Entries in the 'globalization' Category

Kabbalah Explains Globalization

laitman_2009-07_0237Nature’s goal is to reach globalization. Along with all humanity, Nature develops toward globalization according to the principle of self-organization, in line with predetermined laws of development. This is also how a fetus develops in a mother’s womb. As the fetus grows and develops, it builds increasingly complex systems, which evolve and reach greater levels of harmony and interconnection with each other.

The law of development necessitates a process where things become increasingly more complex, more integral and more interdependent. Ultimately, the result is that all subsystems are incorporated into one whole. However, these processes are revealed gradually and they become clearer over time.

A person, however, is influenced by his natural egoism, and thus he does not want to take part in this process voluntarily. Yet, under the influence of various factors, such as the global crisis, a person will be forced to participate, until he will reach the realization that instead of being forced, it’s better to do this voluntarily. He will realize this because he will see the inevitability of the law of development.

Thus, the suffering that comes along with the global crisis will cause us to voluntarily realize that our lives are global. At first we will agree to this reluctantly, and later we will understand it and accept that it is the best thing for us.

This is how today, Nature is beginning to show our future state to us. Kabbalah, however, enables us to understand this in advance, and thus to lessen the suffering that’s coming our way. Kabbalah allows us to study and understand the reasons for the blows in a timely manner, before the blows actually reach us.

And that’s all there is to globalization!

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Ascending To Bestowal Above Egoistic Calculations


No matter how much the bankers and the economists search for a regulator, they will not find it. After all, the only regulator for our state is in the rule “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the only form of correct participation in the global system.

Otherwise, you will never have the freedom of will or the opportunity for independent action, and you will remain an inanimate little screw within a rigid system, forced to twist and turn as the system sees fit. But none of it will be done by you – you will be twisted and turned by others.

In order to make decisions and act independently, you need faith above reason and pure bestowal. No other method can be used to influence this system. If everyone were to begin to act this way, suddenly we would find that we are all rising above our previous egoistic calculations of trying to guess how each person would act, which is entirely impossible.

After all, by trying to reveal this formula and coming closer and closer to it, you suddenly switch from a numerical system of calculation to an analogous one. In other words, you stop counting 1+1+…, breaking the whole circle into segments. Because the calculation continuously gets harder, and there are more and more segments, in the end all of them merge into a common integral – into one common circle. You are then no longer able to perform a calculation according to your egoistic nature – you are forced to ascend to bestowal. And this is the only action that can be performed.

This is like a common integral, when you need to measure the area, so you break it up into segments, estimate the area of each, and then add them up, which is how the segments form a circle.

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The Realization That Suffering Is The Cleansing Force Of The Crisis

laitman_2009-05-xx_ny_6618In the News (from The Financial News):Interview of Dmitry Medvedev American CNBC TV channel” Now, one problem arising at one place in one country, be that in America, Europe or Asia, is enough for the whole world community, for the whole global economy to catch fire. That is why, a very important conclusion that we should make and take as a basic one is that taking all kinds of domestic national economy decisions concerning inflation, issue of money and some other economic indicators, we are making a direct impact on other economies. This economic globalism is, maybe, the main lesson of the current crisis, which, at the same time, creates better conditions for development in the future, because we can create a much fairer financial and economic architecture.

My comment: See how suffering is helping us! It is well known that suffering cleanses. The correct interpretation of this is that suffering cleanses a person of egoism. This cleansing consists of two phases. Phase one is through the influence of Upper forces. The second phase is the realization that egoism is the cause of all evil followed by a conscious separation from it (from its use).

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The Most Important Task In Life


Today, all of humanity is operating in a global system. If we correct the ties between us in that system, it means we correct the souls to reveal the Creator here within that bond, in this world and in our lifetime.

The science of Kabbalah states that the breaking of the souls happened in their descent from one of the exalted spiritual degrees. Before that descent, all of the souls represented one common soul, called Adam.

Adam split into many separate parts, and absolutely all of them fell into this world, giving rise to all of humanity. There is no difference between the common soul and any person in this world. All we need to understand is that we are inside a closed system, where everyone is stuck in his ego. Thus, there are now seven billion separate parts. Each of them has been growing, influenced by their own unique ego until this time, a special time when the broken connection between us is being revealed: billions and billions of connections – linking each person.

People say that each person knows everyone else in the world through no more than five or six degrees of separation. However, we have yet to reveal that everyone of us is literally connected to everyone, since the link is corrupted and each one relates to the others based on his ego. It’s not our fault that ego is inside us – we had it to begin with. However, the fact that it has become revealed means that we must correct it. Besides this one task there is nothing of greater importance or meaning that we must do in our lifetime. For if we correct the ties between us, we discover the World of Infinity itself.

To the extent that a person reveals the true bond with others by his correct attitude towards them, he begins to feel the Upper Force – the force of bestowal and love. He then transcends the boundaries of his perception of the world and begins to see the world around him as it really is outside of him, and in this way, he reveals the Creator.

That is precisely what we must achieve in this generation. All the conditions are laid out before us; Kabbalists wrote about it and outlined the entire method for us, and all we are left to do is to realize it. We have been given every opportunity to do just that.

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Wikipedia On Globalization, Integration And The Butterfly Effect


Globalization

  • Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into a global one. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.
  • This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Globalization is often used to refer to economic globalization, that is, integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.

Integration

  • From to integrate (from Latin integratus, the past participle of integrare ‘to make a whole’, from integer ‘whole’) + -ation. The act or process of making whole or entire.

Butterfly Effect

  • Butterfly Effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system.
  • The term “butterfly effect” itself is related to the work of Edward Lorenz. The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events.
  • Chapter four of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “Winter Dreams” contains the following sentence: “[The house] was sturdy to accentuate [Judy’s] slightness – as if to show what a breeze could be generated by a butterfly’s wing.”

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Top Financial Analysts Now Realize: The Global Crisis Demands A Global Solution


In the News (translated from Utro.ru):Dollar will weaken but will not give up” The current crisis differs from all the previous ones because it isn’t cyclical but systemic. Hence, it will bring about a global change of the world’s financial, economic, social and political systems. Globalization is a factor that did not exist before, and it turns a regular, local crisis into a global crisis. Because the financial system has become global, it should not be regulated on the national level, but on the global level.

My Comment: The opinions of the top analysts are coming closer and closer to Kabbalah’s opinion. However, people still have to refine their definitions of globalization, integral systems, the law of complete interdependence and mutual responsibility, conditions of being equivalent with Nature, egoism as the cause of all evil, and bestowal and love to all creatures on the planet – the final goal of human development. There is no method of correcting egoism in our world, other than the method of Kabbalah.

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The Rotting Russian Empire


Two questions I received on the current state of the Russian government:

Question: How can the unification of the Russian government and the people of Russia be possible if sufficient resources are not available to sustain the entire population?

My Answer: The government should give the people an explanation of the true system of the world and humanity, about the global system and everyone’s complete interdependence. In addition, it must tell them about humanity’s common goal – our common task as human beings. In addition, they should explain that we can only achieve this together, by following the good path and participating in our own correction by becoming similar to Nature, instead of achieving the state of love and bestowal to one’s neighbor through the path of suffering.

If you address the Russian people with this message, you’ll see that they will understand you better than anyone else. That’s because the Russian people have suffered more than any other people in history.

They are looking for their place in the world among the other nations, and they haven’t found it yet. This is why the Russian people will follow you. However, you have to tell them the truth and stick to it despite all obstacles. Otherwise, the opponents of this idea will destroy you.

An opinion of an international affairs professor at The New School, NYC, “Russia’s Rotting Empire” (excerpts):

The trouble with Russia is that the state develops, but society doesn’t. The structures of democracy today are as underdeveloped as they were under Peter the Great. … The good of the people is sacrificed for the good of the nation. And people themselves are ready to believe that they should be willing to forfeit their freedoms for the sake of the greatness of the state.

With a remarkable consistency, [Russia] insists on defining its global role on its own, as a unique and special nation. Russia under Putin feels it can afford to become confident and assertive, even militant, because it still has to protect itself from the deceitful Western influence that is so eager to bring Russia down.

The “Double Eagle” emblem, the heads facing East and West – originally adopted in Russia around the time of the Byzantine demise – was brought back after 1991 as a state symbol.

To Putin, Moscow remains the “Third Rome” it declared itself to be in 1472. The not-so-subtle idea behind all this nostalgia for Byzantium is that Russia can (and should) exist only in opposition to the West, which hated the Byzantine Empire before and which hates its spiritual heir, Russia, today. However, like Joseph Stalin, Putin believes that Russia can only become a member in the world’s most powerful nations club by using a strong hand. Putin indeed subscribes to the traditional thinking of most Russian rulers: fear equals’, or even trumps’, respect. … “I’m referring to Russia’s intimidation of its sovereign neighbors, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon,” says Condoleezza Rice.

The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad,” said Rice. … If Moscow’s anti-Western paranoia continues and the Byzantine fantasy lasts for the next 15 to 25 years, both forces will lead to China, the new global superpower, swallowing whole the Far East and Siberia. A vastly weakened Russia then will lose also the Northern Caucasus and the Volga region to their growing Muslim population, and Kaliningrad will once again become German Königsberg. Russia will lose its 11 time zones and would then no longer have claims to be Greater Russia.

Question: What “sweet world of the past” are you talking about? The world without self determination where autocratic regimes tell us what to do? The world where your future is determined by your birthright as opposed to how hard you work? There has never been a world where so many people have the freedom to choose. Is it perfect? Of course not. We still have to deal with the human factor which, by definition, is imperfect.

My Answer: This is how everyone sees the world today. This is our old, familiar and simple world.

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No One At The World Economic Forum Wants To Admit That They Have No Solution To The Financial Crisis


In the News (from The Guardian): Shaken survivors of economic blast ask: what went wrong? The mood in Davos, Switzerland [the site of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum] has been broken as badly as the banks. Few people here will admit to have done anything personally wrong. The failures have gone into hiding, and the biggest absentees are the Americans. There is no real sense of collective guilt, or serious consideration of what to do next, other than rebuild the world that has just been lost. What no one wants to admit is that perhaps there is no solution – only decline.

My Comment: The only way we will be able come out of the crisis is through the recognition of evil and the true reason for the crisis. We will not be able to come out of the crisis by restoring the past, but rather by collectively building the future – a future that’s global and integral. When we realize that we are absolutely interdependent, we will be able to understand how to accomplish this. Until we come to this realization, we will have to learn from the blows that are driving us towards happiness.

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The Development Of Reshimot Through History

The Goal of Creation Is Perfect FulfillmentA question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem – “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

  • marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),
  • power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),
  • place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),
  • and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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Gordon Brown Warns Of the Threat Of Deglobalization


In the News (from The Herald): “We’re all in this together, Brown warns” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday warned against the “deglobalization threat,” saying countries faced with the worldwide recession should not retreat into economic protectionism. The Prime Minister said, “If what happens to a bank in one country can within minutes have devastating effects for banks on a different continent, then only a truly international response of policy and governance can be effective.”

My Comment: Separating from one another contradicts the process we are now in, which is happening under the influence of the forces of Nature. Hence, separation will lead us to greater and more diverse crises. We must understand that the only thing that can help us to overcome the current crisis is to draw closer to each other.

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