Entries in the 'World' Category

The West Is Living Beyond Its Means

Opinion: (Philippe Dessertine, Professor of Finance at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and Director of the Institute of High Finance): “Europe continues to tremble. After Ireland, Portugal and Greece, it was the turn of Italy’s third largest economy of the European Union to be hit hard by the crisis of its public debt….

“As for France, it is the next country on the list. The question is not whether we will be affected, but when….

“The euro is clearly threatened if the European Central Bank collapses. This represents both the risk of collapse of international trade and a deep geopolitical crisis, which can lead to a world war. This is what happens when states are facing an inability to exchange goods….

“In 2009, it was also a debt crisis, but a private one, which affected banks and caused their failure. We hoped to get away with growth, but it is not at the rendezvous. Today, it is the States that go bankrupt. This insane debt simply reflects the fact that the West is living beyond its means.”
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Humanity Without Leadership

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University, Chairman of Roubini Global Economics, co-author of the book Crisis Economics): “We live in a world where, in theory, global economic and political governance is in the hands of the G-20. In practice, however, there is no global leadership and severe disarray and disagreement among G-20 members about monetary and fiscal policy, exchange rates and global imbalances, climate change, trade, financial stability, the international monetary system, and energy, food and global security. Indeed, the major powers now see these issues as zero-sum games rather than positive-sum games. So ours is, in essence, a G-Zero world….

“There are several reasons why the G-20 world has become a G-Zero world. First, when discussion moves beyond generic principles into detailed policy proposals, it’s much more difficult to reach clear agreements among 20 negotiators than among seven.

“Second, G-7 leaders share a belief in the power of free markets to generate long-term prosperity and in the importance of democracy for political stability and social justice. The G-20, on the other hand, includes autocratic governments with different views about the role of the state in the economy, and on the rule of law, property rights, transparency, and freedom of speech.

“Third, the Western powers now lack the domestic political consensus and financial resources to advance an international agenda….

“Finally, rising powers like China, India, and Brazil are far too focused on managing the next stage of their domestic development to bear the financial and political costs that come with new international responsibilities….

“For the first time since the end of World War II, no country or strong alliance of countries has the political will and economic leverage to secure its goals on the global stage. This vacuum may encourage, as in previous historical periods, the ambitious and the aggressive to seek their own advantage.

“In such a world, the absence of a high-level agreement on creating a new collective-security system – focused on economics rather than military power – is not merely irresponsible, but dangerous. A G-Zero world without leadership and multilateral cooperation is an unstable equilibrium for global economic prosperity and security.”

My comment: To manage, one must understand the causes of the present and the goals for the future. The G-20 members have neither. To manage the interconnected world integrally, we shouldn’t be egoistic individualists, but should have the same integral qualities as the world today. Then it is possible to feel the world as integral and manage it. Today, everyone needs integral education, and the governments need it first.
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It’s Still All Ahead Of Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Мikhail Koroliuk, Executive Manager, IFC Solid, expert.ru): “In 2008, we entered a credit cycle contraction phase, and it will continue until 2015 at least. During this time, the world will be shaken by credit and bank crises, and the policy of “tightening the belt” will lead to weak economic growth. The European credit crisis will reach the heart of Europe, the USA will struggle with its colossal cumulative debt, and China’s debt problems will surface as well (the next major world crisis may start particularly there). So, it’s still all ahead of us….”

My comment: Somehow everybody believes that fate itself will solve our problems, without us making any effort! “We’ll get over it, even if we do nothing.” Thus we are heading toward a war. We are becoming increasingly opposite to nature that manifests to us as a unified system.
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There Is No Way Out Of This Deadlock

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Мikhail Leontyev, analyst, essayist, the “Golden Pen of Russia” award winner, ruskline.ru): “The algorithm of the future financial collapse is evident. Europe will sink first since it isn’t prepared to handle such challenges, although European financial policy is more responsible than the American one. Yet, the European model is not designed to solve crises. It is meant to make people happy….

“It is impossible to effectively synchronize financial behavior of such diverse economies consolidated into one system. They can be synchronized solely by capital mobility, and what we see today is the result thereof…. We can drive Greece to bankruptcy and discover that France and Germany have collapsed because they financed Greece. It equally concerns Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, and the others. And next, it will inevitably lead to the collapse of the United States. In any case, it’s clear that the process won’t stop in Europe. It isn’t a secret that Americans are simply printing money today. By doing so, they are essentially turning the world’s money into nothing for ultimately, all the world’s money is the American money. There is no other money in the world….

“Therefore, there is no way out of this deadlock. The only question is who will go first and who will be second. Although, it doesn’t really change anything. In order to exit the crisis, the expenses of the world’s main financial subjects must be brought to balance with their revenues. Macroeconomic equilibrium will be restored at any cost ….and that is exactly what we will be witnessing soon.”

My comment: But the analyst doesn’t go any further, into the cause and the goal of the economic crisis. The economy is a projection of our nature and our egoistic relationships. If we don’t change them, we will not be able to form a global, integral financial connection and synchronize the economies of all world countries. For that, we have to first synchronize ourselves, meaning we have to reach mutual understanding of our common goal.

In other words, only having unified in the Creator will we comprehend how to build an integral economy. Until then, our mind and qualities will be unable to create such a system.
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The UN On The Global Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanUnited Nations “World Economic and Social Survey 2011”:
While humankind has made enormous progress in improving material welfare over the past two centuries, this progress has come at the lasting cost of degradation of our natural environment. About half of the forests that covered the earth are gone, groundwater resources are being depleted and contaminated, enormous reductions in biodiversity have already taken place and, through increased burning of fossil fuels, the stability of the planet’s climate is being threatened by global warming. … The incidence of natural disasters has increased fivefold since the 1970s. … In order for populations in developing countries to achieve a decent living standard, especially the billions who currently still live in conditions of abject poverty, and the additional 2 billion people who will have been added to the world’s population by mid-century—much greater economic progress will be needed.

Continuation along previously trodden economic growth pathways will further exacerbate the pressures exerted on the world’s resources and natural environment, which would approach limits where livelihoods were no longer sustainable. … It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries through global warming, biodiversity loss, and disturbance of the nitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystem. A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe. …

Reducing the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with growing and increasingly urban populations will require drastic changes in consumption patterns, transportation systems, residential and building infrastructure, and water and sanitation systems.

My Comment: It is impossible to make the transition to any prudent economy of sensible consumption without correcting man’s nature. But the correction of man’s nature from egoistic to altruistic is opposed by the authorities and the system because then they will lose their power over the world.

Therefore, as long as it is possible, the main task of the authorities and the banks is to prevent people from thinking about the crisis by any means – even at the expense of increasing the national debt, the way the US is doing. And all the governments agree with this.

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The Wind Of Change

Dr. Michael LaitmanI have a positive view of the globalization and integration that are being revealed in our times. Previously the world was driven by an egoistical impetus, which grew inside of us from one generation to the next, from one year to the next. Man developed egoistically, changing society, technologies, his life, and nature. But today this “trend” is coming to an end and now, with the emergence of the new tendency, everything will be different.

Nature has suddenly become closed and has expressed itself as “round,” integral. We won’t change nature any longer, but on the contrary, it is telling us: “Now you have to start changing.” Nature will not change anymore. It has reached the global, integral state. This has become a given, a new, indestructible format, and from now on we have to make ourselves match it.

This process is happening under pressure. Nature is constantly expressing itself as more and more integral, and we must also become more integral in the relationships between us. Otherwise we will have to suffer due to our lack of similarity to it.

For example, nature is showing us warming, and in response, we have to express more warmth. The winds on earth are blowing stronger, and we have to become imbued by “new currents.” It is necessary to have an equivalence of form, an equality of characteristics.

Therefore, shocks will pass over all of human society because whether we want it or not, a global format is “dressing” upon us. And what’s the first thing we are discovering? That our egoism is no longer working. Dictators and stand-alones are losing their power, isolated governments are ineffective, and separated organizations do not achieve results. The only ones making real actions are the people capable of unification.

As a result, power is shifting from separated, single governments to the people, who know how to unite. After all, they are “round” and integral, while the government is not.

A movement is starting all over the world now: the people will pressure the government more and more. Their actions might be disorganized and spontaneous, but they are interconnected. And the government will suddenly discover that it is standing before these people in fear and does now know what to do.

It would seem: Why not drive the people away? However, the balance of inner forces has changed and you cannot do anything about it anymore. In the past everything was simple: Let them shout on the streets to their heart’s content, let them tear apart a few shops, and a week later, when the food runs out, they will be on their way. But today this approach is not working. In some places the rulers and governments are already being forced to resign and even to escape.

This is the global, integral format that is more suitable for the people who unite than for egoistic governments, which are disunited and conflicting between each other and inside of themselves. The previous system is so opposite to the new model that not a single government will stay in power while playing by the old rules. It will be finished off by that same, highly praised “democracy.” A dictator would last longer by correctly choosing whom to attract to his side, whereas a clutter of parliamentary democracy is the opposite – it will rebuke its demise everywhere.

That is how every completed level nullifies itself: It expresses the inability to hold us back and becomes replaced by the next. All the best things we achieved at the previous phase not only become useless, but harmful, and thus, the old order gets buried beneath. This is what we will see.

Thus, bringing the people to unity and mutual guarantee means bringing them to similarity with the new natural format which is being revealed in our days. By attaining this similarity, we will succeed, flourish, and rise – even in the material sense, and especially in the spiritual development.

As for Israel, here too the commotion won’t settle and the protests will only keep mounting. The people will unite on every issue and will come forth against the government. This comes from the inside. People feel that those who are in power are worthless. The time of acclaimed leaders is gone. The politicians have become so mired by the “market relations” that you can’t reverse this anymore. The people are feeling a surge of energy because all of the global nature is standing behind them.

What will this global process finally lead to? To a world government. The regional differences will remain, being defined by the population’s personality and religion, but the boundaries will be erased completely. They are already blurred. The common government will be a government of sages, and it will be united, without any division into small or big. Everyone will enter the common union and will only care about unity.

After all, nothing more is necessary: If we are united, then we correspond to the upper Force. Unity is equality and mutuality, mutual guarantee. This way, the recent developments in the world are the beginning of a new phase of development, a new reality, a new social formation.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut

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What Would I Say To The Tel Aviv Tent Protestors?

What Would I Say To The Tel Aviv Tent Protestors?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I visited a tent city that young families started up in the center of Tel Aviv as a sign of protest against the high prices of housing. In the evening people there get in a big circle and take turns speaking everything that’s on their mind into a microphone. Any person is allowed to speak. If I sign up for the list of speakers, what would you advise me to say?

Answer: “The end of the action is contained in the initial plan.” First of all, what do we want to achieve? We want to achieve a solution to the housing problem for students and young couples – people who aren’t well-off yet and who are just starting out in life. We can do this only if we become a factor of influence and pressure on the government.

We think that the government has enough money for different needs. So let them express a sensitivity to our demands. A member of parliament receives tens of thousands of shekels a month, but a student does not receive anything and in addition, pays for his studies. It’s impossible to live that way. The government has to decrease its expenditures on its own self. I am not talking about the realms of safety, education, or healthcare. We do not intervene in these matters. Let’s suppose that everything is fine there.

We are talking about the government: The students should receive whatever amount they require. Young couples want to create a family and to live, so let them have a home. Let them be able to rent a simple family home at the initial phase of their life together, until they can buy an apartment of their own. Or give them an offer to buy a home right away at a normal price.

The government has land. A square meter of living space costs 500 dollars at most, even it’s not a mass construction area. Imagine: for $50,000 you could buy an apartment that’s sized 100 square meters. But today you have to invest say, $300,000 in it, which is sixth times more than it can really cost, all-inclusive.

Why does it have to be that way? How much can you make off of people who have no money?

Therefore, they are right. The only question is: How will they be able to organize together? They have to become a powerful lobby, a group that successively exerts powerful pressure until the goal is attained. Besides, they have to keep going beyond this as well. In this country, there are many other things other than housing that could be improved. But the government won’t improve them unless you obligate it to do it.

The government is constantly under pressure from coalitions and lobbyists. Therefore, unless you implant yourself in this system as a group of pressure, from the inside or outside, you will get no result.

That means the question now is: How can we organize ourselves so our protest won’t turn into a festival? I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are people there who are trying to do that on the sly. After all, the issue at stake is important and not simple because any government in the world takes great care of itself and takes the most diverse measures in this respect. This is natural because every authority has to stand its own ground. How else can it stay in power?

Therefore, the protestors need real, powerful, reliable, and serious organization, rather than just slogans said into a microphone. Of course, this is good and necessary as well, but if that’s where everything will end, then they will be even more looked down upon, and next time they or their followers will have a very difficult time. They have to understand what kind of responsibility they have. If people rise up for new protests in the future, their success will depend on today’s struggle and its outcome.

It’s necessary to use the services of good, real consultants in order to achieve unity and mutual guarantee among one another, in order to get organized correctly, in order to understand how to exert pressure, how to work with the public, how to attract new people to their side, and how to communicate with the mass media representatives and with the government. They need a very powerful internal organization and experienced advisers. Otherwise they won’t succeed.

I saw the same thing happen in Spain: Everything began very seriously. The protest action was joined by couples aged 30 – 40 who were left without work. These were well-bred people with higher education, who completed European universities. They included engineers, sociologists, programmists, and many others who were left jobless. It might be possible to find some kind of common labor job, but these kinds of people had no chances – they are simply helpless.

And so, at first they occupied the city square in Madrid. However, they were unable to get organized properly and gradually they dispersed. As a result, the protest disintegrated and their places in the tents were occupied by other people, who got used to living on the street anyway. The mass media stopped broadcasting the event, the government happily waved its hand, organizing free food, showers, and toilets. As a result, the government is demonstrating the presence of a “democracy,” while the homeless have a place to live until the winter comes. When it does, the tents will be abandoned and will unnoticeably disappear.

This is a very vivid example of a lack of organization. Here in Israel the protestors who have gathered are also well-bred, and that is their weakness. After all, in this kind of situation it is necessary to get organized and start exerting pressure. This is not the Egyptian revolution, it’s not a spontaneous uprising, and therefore it is necessary to have clear order. In this case it is more difficult to aim the protestors in a common direction, to organize them because they are more reasonable and individualistic. The shouldn’t take an example from Egypt and other countries because the people going out on the streets there are a different type. In this case we are talking about Israelis who are difficult to budge, separated, and egoistic. Here every person makes his own calculation. Taking all of this into consideration, it is difficult for me to say whether or not they will achieve success.

Perhaps they will nevertheless understand that they need a strong organization and a clear action plan: pressure on the government, publication of declarations, addresses to certain people or organizations. They have to stay on top of the headlines, and not just while the news is fresh. Otherwise they will be forgotten in a few days. At some point the tents on the public square will stop being news. A person will read the newspaper headline, “The 40th day of the tent protest” and will go on to the next article.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut

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The Inner Revolution

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe revelation of the Kabbalistic method to the world presupposes that four conditions are met:

Condition #1: That the method of correction is not handed to one person, but to a whole nation.

Today, more and more people are realizing that it’s necessary to change oneself and to enter balance with nature. In the past we thought that we are above nature and our egoism is intended to control it, but now we understand how destructive this is for us.

This sensation is surfacing in the masses by virtue of the fact that we satisfy the first condition of Kabbalah’s revelation, where 600,000 people, “600,000 souls” are studying the method of spiritual correction. This is a conditional concept symbolizing a gathering of people who are able to reach a special connection between them, called “mutual guarantee.”

Condition #2: The nation has to come out of the Egyptian slavery, meaning to realize the evil of its own egoism.

Condition #3:
Every one of the 600,000 has to agree to work for the sake of bestowal.

Condition #4: Every one has to be willing to carry out any action that will bring him to a connection with others.

Mutual guarantee is care about filling each other’s desires. All human plans have to aspire to this. We have to carry out a revolution inside of us. The world has everything to ensure a favorable existence for the inhabitants of the planet, but there is one thing missing – a common thought that’s aimed at this. If we aspire to this internally, then the abundance will become accessible to all.

Everything depends on our interconnection. The tighter the interconnection is between us, the more intense is the action of the upper Light, which will order the state of the lower levels of the universe. As soon as a group of 600,000 people agrees to the condition of mutual guarantee, interconnection, and love, it will immediately receive enormous support from above.

The only thing required of us is to desire to restore the interconnection and the intention to work for bestowal. Precisely the intention, and not technological progress, will cause a revolution in the world. We will gradually reach a state where the newest technologies will be created and controlled by thought, meaning with intention and a desire that is corrected by the intention.

Every person’s obligation is to care for all of humanity. The whole world is included in the system of mutual guarantee, but first of all, this has to be done by those who have the understanding and desire to rise to the higher level and to reveal the Creator among them. The group desire will smoothly flow over into the world’s desire.

A person will gradually change his attitude to himself, to society, and to nature, and will receive satisfaction from being in the system of the common interconnection. He will be “nourished” by the upper Light, which fills him and delights him.

That is how we will shift to the economics of intelligent consumption because we will be satisfied only by the vital necessities. By beginning to work by the principle “everything is for everyone,” we will reach the state of mutual guarantee. And the inner changes in man will entail the reconstruction of the whole world.
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From the virtual lesson on 7/17/11

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The Breakdown Of Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: If a part of the nation does not want to keep the Arvut, but rather chooses to wallow in self-love, they cause the rest of the nation to remain immersed in their filth and lowliness without ever finding a way out of their filth.

Question: How can I correct my craving for filth and lowliness?

Answer: I act in relation to the friends, and the friends act in relation to me. Does this mean that they correct me? Yes, they do. And do I correct them? Yes, I do. How do I correct myself? I correct myself by means of correcting them.

This is what the mutual guarantee is. No one does this without others, and he depends on others in all his actions in the positive and negative sense, in joy and sorrow. He depends on their good and bad actions, and they depend on his good and bad actions.

Today, this is becoming a reality that will manifest itself in our world in a very unpleasant way. If something bad happens in one country, other countries will feel this right away. On the other hand, if something good takes place somewhere, others will change for the better as well.

This is a real breakdown for my egoism. I want others to feel bad and myself to feel good, to be a winner compared to them. I want what is worse for them rather than for me, and this warms my heart. But now, we see how the integrity of nature compels us to think differently. It teaches us that no one can benefit alone. If it is good for some, it will be also good for others. There is no such situation that it is good for some and bad for others.

Gradually, we are approaching this picture of the world. Look at what is happening in the developed countries. If there is a landslide in one, the rest do not know what to do, and they fall after it. We have reached such an economic order, meaning such egoism, that everyone depends on everyone else. This is mutual guarantee, and this is how it manifests.

I did not think that I would depend, let’s say, on France. What do I have to do with France? However, now I must take care that no default occurs there. If France goes bankrupt, then undoubtedly, it will affect my pocket two days later. Besides, it will affect it negatively. If I reaped benefits from it, I would let them go bankrupt. But it doesn’t work this way: It harms me as well.

Moreover, previously, the troubles of others brought benefits. Before the world connected into an integral system, everybody had acted in his own interests, not considering others. Each country cared only about its own gain. Every time, we made healthy, egoistic calculations to win at the expense of others. Even if this required starting a war against them and destroying the other side down to the ground, it was better for me.

Today, we would like to continue along the same lines, but we cannot. Soon, we will discover that a war cannot be started. We depend on each other to such an extent that I cannot provide anything for myself alone. I will lack everything that I destroy for others.

That is what we have come to. Wishing good for ourselves, our nation, our country with its structure and institutions, I must take care of everybody. Only then will it be good for me.

This mechanism works in bestowal between Partzufim, between people, and between a person and the Creator. I have to take the desire of my fellow human being with the goal of filling it and putting my desire to his service. Only under the condition that I fill and take care of it, will all the abundance flow through me and be revealed in me 620 times greater.

The world doesn’t yet understand what system we are entering. To make it do so, we need to tell people about this as soon as possible. Otherwise, their despair will bring them to war. They simply will have no choice.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Upbringing Works On Every Age

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are trying to teach the world about unity, but an egoistic one for now. How can we later raise people to the level of love for the Creator?

Answer: They will make this transition under our guidance. After all, we are leading them into the framework of the new upbringing, rather than just gushing in front of the public.

People will have to enter the network of upbringing, which envelops every age group, from 0 until 120, and which is in effect from now until the end of correction, throughout all times. Everyone will have to undergo an unceasing process of upbringing. Say, a third of the day will be spent on work, and two thirds on upbringing, which is also work in and of itself.

Then, through a gentle, customary presentation, we will explain to people the principles of Baal HaSulam, adapted to the whole world. After all, the science of Kabbalah talks about the will to enjoy and the will to bestow pleasure, about their relationships and interactions, about how to correct our nature. There is nothing “virtual,” imaginary, “spiritual,” or mystical about it. It is talking about forces that act inside of you.

By revealing them more and more, you will see that no one is forcing you to “float up in the clouds.” “Spirituality” is the intention for bestowal. If I attained bestowal to another person, that means I am spiritual. But if I care for myself, then I am material. Our relationships, which are based on bestowal, are the spiritual world, whereas our current relationships are the material world.

But we are not even talking about any kind of “worlds.” After all, it’s difficult for a person to give up his old notions, and therefore he will become confused. Therefore, we are giving him simple explanations, presenting the entire science of Kabbalah without any special terminology, with scientific words.

We have to build up this system of upbringing so we could gradually give people the knowledge about human nature. Nothing more than that is necessary. We are talking about man’s nature, which is the only thing that was created.

Thanks to this, a person will constantly develop until he discovers what lies on the outside – the system of his interconnection with others. And in it, he will reveal the Creator.

In practice, we can give explanations in terms of perception of reality: A person isn’t even revealing a connection with others, but himself. The desires that appear external and alien to him become revealed as his own. It turns out that this is him. By bringing the external parts closer to himself, it’s as if he sews them on, implants them, and joins together the separated organs of his body. And according to this, he feels and reveals the perfect reality.

Now I see only what is present in a small part of the broken body. But the more parts I reunite with it, the more I reveal in it.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/11, “Arvut

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