In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity. …

“Over the past decade or so, my colleagues and I have taken a close look at why people cheat, using a variety of experiments and looking at a panoply of unique data sets—from insurance claims to employment histories to the treatment records of doctors and dentists. What we have found, in a nutshell: Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little. Except for a few outliers at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest, honorable people. Sadly, it is this kind of small-scale mass cheating, not the high-profile cases, that is most corrosive to society. …

“Knowing that most people cheat—but just by a little—the next logical question is what makes us cheat more or less. …

“One thing that increased cheating in our experiments was making the prospect of a monetary payoff more ‘distant’ … Another thing that boosted cheating: Having another student in the room [in the experiment] who was clearly cheating. …

“Other factors that increased the dishonesty of our test subjects included knowingly wearing knockoff fashions, being drained from the demands of a mentally difficult task and thinking that ‘teammates’ would benefit from one’s cheating in a group version of the matrix task. …

“The results of these experiments should leave you wondering about the ways that we currently try to keep people honest. Does the prospect of heavy fines or increased enforcement really make someone less likely to cheat on their taxes, to fill out a fraudulent insurance claim, to recommend a bum investment or to steal from his or her company? It may have a small effect on our behavior, but it is probably going to be of little consequence when it comes up against the brute psychological force of ‘I’m only fudging a little’ or ‘Everyone does it’ or ‘It’s for a greater good.’…

“This experiment has obvious implications for the real world. While ethics lectures and training seem to have little to no effect on people, reminders of morality—right at the point where people are making a decision—appear to have an outsize effect on behavior.”

My Comment: Egoism lies consciously and unconsciously because it needs to see benefits for itself in everything, and only this counts. The correction is to change values. The value of honesty and the possibility of spiritual elevation, must become valued more highly than normal cheating. However, only striving for the highest reward, to become closer to the Creator, can protect from natural egoism.
[80916]

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Opinion (Takeshi Fujimaki, former adviser to billionaire investor George Soros): “‘Japan is likely to default before Europe does, which could be in the next five years,’ the president of Fujimaki Japan, an investment advising company in Tokyo, said in an interview yesterday [June 14]. Japanese should hold foreign-currency products, such as those denominated in the greenback, Swiss franc, sterling, Australian and Canadian dollars, Fujimaki said.

“Should the Japanese government default, the yen may weaken to 400-500 per dollar, and the yields on benchmark 10-year bonds could surge above 80 percent, according to Fujimaki. …

“Japan’s public borrowings, the world’s biggest, will balloon to 245.6 percent of its annual economic output in 2014, up from 67.3 percent in 1984, an estimate by the International Monetary Fund shows. …

“‘There’s no way out of Japan’s crisis,’ Fujimaki said. ‘The only option left for Japan is either default or print money into hyper-inflation.’”

My Comment: There is a way out of the crisis for every country and the entire world if we understand its cause—the hyper-egoism of managers—if we begin to transform the world community from antagonistic to fraternal, and if we start to transfer the economy from over-consumption to reasonable consumption through a realistic reduction of infrastructure. Otherwise, the crisis will bring us to this through the destruction of the entire infrastructure.
[80913]

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Opinion (Peter Thiel, billionaire Facebook investor, former PayPal CEO, and Palantir co-founder): “For most of recent human history—from the invention of the steam engine in the late 17th century through about the late 1960’s or so—technological process has been tremendous, perhaps even relentless. In most prior human societies, people made money by taking it from others. The industrial revolution wrought a paradigm shift in which people make money through trade, not plunder.

“The zenith of optimism about the future of technology might have been the 1960’s. People believed in the future. They thought about the future. Many were supremely confident that the next 50 years would be a half-century of unprecedented technological progress.

“But with the exception of the computer industry, it wasn’t. Per capita incomes are still rising, but that rate is starkly decelerating. Median wages have been stagnant since 1973. People find themselves in an alarming Alice-in-Wonderland-style scenario in which they must run harder and harder—that is, work longer hours—just to stay in the same place. This deceleration is complex, and wage data alone don’t explain it. But they do support the general sense that the rapid progress of the last 200 years is slowing all too quickly.”

My Comment: All the years of development after 1960 have not been beneficial for mankind. We need to rise to the next level and strive to achieve goals other than the material ones that no longer can satisfy and benefit us.
[80792]

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In the News (from New Scientist): “It is one of the greatest mysteries of pregnancy: how a fetus avoids being attacked by its mother’s immune system. …

“The mammalian body usually responds to foreign cells or tissue by releasing chemicals that promote inflammation and summon immune cells called T-cells to destroy the invaders. But during pregnancy, something turns off this process. This means that despite containing genetic material from the father, the embryo can implant in its mother’s uterus and grow there safely without triggering an immune response. …

“Erlebacher’s team [Adrian Erlebacher at the New York University School of Medicine and his colleagues] found that cells of the decidua, the lining of the uterus where the embryo implants, did not produce the usual chemical signals that would trigger inflammation and summon T-cells to the site. Closer inspection of these decidual cells revealed changes to the structure of DNA around the genes that usually produce these chemical beacons, resulting in them being silenced. …

My Comment: Turning off the synthesis of the foreign body signaling protein occurs under the influence of “unnatural” forces of love and bestowal arising in the egoistic body relative to its progeny that develops in it. This is due to the penetration of the upper Light in the desire that It created in the first stage of the four stages of expansion of the Light. And the Light in the desire gives the desire Its property—to create, which is similar to the process of reproduction—gestation and birth.

The process of conception, birth, breastfeeding, and upbringing is similar to the act of creation of the Creator. It occurs in stage 2, Bina that wants to be like stage 0, Keter. Thus, on the instinctive level of the desire (0 – 1 – 2 – 3), the creature, which is forced by the desire, becomes similar to the Creator. And on the fourth stage of its development, it forces itself to become like the Creator consciously, in attaining His attitude toward the creatures and in comparing oneself to Him, in the process of its correction; that is, spiritual reproduction, development of the soul: its conception, prenatal development, birth, breastfeeding, and growing up, up to the full equivalence with the Creator.
[80787]

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Opinion (Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy): “‘We stepped away from the precipice before, with the contribution of the political forces and sacrifices of the Italian people – but the hole is growing bigger and it may swallow us up. We are again in a crisis.’”

My Comment: From the edge of a precipice, you can fall down, but  you can fly.
[80782]

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On June 11^th, the Israeli Writers’ House in Tel Aviv held a press conference of the social Arvut Movement that brought together representatives from all types of media: newspapers, radio, TV and the Internet: News of the Week, Satellite, Age, Reka, Nine, Zman.com, Mignews, etc.

The representatives of the movement talked about the objectives and basic directions of their activity and responded to questions.

[Show slideshow]

The Arvut Movement strongly proclaimed itself in the hot summer of 2011 when the reality of the “global village” announced itself in the protest movement in the streets of Israeli cities. Integral relationships, which gripped the world, put everyone in very tough conditions and left Israel, with its tangle of problems, no room for error. The crisis quickly dispels the illusions of the past: If we don’t learn to live by new rules, we will be forced to study the science of survival.

And so, the main goal of the Arvut Movement is to consolidate the society on the basis of the principle of mutual guarantee. Disagreements and conflicts should not mislead us, although sometimes they seem unresolvable. We need to rise above what divides us and unite around common solutions to all problems.

The Arvut Movement quickly managed to unite thousands of people from all walks of life. Its materials are published in leading websites; it publishes books and pamphlets, gives lectures and organizes seminars in various organizations. Along with this, the movement focuses its forces on several major projects, covering the widest audiences.

The technique of integral education was developed by international efforts. The educational programs of the movement were presented in UNESCO and the UN. They are already used in U.S. prisons, and Šiauliai University signed an agreement to use the technique of integral education in their educational process.

In the media, the Israeli TV channel Arvut.tv is created on the basis of Channel 66. It serves as the foundation for programs on the subject of mutual guarantee, broadcasting the concept of the unity of society in a variety of genres, without which no modern problem can be solved.

Roundtables in Hebrew and Russian, which are regularly conducted throughout the country, are the flagship project of the movement. This scheme has been already used by dozens of cities, as well as colleges Tel Hai, Beit Berl, the University of Haifa, and even the Knesset (the Israeli general assembly). Here, polar points of view come in contact, and seemingly irreconcilable opponents find common ground.

This summer, the Arvut Movement, together with large public organizations such as the youth movement Scopus, Association of Community Centers, Council of Judea and Samaria, Kulanana, Union of Volunteers, Kenes Sderot le hevrah, youth movement Bnei Akiva, Israeli Students Association, Tnuat a-Noar Be Yisrael, Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, organization Maace, Israel’s Women’s Parliament, and women’s organization Ahoti (“My Sister”), are carrying out a wide campaign called “120 Roundtables: Public Dialogue or a Collective Position.” In the consolidation of society, we cannot do without mutual guarantee, and first of all, it requires a restructuring of values because society cultivates values based on division and stiff competition.

During the summer months, roundtable discussions will be simultaneously held in most cities of the country; they will be attended by representatives from all levels of government. This public campaign will be completed in the Knesset in November.

Of course, journalists had many questions: “Can the idealistic idea of mutual guarantee be combined with the tired society that believes in nothing? Where is the guarantee that a collision with the reality of the Israeli political kitchen does not become bitter disappointment?”

– “We are not an insurance company,” said Zion Alon, a strategic adviser to the movement. “Only one thing can be guaranteed: the failure of the old way has put us on the threshold of degradation.”

“But is not an attempt to negotiate with those who are guilty in this situation doomed to fail?”

– “We focus not on trying to negotiate, but on changing the approach to solving problems,” said Igor Dion, head of the Russian-speaking department of the Arvut Movement. “We find a firm basis of common interests, and only at this level do we begin to agree with each other. Any other approach automatically makes right the one who is strong.”

The word “utopia” sounded repeatedly in the audience.

– In Greek, it means a place that doesn’t exist, explained Emma Sotnikova, press secretary of the movement. “You need to create this place to change the relationship between people. Otherwise, Israel has no future. In the 21^st century, in the information age, the “Fourth Power” becomes the first one. So, use it for good,” she encouraged journalists.

After the press conference ended, discussions and disputes continued on the sidelines, which made it obvious that the topics raised by the Arvut Movement were interesting for many of the invited guests.
[80717]

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Opinion (George Soros, financier): “Euro-zone governments have around three months to ensure the survival of the single currency,’ billionaire investor George Soros said in a speech on Saturday [June 2^nd].

“‘We are at an inflection point. After the expiration of the three months’ window, the markets will continue to demand more but the authorities will not be able to meet their demands. …’

“The European Union is ‘like a bubble’ – not a financial bubble but a political bubble – that could pop as a result of the euro-zone crisis, Soros said.

“‘In the boom phase, the EU was what the psychoanalyst David Tuckett calls a “fantastic object” – unreal but immensely attractive,’ he said.

“’In retrospect, it is now clear that the main source of trouble is that the member states of the euro have surrendered to the European Central Bank (ECB) their rights to create fiat money. They did not realize what that entails – and neither did the European authorities,’ he said.

“The euro-zone needs a European deposit insurance scheme for banks, Soros said, as well as direct financing by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for banks, which ‘must go hand-in-hand with euro-zone-wide supervision and regulation.’ …

“Soros said that too much blame had been placed on peripheral euro-zone countries such as heavily indebted Greece and Spain, and that creditors like Germany had to share responsibility.

“‘The center’ is responsible for designing a flawed system, enacting flawed treaties, pursuing flawed policies and always doing too little too late. …

“‘The authorities didn’t understand the nature of the euro crisis; they thought it was a fiscal problem, while it is more of a banking problem and a problem of competitiveness. And they applied the wrong remedy: You cannot reduce the debt burden by shrinking the economy – only by growing your way out of it,’ he said.”

My Comment: I am not a financier, but there is nowhere to grow, and the paradox lies in the fact that we are trapped: We have found ourselves in a closed system of complete interdependence, but we act like individualistic egoists in the dark, and that is why we cannot understand why we cannot cope with the crisis. And the crisis is not in our unsuccessful attempts to handle the existing situation, but in the fact that we don’t understand that we have to change our approach, to change our thinking to interconnected and integral, and then we will understand how to break the deadlock.
[80087]

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Opinion (Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and recipient of the 2011 Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economic): “Many, if not all, of the world’s most pressing macroeconomic problems relate to the massive overhang of all forms of debt. …

“Aside from wringing their hands, what should governments be doing? One extreme is the simplistic Keynesian remedy that assumes that government deficits don’t matter when the economy is in deep recession; indeed, the bigger the better. At the opposite extreme are the debt-ceiling absolutists who want governments to start balancing their budgets tomorrow (if not yesterday). …

“Of course, there is an appealing logic to saying that governments should have to balance their budgets just like the rest of us; unfortunately, it is not so simple. Governments typically have myriad ongoing expenditure commitments related to basic services such as national defense, infrastructure projects, education, and health care, not to mention to retirees. No government can just walk away from these responsibilities overnight. …

“Above all, voters and politicians must beware of seductively simple approaches to today’s debt problems.”

My Comment: There is a solution, but not in the plane of economy and finance, but in the change of the paradigm, the view of the world, society, and the goal of life. And the crisis will hit us until we become smarter and accept the future society of reasonable consumption, a society of “The Last Generation,” as necessary.
[80661]

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In the News (from Global News): “President Barack Obama urged European leaders to prevent a looming overseas debt crisis from dragging down the rest of the world.

“He said European must inject money into the banking system. …

“In his brief White House news conference Obama also mentioned Greece where the elections could determine whether Athens leaves the eurozone, particularly if the anti-bailout left-wing Syriza becomes the largest party in parliament.

“He cautioned Greece that withdrawing from the 17-nation eurozone would mean even greater economic difficulty than the austerity steps already undertaken.

“In his opening remarks, Obama stressed the importance of a strong European economy, saying ‘If there’s less demand for our products in places like Paris or Madrid it could mean less business for manufacturers in places like Pittsburgh or Milwaukee.’”

My Comment: As if they do not want this! But what can they do if they have no solutions, and the solution to overcoming the crisis that I offer through a change in people and human society seems utopian to them.
[80196]

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In the News (from Scientific American): “A recent study finds a decline in empathy among young people in the U.S. …

“Empathy is a cornerstone of human behavior and has long been considered innate. A forthcoming study, however, challenges this assumption by demonstrating that empathy levels have been declining over the past 30 years.

“The research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in Personality and Social Psychology Review, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years. To make matters worse, during this same period students’ self-reported narcissism has reached new heights.”

My Comment: This is the consequence of the exponential growth of egoism in our time to its maximum value, which can be tolerated neither in society nor in its total opposition and violation of equilibrium with nature.
[80139]

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