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Technology, no matter how advanced it becomes, and no matter how many seeming solutions it offers to many of our problems, it fails to solve the root problem in our lives: our damaged human relations. For example, if a couple does not want to live together, even the best living conditions will not help. Even a shared palace will feel like misery. But if they love each other, then a tiny room will feel great. Desire determines everything.
As we examine ourselves and our development, we see that all progress in the world results from the evolution of our desires and aspirations. Over generations, our desires have grown, and we have constantly wanted more.
Once, like villagers, we were satisfied with cows, goats, a plot of land, grain, a family, and children. That was enough for survival when human desire was small. Later, stronger desires pushed us to start selling goods in town markets and to trade them for clothes or other items. In the city, we saw machines that plowed land more efficiently. We worked harder to afford one. Eventually, we borrowed money to buy more machines, aiming to increase production and sell more grain.
From Growth to Stagnation
Human history is based on the growth of our desires. It is clear that we always want more. We do not know why, but we constantly crave something new. We notice what others desire and imitate them, driven by natural tendencies toward envy, lust, honor, and control. These drives help us absorb what seems beneficial from our environment and strive for it. No one enjoys feeling inferior to others.
As we look at humanity’s evolution, it becomes evident that we seek to conquer more and more goals. By the 20th century, we began exploring space, diving deep into the oceans, and reaching distant corners of the universe. But already in the 1960s, signs of stagnation emerged.
We felt stuck, unsure of what was next. It can be likened to fatigue setting in our personal lives, where we start wishing to quit everything. A new generation emerged, dismissing modern progress, and stated, “What is the point of all this? It does not interest us anymore.”
They were called “flower children.” Many thought their apathy came from pampering, that they were the first generation to grow up with abundance. But in truth, they marked a new stage in human evolution. Ultimately, what they were saying was: “We’re walking through a meat grinder toward a pit, losing our lives in the process, turning into robots enriching someone else. Enough! We won’t go on this way!”
Somehow, we have kept rolling forward. But today, that same stagnation has led to depression and even despair. Many resign themselves to the feeling of “there’s nothing to be done, this is life.” Depression has sadly earned the title “the 21st-century epidemic.”
A Breakdown in Human Connection
Psychologists, sociologists, economists, political scientists, and global thinkers diagnose our times with a common conclusion, that we cannot move forward by merely changing economic or political systems, nor through advanced technologies. These large-scale efforts that once propelled us forward will not suffice now. What we need is a deep fix in the quality of human relationships.
Here are some examples of the need to repair human relationships:
* Healthcare: People worldwide are losing faith in the medical establishment. Why? It is because the overblown human ego has turned medicine into a commercial industry. Without private or alternative medicine, survival is tough. Medications are commercial products sold in excess. Research often serves the fame of its researchers or the wealth of manufacturers, and not public health. Sadly, wealthy or connected patients often receive faster care than those without means.
* Society at Large: Whether dealing with authorities, employers, or standing in line at the store, we constantly encounter people who do not care about us, and sometimes try to exploit or manipulate us. Others seem to enjoy our discomfort. Few people today look at others with innocent goodwill. Everything is judged by financial gain: “I don’t care who you are, only what I can get from you.” Emotion has disappeared.
* Economy and Business: The financial and industrial sectors are plagued with crises because private interest overrides everything. Organizations pour fortunes into sabotaging competitors to profit. People treat others coldly and technically, seeking to exploit them however possible. But this approach increasingly backfires.
Systems are malfunctioning, things are grinding to a halt. It is becoming clear: humans are not profit-loss machines. Cold, calculated, utilitarian relationships are no longer enough. Without warmth and trust, everything will collapse.
Why Empathy Matters
Beyond logic, we need caring relationships. We need to feel that we invest in one another, that we make compromises and give a bit of ourselves. Without this, life cannot continue. Our basic desire is to feel fulfillment, which is not measured in money.
I enjoy my child’s smile because I love him, and no wealth could buy that. I trust those close to me to care for me as needed. This too çannot be bought.
From daily life to healthcare, education, culture, economy, trade, and security, we suffer from broken relationships. This is no coincidence. No one taught us how to form real human connections. Once, communication was natural. We felt connected to our land, city, country, and homeland. Today, such concepts have lost their meaning. But the sense of home and the longing for warmth and connection are still deeply important. Their loss brings alienation and insecurity.
We all long for connection, a warm corner, a sense of belonging. This is ingrained in us.
Crisis as a Turning Point
Connection arises when we care about each other. True, it is hard today to open up to others or even to feel that someone treats us kindly. We immediately wonder: “What do they want from me?” Still, without mutual trust and connection, we cannot continue living.
Crises, which span every aspect of life, point us in a new direction. The financial crisis of 2008, for instance, began as an internal human struggle, extended to couples and families, then education, culture, security, and only recently reached the economy. But we failed to take it seriously until it hit money: the coldest and most distant thing from emotion.
For years, we neglected emotion. But now we cannot ignore it, because it hits us in the pocket. If we reverse the process, looking inward rather than outward, we will reach a single conclusion: if we do not rebuild trust, mutual care, and responsibility, we have no future.
From Crisis to New Life
Genuine emotional connection cannot be forced. Money can buy almost anything, but not love or empathy. These qualities are painfully missing in many couples, families, businesses, and global affairs. Life signals that we need to flip our relationships from one extreme to another. In between, right in the middle, between alienation and loving connection, sits the crisis.
This crisis makes it clear that in our interconnected global world, we need to start genuinely considering one another. Otherwise, there will be nothing left to eat. We can no longer ignore this need to develop mutual consideration. Examples of what happened in the domino effect from the 2008 economic crisis and in the coronavirus pandemic of the early 2020s showed how very quickly, people’s flesh felt the impact with many no longer able to provide for their basic needs, and for their families. When governments failed to successfully deal with these problems, people took to the streets and started destroying everything in their path.
Our habit of neglecting others will leave even the wealthiest nations like Germany or the U.S. helpless. Even if a country is rich with full warehouses, there will be no way to distribute necessities respectfully, simply because people are not used to caring for each other.
Worse, half the world starves while the other half wastes enough food to feed everyone.
Unless we change course, we risk total collapse. We must upgrade all human relations to genuinely care for collective well-being.
A Hopeful Vision
Improving our relationships will let us achieve anything we want, and lead to a happy life. Most current global resources are spent on things we would not need in a better society. With peace, security costs would drop. With less anxiety and illness, health expenses would shrink. Less bureaucracy means more resources for the public good.
In a just and equal society, we will decide together which industries are necessary and stop polluting Earth unnecessarily. Nature will return to balance. With a common goal and mutual consideration, we will reassess our every system and process.
We are thirsty for human connection. Protesters worldwide report feeling good together. They find solidarity in uniting against something. But is that the ideal path? We can find this sense of community not only through riots and violence, but through festivals, workshops, mass picnics, and social gatherings.
We would be wiser to sit around roundtables, hold large public discussions, and think together about how to change society. As we begin building a new society, we will all feel like equal and united partners. We will simply feel a new life.
From this new approach, we will quickly realize how beneficial closeness is, and how much safer and healthier the world becomes. Our children will no longer suffer from school violence or fear the streets at night, which now feel like jungles in many places. We will become kinder on the roads, reducing traffic accidents and eliminating road rage. We will stop the arms race, fix healthcare, and improve support for the elderly, youth, and single mothers, and in general, for everyone.
The birth of this new world will not just happen by itself. We need to build it here and now. The time has come to move forward to a new, harmonious, and peaceful world.
Based on episode 6 of “New Life” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 3, 2012. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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