News Report: (translated from pravda.com): Excerpts from the article “The Crisis of Desires,” by the Ukranian Deputy Minister of Finance and presidential legal advisor, N. Poludenny: The desire and its satisfaction (pleasure) are the basis of man’s energetic-informational nature. We are woven of desires. Our crises will multiply, evolve and intensify until we realize that we must change our perception of the world. First and foremost this means altering the vector of our desires and acquiring the perception of unity between all people in the global system of our world.

Today everyone is talking about restoring trust – trust in the financial system, in the government, and in each other. People presume that this is a matter of an individual’s psychology or the psychology of the masses. In reality, however, trust is a spiritual category, whose root lies in a global spiritual state called “faith.” Confidence and loyalty are derivatives of this state.

These states are impossible as long as people realize their desires with a “minus” sign. And on the contrary, when a person changes the vector of his desire from “receiving for his own sake” to “giving for others’ sake,” he automatically enters the state of confidence, restoring others’ trust in him, and acquiring faith (at the very least, faith in his own abilities).

My Comment: Bravo! Let’s hope that everyone else will soon recognize the reason for the crisis as well! And when they do, people will begin searching for the means (the strength and the method) to correct our nature – and they will reveal Kabbalah.

Related Material:
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News Report (translated from utro.ru): Sociological polls administered by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center show that due to the significant reduction of living standards in Russia, caused by the global financial crisis, there is a great threat of broad public unrest. According to the poll results, over 20% of the population say they are willing to participate in mass protests.

Comment: Only the unification of the government with the people will help both survive. However, the following situations are also possible:

• If things progress egoistically, they will end up with Nazism, which will then be defeated because it opposes Nature’s law of globality, integration, and interconnection.

• If people follow the altruistic path, the crisis will be resolved quickly and will have a favorable outcome.

News Report (translated from lenta.ru): The Russian television has aired a promotional campaign encouraging people to set aside their national differences and adopt the necessary policy of tolerance.

Comment: Otherwise, as the the crisis, hunger and frustration reach their peak, there will be problems among people of different nationalities – and then it’s just a short step from nationalism to Nazism.

And here’s another problem: Some people think that they can wait out the crisis without correcting anything, and once it’s over they’ll get back to selling the national resources. This calms people down and convinces them to keep all the existing governmental structures, or in other words, to keep people on a payroll. However, this crisis will change the world and hence people won’t be able to keep “collecting the rent”!

(The above photo shows me next to the Chilean Parliament and Junta soldiers. By the way, “junta” means “group.”)

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Laitman.com Post: Reflections on the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: Nazism – The Future of Humankind?

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A question I received: What is your opinion of how Americans are reacting to the crisis?

My Answer: I have two comments on this:

1. Americans are hoping to wait it out, and for everything to quickly end of its own accord.

2. They are placing big hopes on Obama. The public expects that once he comes to power, everything will be fixed within a couple of months.

But neither of these will happen! There may be short periods of “intermission” – but they will be followed by another blow! In addition, the crisis still hasn’t been expressed in a multi-faceted fashion; people still don’t see that it is interconnected with everything, including the high divorce rates, depression, the ecology, natural disasters, massive famine, and the outbreaks of violence and infection that are happening everywhere. We’re only reacting to it now because it got to our wallets. However, the crisis in science, upbringing, the family, and so on has been going on for a long time! But like true egoists, we only react when something goes wrong with our money! However, now we also have to feel the other facets of the crisis, which we did not react to previously.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “The End of America” – Or Is It?
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News Report (from CNSNews): “Where Did the Bailout Money Go? Banks Can’t, or Won’t, Say” After receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. … The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific answers. … no bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money. … Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.

Gazeta.ru reports that the situation in Russia is similar: President Vladimir Putin stated that the financial sector received five trillion rubles in aid; however, most of this money never reached the economy.

My Comment: Indeed, these are the natural actions of our egoism. The people who got their hands on this money are unable to let go of it. The solution is to immediately create a different system of all our interactions. It must start with a global education and upbringing. But for the time being, we should institute a wide-ranging social regulation, as Baal HaSulam advises in the article “The Last Generation” (meaning the last egoistic generation).

Related Material:
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The year 2008 ended with the financial crisis. But in truth, the crisis began decades ago – in art, science, the family (divorce), education, the general depression, drug abuse, and useless professions. However, like the true egoists that we are, we reacted to it only when it got to our wallets. The crisis was revealed through none other than the relationships we’ve created, which became global. We discovered that we are interconnected and interdependent – and full of hate for each other. When this happens in a family, the couple gets a divorce, but what are we to do? Therein lies the real crisis, and our future depends on its solution.

2009 will be the year when we will realize that we are all one family. People will recognize that their egoistic nature is evil; they will begin to open their eyes and to think differently. This will make it easier to live through the hardships. People will feel that Nature, which created the egoism within us, is forcing us to change. By correcting our relationships, we can accelerate and mitigate the course of the crisis. Suffering and the will to survive will force us to start observing the Biblical commandment of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” – and then he crisis will be replaced by a world that’s good and full of Light. This is what I wish for you in 2009!

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News Report (translated from Pravda.com.ua): The Ukrainian Secretary of Finance, V. Pinzenik stated: “The world can come out of the crisis if we all reach out to each other. The key problem facing the world right now is egoism. In a normal situation, egoism is the right thing. But in the current situation, the world will not come out of the crisis unless people forget all about egoism for a year. The problem is in people’s heads.”

My Comment: Actually, egoism has never been “the right thing,” but the world has never known another nature. However, now that we’ve revealed our integral interconnection in one closed system, we will be forced to subdue every person’s individual egoism in favor of the system’s existence. We must forget about egoism forever. And the problem is not just in people’s heads. We don’t know how to get rid of egoism. Therefore, humanity will still have to go through the following stages:

• Finding the correct definition of “What is egoism?”
• Recognizing that man’s egoism is the only source of evil
• Recognizing that egoism is our entire nature
• Recognizing that it’s impossible to get rid of egoism
• Discovering that Kabbalah is the means to replace egoism with altruism
• Applying Kabbalah and attaining the integral existence of all people

Only the dissemination of Kabbalah is able to reduce this path of suffering. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that people are beginning to open their eyes! They have never done this before!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How to Overcome the Global Crisis
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Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Solution to the Financial Crisis Differs from the Common Sense Solution

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News Report (from The Economist): The cimarrón is one of at least ten alternative currencies in different parts of Venezuela. … But none of these tokens can be exchanged for the bolívar, the country’s legal currency. Their use is limited to “prosumers” – you have to bring something to sell before you can actually buy anything with them. … ‘It’s magic,’ says Pablo Mayayo, an Argentinian who is advising Venezuelans on these schemes. ‘When you take away money… people relate to each other in a different way, by co-operating, not competing.’”

My Comment: Kabbalah states that progress is programmed by nature and determined by the egoism that continuously grows in us. Our egoism cannot be stopped, but it can be corrected. Then, instead of using it to harm others or for illusory self-benefit, we will use it to benefit everyone. This is the principle of a closed system, and today we are revealing that human society is just such a system.

Therefore, any movement backwards, our attempts to reverse history, are opposite to nature and will inevitably bring about an even greater crisis.

Related Material:
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Kabbalah Today Article: Rising Above the Ego to a New Level of Consciousness
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “Eradicating Egoism”
Introduction to the Book of Zohar: “Items 60-71”

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News Report (translated from mchs.gov.ru): Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations forecasts that in 2009 the number of natural disasters in Russia will increase by more than a third. There will be up to 250 emergency situations related to natural disasters, including flooding in Siberia and the Far East, fires resulting from a snowless winter and abnormal temperatures (particularly in forests), strong winds, storms, gales, hurricanes, very heavy precipitation, hail, thunderstorms and so forth. There is an increased likelihood of earthquakes and tsunamis in the coastal areas. Also set to increase are gas explosions and breakdowns of vital communications systems, and collapse of buildings and other structures. There is a high likelihood that epidemics and infections will break out.

My Comment: All of this can be avoided if we immediately take control of the entertainment and commercial sectors of the mass media, in order to purposefully educate the population on proper conduct in the new global world. However, this should be done without restricting the informational and communications sectors of the mass media. People should be taught what it means to be integrally connected and absolutely dependent on everyone. This should be the Ministry’s primary tactic and strategy!

In response to this act, society will immediately feel a reduction in Nature’s pressure, both the inner pressure on every individual and society as a whole, as well as the external pressure. Balance with Nature will bring about positive phenomena on all levels of our lives. We will then witness a simple, calm Moral Revolution that is so necessary!

Related Material:
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Economist Michael Khazin stated the following in an interview with Echo Radio: What is globalization? Globalization is a political, ideological, and cultural structure built over an absolutely material process – the global division of labor. Beginning with the 18th century, humanity started developing scientifically and technologically, and this was accompanied by a growth of markets where people sold their products. There were many “globalizations” in the 18th century; in fact, every large country led its own system of labor distribution.

My Comment: Many define globalization as the distribution of labor, production, and the market. However, Kabbalah defines globalization differently: it means that the world is global and integral, and all of its parts are completely interconnected like in a small village. In it, every part determines the fate of all the others, according to the Butterfly Effect.

The world has become like this due to progress. From this moment on, there cannot be any conflicts between different parts of the world because anyone who is against integration is also against progress, evolution, and the law of nature. We must recognize that the absolute connection of all the world’s parts is a fact. We must also recognize that our discrepancy with or failure to carry out nature’s law of Unity will elicit a negative reaction: the crisis will become more severe. And we will be the ones who created this reaction.

Here are some more definitions of globalization:

Globalization – a process of global economic, political, and cultural integration and unification. The main consequences of this are a global distribution of labor; migration of capital and human and industrial resources on a global scale; standardization of legislation and of economic and technological processes; and greater contact between different cultures. This is an objective, natural, historic process that is systematic. In other words, it encompasses all areas of social life.

Globalization – the process of a continuously growing influence of various international factors (such as close economic and political connections, exchange of cultures and information) on the social reality of separate countries.

Globalization in politics – an approach to the world’s formation, organization, functioning, and development that views the world as an integral economic, socio-cultural, and political super-system.

The concept of globalization – a theory stating that the evolution of financial markets and institutions leads to a state where geographic borders cannot limit contracts and other transactions. Usually the term “globalization” pertains to a growing international activity of banks and other institutions.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Talks on Globalization and the Financial Crisis
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Kabbalah Today Article: Globalization 101

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News Report (from Leadership Nigeria): Pope Benedict XVI yesterday warned that the world was swimming toward ruin if self-interest prevails over solidarity during tough economic times… Benedict said, “If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.”

Related Material:
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