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.
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Question: Should the basic course of integral upbringing include the subject of the crisis and methods of overcoming it?

Answer: I think that this topic should also be included in the basic course because man exists in a field of information, under the influence of the media that brainwashes him and fills him with all kinds of nonsense, and they say it is possible to get rid of the crisis, to somehow to overcome it and the like.

We must give a person a strong, scientific, social, and mainly psychological foundation, so that he will certainly know and understand that is it possible to overcome the crisis only through our similarity with nature, only if we create an integral, “round” society—a society of reasonable consumption, mutual understanding, balancing people with each other, etc. This is possible only under the influence of the environment.

We need to tell a person all the theories for the solution of the crisis and show a way, through scientific opinions, that none of them can work since they are invented by our egoistic mind that wants to divert us from the truth.

I would say that the majority of these theories are designed to ensure profiting from the continuation of their development, to allow them to sit back and dig in to their own concerns. After all, we see that from the beginning they are not leading anywhere.

Therefore, the topic “Methods of Overcoming the Crisis” must necessarily be included in the basic course of integral upbringing.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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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.
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Since our nature is the desire to receive and to be filled (to fill our corporeal desires for food, sex, and family; and our human desires for money, respect, control, and knowledge), our ego revealed in these desires was constantly developing and determining the advancement of humanity since ancient times until the middle of the 20th century. So, we have been constantly changing, and at the same time changing our society, developing technology, industry, and family and social arrangements, and so on.

Starting from the middle of the 20th century, the ego stopped its linear growth and started to grow round, which means to become egoistically global. And so, we discover that nature around us is opposite from us, that is, it is altruistically global (in bestowal). These two systems are now in a conflict.

Our role is to make sure that they will not be in a conflict and will not negate one another; otherwise, humanity will begin to destroy itself by summoning an undesirable negative influence from nature. It is important that humanity becomes more like nature and in harmony with it.

This means that the development of the ego has reached its end. For a long time, it has pushed us forward; we believed that it was the way to change the world and to do whatever we want with it, and now this has come to an end.

Now the world, nature, is turning against us, demanding that we change. So we have to switch from changing our environment to changing ourselves.

This is very difficult and it is impossible to agree to it, but we see that many people in the world have already reached this conclusion.

The integral education method is built to tell, explain, reassure, and convince people that it isn’t difficult to change one’s self under the influence of the environment and the society. If we operate this way, we will create a harmonious society and a life that will open new heights to us.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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In the News (from The Times): “A win by the Radical Left Coalition, known by its acronym Syriza, would raise the prospect of a Greek exit from the euro — and secret talks between European finance officials this week are said to have examined possible limits on withdrawals from cash machines, reimposing checks on the country’s borders, and reinstituting capital controls.”

My Comment: But most importantly, all of it will not help, and the entire EU is to slide down. If we are talking about an interconnected system, it’s impossible to sacrifice one organ and hope that the rest will become healthier.
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Opinion (Dani Rodrik, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government): “Over the next few years, the world economy slumps into what future historians will call the Second Great Depression. Unemployment rises to record-high levels. Governments without fiscal resources are left with little option but to respond in ways that will only exacerbate problems for other countries: trade protection and competitive exchange-rate depreciation. As countries sink into economic autarky, repeated global economic summits yield few results beyond empty promises of cooperation.

“As in the Great Depression, the political consequences are more serious and hold longer-term significance. The eurozone’s collapse (and, for all practical purposes, that of the EU itself) forces a major realignment of European politics. …Centrist parties pay the price for their support of the European integration project, and are repudiated in the polls by parties of the extreme right or extreme left. Nativist governments begin to kick out immigrants.

“For nearby countries, Europe no longer shines as a beacon of democracy. The Arab Middle East takes a decisive turn towards authoritarian Islamic states. In Asia, economic strife between the US and China spills over into military conflict, with increasingly frequent naval clashes in the South China Sea threatening to erupt into a full-scale war.”

My Comment: To prevent the downfall of humanity, it’s necessary to tell the world, like a sick person, about its illness and to spread this knowledge widely, to everybody, so that society becomes aware of the peril it is in. Knowing about the illness and its possible consequences is the first step towards overcoming it. Then it’s necessary to explain the reason for the situation we find ourselves in, the reason for the crisis. Having analyzed it, it’s possible to understand how to treat it. This is how the integral upbringing course is built.

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Question: What should we do so that our quiet voice, the drop in the ocean, will be heard as loudly as possible so that the drops will become streams and people will finally hear us?

Answer: I think that we have to be on the crest of the protest movements, because the government studies them and is afraid of them. If we take our place in this protest movement and rise above everyone by showing them and convincing them that the solution is not to destroy, rob, break shop windows and set fire to shops, then first, the government will see us as a positive factor and second psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and others will study this phenomenon. We have to enter these protest movements and act in parallel by showing everyone our ideology, our method.

I hope that with the power of the great protest movements and their millions we will become known.

Of course, the protest movements themselves don’t want to use the gentle methods that we offer, but on the other hand, they have no method of their own—robbing banks like the Bolsheviks or the French during the revolutions?

So how can we act? If these are free democratic counties, we should use the parliamentary systems and ask them to vote for one member or another, since the protests on the street have never really led to anything.

The point is that there is a totally different picture here. If at any time the protest movements were a kind of a catalyst of social, economic and socio-political processes, today they cannot do anything because we’ve reached a state that has no place to be catalyzed.

The government cannot do anything. You can’t push it to make any decisions. It can cut the political pie a little differently to throw you some small handout, to buy the leaders of the protest movements, or some other such action; there are many methods they can use here.

The main thing is that neither the government nor the protest movements can offer anything that is real, even if it isn’t ripe yet so that the movements will lead us faster to a point where something new is born. Here nothing can be born. So they understand that except for shouting, “Give me!” There is nothing they can do and the government has nothing to take and to give.

We’ve reached a state in which all the countries are deep in debt. Where will they take from? There aren’t enough funds to give to everyone. What does it mean to share? It means to cut spending on other needs. Suppose the officials steal, okay, so they give out what they steal. Even if you put them in jail, take what they stole, and suppose that from now on no one will steal; it won’t change anything. I am not talking about corruption in certain countries, but about normal democratic countries. No matter how you calculate the budget, nothing will help, because we are in such a state that people are being fired from their jobs since they are not needed. There is no need for them!

It isn’t just another crisis that can be overcome, like in the past, by introducing new technology or by war. We understand that today this isn’t the solution to the problem. Therefore, we don’t take the role of advocating cutbacks, but the role of the teachers, teaching the source of the solution that no one has.

This means that we should show the general population that they don’t have a solution. We see what is happening with the protest movements: Their attempts to make seemingly positive changes lead to the opposite results after a while. What is more, it happens every time. So it’s better not to do anything. When the state tries to help and begins to look for reserves and give people more, eventually it leads to higher prices and to even greater imbalance.

No one has a solution, and we only need to constantly, persistently, and stubbornly offer our method until it is heard—the method according to which a person will change by himself and become an integral part of the integral society. Then we will be able to balance ourselves, society, and nature and will reach general harmony.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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Question: Is there a way to avoid reaching the point of catastrophic bifurcation and to turn to a good path in time?

Answer: A smart person is one that can foresee a future outcome, and because he’s able to see it so clearly, he’s able to change the present. For instance, a person wants to do something that will bring him instantaneous pleasure; however, seeing that this action will result in future suffering, a person will annul the urge for this pleasure, he will become cautious, and will have the strength to overcome the urge.

For example, if a drug addict would see the future picture that his drug use would lead to, it would convince him to give it up.

This is why people need to be shown the picture of the horrible future, even though scaring people isn’t what we want. It’s very difficult to present such information, but since people are closing their eyes to what’s going on, it is necessary to find suitable means of informing people of the threats. So now there are more and more films on this subject.

I hope that reason will prevail. I see it actually happening in our awareness of the nature of evil, although I would like to see it happen more quickly. But only a vision of a threatening future and fear can help a person, nothing else will stop him.
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From a “Talk About Integral Upbringing” 6/13/12

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Question: There are two forces: One force leads to unity and goodness and the other toward destruction and death. Right now, humanity is irreversibly heading for a point of bifurcation where we need to stop, because we cannot go on like this any further. If things go the natural way, would that be catastrophic?

Answer: Yes, it would be a natural and social catastrophe, which means wars. If we continue to stubbornly go against nature, then on the one hand, it would evoke a variety of natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and so on, and on the other hand, it would trigger in us such internal strain and pressure that a global nuclear war would erupt. This is the natural course of events without our conscious awareness.

But if we reveal this point in advance through mass media, through all kinds of possibilities, then we can move it forward. This should be done not when it’s already inevitable and we enter a state of great conflict, but while we are anticipating everything and feel it in advance as though this point already exists now, and then we can start changing ourselves and society.

This can be achieved only by disseminating the truth about our state and direction: what are we heading toward, what force is leading us forward, and about the inevitability of coming to that precise state. Actually, people are already talking about it, though very little.

And most importantly, there’s a method of correction that allows us to change what exists today. By the way, the method itself is painless, without drama. A person won’t need to break him or herself.

A person comes to a group and engages in it under the influence of a gentle, kind, and friendly environment, attends it like a simple psychological workshop in a university. And within a few sessions, he begins to feel how he himself and his view of the world change.

So, nothing dramatic happens to a person. He or she simply, easily, and comfortably begins to acquire a new system of knowledge and perception of the world.
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From a “Talk About Integral Upbringing” 6/13/12

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Question: Currently, we move from a linear, narrow-minded egoistic development to a “round,” whole world. How do we build the course of integral education in a way that it quickly shifts a person from a linear perception of the world to a global, universal perception?

Answer: It’s easy! Everything depends on the influence of the environment!

If the environment surrounding a person is integral, there will be a society built on top of specifically equal circumstances. Naturally, there are no equal people, but specifically equal circumstances will serve as a connection among them: friendly and equal, creating integral fields of communication around them where a person will feel as a part of the whole even if this feeling gradually disappears as the feeling of the whole will start prevailing.

Then a person begins to perceive the world in a holistic way. And he will treat everything else outside of his small society as a whole, and he will be able to perceive the world correctly and interact with everything in a proper way.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/21/12

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