labor force to produce what we need.
What people lack today is a sense of happiness and economic security and not a few more dollars in the bank account, so all the attempts to carry out artificial changes in the global economy will not help. The question world leaders should engage and which demands an immediate solution is how to take care of millions of idle unemployed people who are day by day joining neo-Nazi groups or dictatorial regimes.
As we have seen in the past, specifically the apparently “pure” bleeding hearts, those who have previously described themselves as liberals, might lose their human side and become the cruelest of all. Baal HaSulam said back in 1942 in “The Writings of the Last Generation” that the world mistakenly attributes Nazism to Germany only, but it actually stems from democracy… the Democrats must also reject religion, justice and peace, and that all nations are the equal in this. When the democratic elections in the US ended, we all saw how millions of “liberal Democrats” went to the streets trampling the ideology they were raised on, opposing the candidate who was lawfully elected, ready to shatter shop windows since they were not happy with the outcome of the elections. On the other hand, the supporters of the extreme right are rising, spreading hatred and fear, and the American nation is more divided than ever before and fears for its future.
We are facing a new era, a generation that is advancing toward far-reaching changes that are of crucial importance to its future and the future of its children. If we don’t hurry, we will face great turmoil especially the State of Israel, which strongly depends on Europe and the US. Any slight change there will immediately lead to actual destruction in Israel.
A New Human Industry
The solution to the crisis that haunts us is a universal recovery plan. In other words, a national, social and educational program to unite the divided humanity, which will include a permanent solution to unemployment, the erosion of the middle class, and the disappearance of the working class, an empiric profound multi-phase plan that will even attempt to enact laws and offer principles of connection as the basis for healing human society.
The Law of Connection is actually a government plan that will find the way to impact society and create an environment that is a “must” for the American and European people. Its goal is to give people tools and to establish a supportive environment for them that will help them learn to connect to each other and to be considerate of others. It is an educational process that will impact all of society and by which we will know ourselves and the environment we live in, and will be able to share the knowledge we have and establish a common consciousness and a feeling of belonging to one system.
Imagine sitting at a roundtable every day all day long, learning about the global world and human nature, speaking about how to tighten the internal communication between us, connecting to each other, and letting the warmth spread in the relations between us. The spirit of unity will be the new product, and the participation it, the huge educational project that will prepare us for it, is actually man’s new job. The positive force of connection that we will be produced between us will become the new human industry and it will provide everyone with an existence, both emotionally and mentally, in the form of joy and happiness, peace, and tranquility. In such a society, people will not worry about food, clothing, healthcare, education, housing, transportation, entertainment, and any social service. Everything will be provided by the ten percent of the best people in every area who will take turns.
A system of classes rich in content will operate as part of the daily education program, through workshops and practical experiences like sports, music, art etc., which will fill the time of both children and adults and will impart tools for creating the right connection with others and how to behave in a corrected society. The greatest evil between people stems from ignorance and from not knowing. “If people knew about the human form, they would refrain from inflicting any harm on themselves and on others,” as Rambam wrote in “More Nevochim” part 3, item 11.
This project is similar in scope to the academic study, and will include lectures, online courses, experiential workshops, and discussion circles, which will increase people’s awareness of the global world we live in. The study will include tests, questionnaires, and homework assignments, which will enable a person to assess his progress in improving his relationship with society. At the same time, the media will also be used, publicizing content that will promote the values of unity and create televised and digital environments that will support the process.
The Process: Unity
This educational initiative is based on the laws of the global nature that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches. Unity is the underlying structure in nature. Nature aspires for balance, equality, and wholeness, and because people are part of nature, we too have a duty to act in equality and be mutually considerate. The only difference is that in our case we have to do this consciously through an educational process. If we establish the mutual connections between us, which will be compatible with life in the global world that we discover today, we will undoubtedly spur the positive force of connection that is between us and thus will reach the understanding and the feeling that will help us make the right decisions and succeed in everything that we do. According to Baal HaSulam in his article “The Freedom,” “Social unity may be the source of all our happiness and success.”
The byproduct of this initiative may help the world leaders find a solution for the growing unemployment problem and they can use it to create many jobs in establishing an extensive, uniform infrastructure that will include all the sectors and will operate in a variety of social frameworks including kindergartens, schools, universities, workplaces, employment agencies, the media, hospitals, and nursing homes. People who will participate in this social-educational program will be rewarded with an incentive and benefits from the state—a move that will pay off financially for any leader and will help in maintaining social order.
Another advantage for leaders is that people will cease to produce useless products only in order to keep consumerism alive. The good relations will create a positive social atmosphere that will lower the rate of crime and violence and will thus diminish the need for law enforcement agencies like the police, court houses, and prisons. The state will save millions. By promoting the ideology of unity, “all the wars will disappear from the world since everyone will care not about his own wellbeing but about the wellbeing of others,” as Baal HaSulam writes in “The Last Generation,” and the state will become one big family-like community,national and individual problems will gradually be solved, and the force of connection will heal the injured states and bring them together again. So who among the world leaders is the most dangerous to our world? The one who will be the last to implement this method in his country…
[198587]
Ynet: “Europe Is Catching A Ride On Trump” 12/1/16
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In the News (CNBC): “As the global workforce modernizes and low-skilled workers lose their jobs, momentum builds around the idea of a universal basic income, or a fixed, regular payment that all residents, no matter their employment status or wealth, would receive from the government.
