Humanity Restructured

A war in Europe that is lasting longer than anyone expected, and whose end is nowhere in sight, a virus that mutates and easily outsmarts scientists, seemingly unstoppable inflation, supply chains incorrigibly broken, and other worldwide crises are pounding humanity. But the blows do more than pain us; they are restructuring the world. They are leading the entire planet—minerals, plants, animals, and people—toward a state of harmony and balance that is happening even though humanity is desperately trying to avoid it. It is a very special phase that we are going through. A new, peaceful and harmonious state is emerging, and it is painful only because we are resisting it, because we want to call the shots even when our decisions work against us.

Everything that happens in the world today is pointing to a clear and simple fact: We have no idea what is going on. We have no idea why things are happening, how to make them work to our benefit, and how to secure our future and the future of our planet.

Everything that happens in the world today is pointing to a clear and simple fact: We have no idea what is going on. We have no idea why things are happening, how to make them work to our benefit, and how to secure our future and the future of our planet.

The climate crisis, economic downturn, and unceasing international violence are symptoms of a broken system. And the system is broken because we refuse to recognize and act according to one simple fact: For better or worse, we are connected to each other and dependent on each other. Therefore, we must work for each other rather than against each other.

The global crises show us that alone, we will not be able to solve any problem. Gradually, through pain, they will teach us that we must learn to work together. This will be the beginning of the restructuring of the world.

Nature will leave us with only two options: teach ourselves to cooperate, or let nature teach us that, as it is doing now. The former is painless and quick; the latter is the current path—filled with turmoil and torment.

Take the virus, for example. If we worked together around the world, we would long be free of it. Since we refuse, it keeps spreading and defeating our efforts. Or, take the food shortage. It is bogus; there is no scarcity of food. Humanity produces far more than it consumes. Since we distribute it unevenly, parts of the world are oversupplied, others are starving, and the surplus food is thrown away and pollutes the planet. It is strictly a manmade crisis that should not be happening.

As it is with food and healthcare, so it is with access to education, housing, economic development, and every other area of human engagement. Add to this the endless arms-race, and you have a recipe for endless poverty, misery, frustration, and ultimately violence.

Now that things have gone too far, the crisis is reaching everyone. This is nature’s way of saying that unless we work together, no one will succeed. No country can prosper irrespective of other countries.

Now that things have gone too far, the crisis is reaching everyone. This is nature’s way of saying that unless we work together, no one will succeed. No country can prosper irrespective of other countries. Every country is dependent on the global markets—on raw materials from other countries, on products manufactured abroad, and on foods it cannot produce itself.

When the struggle to outdo other countries reaches a certain threshold, the damage we do to others begins to return to us. At that point, a global breakdown occurs. This is what is happening today.

We can keep fighting one another and make our lives increasingly, and eventually unbearably hard, or we can stop fighting one another and make everyone’s life easy and safe. In the end, we will choose the latter, because no one wants to suffer. The only question is how long it will take us and at what cost.

Restructuring humanity is not an option, but we can choose between the quick and easy way, or the long and painful one. Currently, we’re clearly on the latter.

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How Free Is Freedom of Expression?

On April 25, when Twitter announced Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform, it stated that Musk did this in order to promote free speech. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," said Mr. Musk, according to the statement. The European Union, however, was not convinced. The next day, Euronews reported that the European Commission warned Musk that “Twitter will have to ‘adapt completely to European rules’ whatever Elon Musk’s intentions regarding freedom of speech.” Today, Musk announced his consent. As posted on AP News, “EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told The Associated Press … that he outlined to Musk how the bloc’s online regulations aim to uphold free speech while also making sure whatever is illegal ‘will be forbidden in the digital space,’ which Musk ‘fully agreed with.’”

Stating your own opinion, your own truth, your own perspective, is meaningless if it does not stem from a desire to help and do good to others. When you let that desire guide you, you will have earned your right to speak, because then your speech will be contributory to others, and people will have a reason, and a desire to listen to you.

I agree with the stipulations posed by the EU. After all, it is the obligation of the EU to protect itself from “freedom of expression” that seeks to manipulate people and has ulterior motives.

However pure one’s intentions may be at first, in the long run, there cannot be real freedom of expression. Freedom of expression has no place in our world. As long as people see the world only through their own perspective, through their self-interest, there cannot be freedom. Even if Musk wants to protect the truth, in the end, he is only protecting his own truth. This is how every human being operates.

Even if everyone is allowed to express their opinion freely, you will end up having a platform where everyone yells their “truth,” and no one hears them. In other words, Twitter will become a platform for screaming, but nothing more. It will be a conversation of deaf people.

I think that if we really want to help humanity, we should go the opposite way: silence all the “social media.” We should all grow silent and start listening.

If we are quiet for some time, we will begin to feel ourselves: who we are, what we are, why we are here, and what we want to achieve in life. If we do this, we will discover that the only words worth saying are words that help others.

Stating your own opinion, your own truth, your own perspective, is meaningless if it does not stem from a desire to help and do good to others. When you let that desire guide you, you will have earned your right to speak, because then your speech will be contributory to others, and people will have a reason, and a desire to listen to you.

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Polarization and Anti-Social Networks

Day by day there is more division and polarization, more anger and hatred, which is weaponized by an increased flood of information on social media. That is the conclusion of a recent study revealed by Yale University. But is anyone really surprised by the discovery??

According to the research co-authored by Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California, more information does not mean more pluralism, it only intensifies already polarized views.?Individuals tend to read and absorb only the material that confirms their existing beliefs in a sort of “confirmation bias.”?

We have no idea how much our brain is destroyed when it is infected with this polarizing disease.

To me there is nothing new. After all, it is written and known, “The inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21)." That is, we are all under the control of an egoistic desire, in a constant desire for self-fulfillment. Not only in every human being does this tendency exist, but society as a whole is founded on it. Family, national and international relations—all of humanity is built on selfish systems. This is natural and logical, since everything in nature, including the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, works to get maximum pleasure with the minimum investment.

What started as a desire of social networks algorithm developers to fight for our attention, to bombard us to live on their platforms, and to profit financially by influencing marketing content, has led to intensive efforts to crack those algorithms and understand how they work on us, but what really needs to be explored through a deeper layer is our human nature.

It is far better to research and find out who we really are. Our evil instinct is a ticking bomb with tremendous negative potential; we will witness this more and more day by day. There is great advantage in internalizing that under certain environmental conditions we will not hesitate to benefit ourselves even if that comes at the expense of others, we seek our own momentary pleasure without any remorse for anyone we might harm to get it. ?

The light at the end of the tunnel is that at some point we will no longer be able to tolerate the monster we created with our own hands, and we will unanimously decide to destroy it or at least direct it to the right place for re-education. ?

We have no idea how much our brain is destroyed when it is infected with this polarizing disease. According to our evolution we must eventually become a more balanced humanity, but until that happens, instead of assembling and connecting ourselves to one global system, we let our egoistic desire control and separate us, and the mind, which responds to our will, cooperates. As a result, we divorce, separate, quarrel, and divide, and cause ourselves more trouble that we pay for dearly.

When we cannot settle things with rational common sense, then we are filled with anger and rage, and erupt under pressure. Social networks reflect our nature and ignite the antagonistic passions. An extreme opinion voiced from the other side of the barricade is enough to raise our threshold of agitation and throw us out of emotional balance.

It will not help to clean up the toxic content and censor the inciting videos and tweets. In the end we will only reduce the noxious evil for a short time and soon will continue our destructive habits until the next eruption.

To change the direction of thinking we need to recognize, face, and acknowledge our harmful nature and talk about the human egoism that rules us. Heightened awareness can persuade the public to agree to eliminate this evil ruling nature. Proper and serious recognition will make everyone realize on their own that thinking and acting badly toward others causes a split that gradually leads to self-destruction.

This process needs to happen in all of our social systems, and from there it will also spread to social networks, which mirror ourselves. So naturally we will enact laws that will be agreed upon by social media users and will forbid us to be careless toward others out of a simple understanding that this evil will eventually backfire on us.

If we are already reaching out to the networks and intervening in them, then it would be good to develop a positive algorithm that encourages unity and closeness, that evokes a feeling of connection to benefit and sweeten our lives. Just as social networks have entered our lives with great impetus and changed them fundamentally, so can this positive algorithm be implemented with great success. Only then we will start building real social networks.

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They Can Impose War; We Must Impose Peace

We are living through a very tough time in Israel: Relentless terrorist attacks are spreading fear and increase tensions with our Arab neighbors and division among ourselves. There is, of course, the temporary solution of separating the two communities, but in the long run, the only solution that will work is if we rise above our division and form Jewish unity. This will not only solve the internal division among Jews, but it will also dissolve the Arabs’ hatred toward us.

We complain that we want peace but we have no partner on the other side. We do not need a partner because if we make peace among ourselves, we will have no enemies. The world is at war with us because we are at war with each other.

When we malign each other, the nations malign us. It is not even a conscious process for them. All of a sudden, they “realize” that everything is the fault of the Jews and blame every woe and misfortune on us. When it comes to the Jewish state, they add to it the sentiment that everything is the fault of Israel.

The current wave of terrorism is also the result of our division. I understand that it is very difficult to nurture unity and cohesion with someone who believes in everything that you oppose, and vice versa, but we really have no choice. The condition of unity above division, or as King Solomon put it (Prov. 10:12), covering crimes with love, is inexorable and irrevocable.

The false vilification, vile incitement, and countless bogus libels should not worry us. We need not worry about what others think of us. We can be certain that they do not harbor good thoughts about us, and nothing we might say will change that. Instead, we should focus on uniting our ranks so tightly that we will truly become “as one man with one heart,” just as our ancestors did when they forged our nation.

If we foster unity, we will not need to fight against enemies. It is not that we will defeat them easily; it is simply that there will be no war between Israelis and Arabs. They can impose war on us, but if we unite, we will impose peace on them.

We complain that we want peace but we have no partner on the other side. We do not need a partner because if we make peace among ourselves, we will have no enemies. The world is at war with us because we are at war with each other.

Our calling as Jews is to set an example of peace above division. We have mastered division; now it is time to master peace. If we accomplish this, we will be a light unto nations.

For more on the link between Jewish unity and antisemitism, read my publications The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord , and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour .

[Image Caption: Israeli security forces argue with Palestinians near the house of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed during an Israeli raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, in Jerusalem May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Ammar Awad]