China Lockdown: Food Shortages Anger Aplenty

China Lockdown: Food Shortages Anger Aplenty

China is running out of food and people are growing desperate. That's no small problem when more than 190 million residents in some 23 cities are living under full or partial lockdowns enacted as part of the official "zero Covid" policy following record numbers of cases, particularly in Shanghai, the epicenter of the outbreak. 

We need to understand that we cannot continue to exploit others only for our own personal gain without consequences. In the not-too-distant future, both Western and Eastern cultures will have to discover that what humanity is lacking is a sense of mutual responsibility.

Shanghai, China's most populous city with 26 million residents, report thousands of new Covid-19 infections daily, the worst increase since the virus appeared in the central city of Wuhan in 2019. China is one of the last remaining nations still committed to eradicating the pandemic, unlike most of the world, which is trying to live with the virus in its Omicron variant.  

Shanghai's strict lockdown impacts millions of people who are suffering from food shortages, some say they are already starving. Parents are forcibly separated from their children who have tested positive for the disease. As living conditions continue to deteriorate with no end in sight, the anger of the population grows. The normally disciplined and obedient Chinese defy authorities through street protests and warn of the consequences, including potential civil unrest.

Indeed, the food shortage could have a major impact on Chinese society. There is nothing more important than food. It is the basic sustenance of any society, literally. Food is our most important need on the scale of human desires, followed by sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. Rational thinking does not work on an empty stomach, and what controls the mind is the way to satisfy basic needs at any cost.

As a result of the pandemic, the Chinese are certainly going through great changes. They are a people with a very strong foundation and tradition, so any change they go through could be an example for the rest of the world. But can popular social pressure bring about change in China's governance? Governance is a problem everywhere in today’s world. Countries that expected full hegemony over others are realizing that it is no longer as easy when large masses are poised to oppose.

Governing would be easier if there were a king who ruled according to family heritage, could lead the people, and the people would accept his mandate as part of an agreed lineage. But that is not the case, so people must understand that nature acts as the supreme king. Humanity must get away from expecting great changes from governments and politicians, the earthly level of governance, and realize that there is a supreme realm, the realm of nature, that controls our lives, the virus and everything in reality.

We will be able to abide by this dominion when we realize that we can solve our supply and health problems when we come to terms with the power of nature. We must achieve a balance with it by recognizing that there is a price we must pay for overpopulation and exploitation of our limited natural resources.

More importantly, we need to understand that we cannot continue to exploit others only for our own personal gain without consequences. In the not-too-distant future, both Western and Eastern cultures will have to discover that what humanity is lacking is a sense of mutual responsibility.

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Total Escapism

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I already shared with you that I get emails all the time from people who have questions they cannot resolve. In one email, a physician wrote me the following question: “Lately, I’ve noticed that people are in distress. There is high demand for prescriptions for antidepressants; people feel insecure and uncertain about their lives, and besides drugs, I have nothing to offer them. They’ve tried coachers; they’ve tried trainers, but nothing seems to help. So my question to you Dr Laitman, is what can they cling to in order to move forward?”

Everything that we have built—the entertainment industry, professional and amateur sports, shopping, tourism, art—we have built them in order not to think about our lives.

I can understand why people feel this way. For thousands of years, people’s lives changed very little. They lived in small towns and villages, had a craft or a plot of land to till, and they knew their surroundings and the people around them. They were close to their families, married within the town or village, so everyone had the same way of life, culture, and tradition. People knew what to expect. Their lives were hard, but they had a sense of direction, a clear set of values, and therefore, peace of mind—the very thing people do not have today.

Today, material life is very easy, but people feel lost because they do not understand the world around them. They no longer live in small villages because the whole world has become a global village. Even farmers cannot till the land without seeds and machinery from other countries, and the price of their crops depends on global commodity markets. In other words, to be a farmer, you need to understand global systems of supply, demand, markets, climate, and fuels. You need an internet connection, contracts with shipment and supply companies, and accountants to understand your own balance sheet. Is it any wonder that people feel lost?

Because they feel this way and cannot find answers, they have no choice but to try to forget. They dream about the moment they can get away from it all. They take up hobbies, play computer games, and exhaust themselves in sports. They travel, vacation, and meditate. They drink and do drugs, convert and become extremists, and do whatever they can to avoid dealing with their inability to understand the world they live in. In their effort to suppress their disorientation, they turn to total escapism.

Everything that we have built—the entertainment industry, professional and amateur sports, shopping, tourism, art—we have built them in order not to think about our lives.

But we have run out of gas. We have used up our energy—our own and what we can pump out of the ground—and we are running out of ideas for escapism. Soon, there will be only two options left: a war that will annihilate everything, or to learn about the world we live in.

Assuming that we choose the latter, we will have to learn how we all affect each other, how we are connected around the world, and how we are dependent on each other. As a result, we will realize that we must care for one another. And if, at the moment, we do not, we will acknowledge that it is harmful to others and harmful to us. Only when we accept that the world has changed for good, and we must embrace the changes and welcome the connection with all of humanity, we will be able to reap the benefits of progress and feel comfortable both physically and emotionally.

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Depression Comes Earlier

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The Oxford based research center Our World in Data recently published a report showing that in many countries, “People are being diagnosed with depression at an earlier age than in the past.” The report showed that in Denmark, for example, in 1996, the highest share of people diagnosed with depression were around the age of fifty. Twenty years later, in 2016, the highest share of people diagnosed with depression were twenty-four-year-olds. While the research center attributed the earlier diagnosis to growing willingness to “seek treatment for mental health conditions,” other researchers have found different reasons for the earlier age of diagnosis.

If we want to cure depression, we must find ways to encourage people to go out, communicate, and connect with other people. It will give them joy, satisfaction, and meaning, and a meaning in life prevents depression.

Indeed, we are living in special times. In previous times, people were more connected to the land, to the soil. Today, everything is artificial. We are born and live within the walls of the hospital, then the walls of a house, then the walls of a school, then the walls of a business. As a result, we are different from previous generations, and our approach to life is also different.

To prevent depression, we need to make constant investments with the right approach, since people are no longer adapted to natural living. The investment is not a financial one. Rather, we need to build an envelope that will serve as a mediator between the new generation and the reality they live in. This envelope should prepare them for life on every level—personal, social, and environmental. They need to learn how to communicate and connect with one another and with nature. Otherwise, they will be lost, as is already happening.

Previously, people were more outside than they are today. They communicated with other people, and much of their lives involved interaction with others. Today, they do everything online and indoors, and the outdoors and other people are unfamiliar to them. We must familiarize them with the outside world, make them spend less time on their own and on their phones or laptops, and communicate instead with other members of the family, friends, real friends, flesh and blood ones, and with animals.

The technological advancements of the past several decades have enveloped us in gadgets, and disconnected us from people. Even our food is not real food, and we don’t make it; we only heat it in a digital microwave.

We needn’t shun technology; we only need to help people balance their lives. And the key factor in reestablishing balance is constructive, positive, and supportive human connections. If people find that connections with other people satisfy them in ways that technology cannot, they will nurture them.

Today, people mostly feel that their connections with others are competitive, where each one tries to outsmart, outperform, and generally outdo others. This is very tiring, so people naturally turn to a less competitive and abusive environment: the digital one. If people had positive experiences from their relations with others, if they felt that other people approve of them, appreciate, and welcome their company, they would have no reason to retreat into a virtual environment.

Moreover, connections with other people can give them what no technology can: meaning in life. Life becomes meaningful and purposeful only in connection with other people. The reciprocal giving and receiving gives meaning and purpose to everything we do. When we do something for another person, it stays. The act takes on a life of its own, a new meaning, and it affects our lives and the lives of the other people involved in ways we cannot predict. When we do something online, with ourselves, our act is lost in the digital cloud and leaves us feeling empty and meaningless.

Therefore, if we want to cure depression, we must find ways to encourage people to go out, communicate, and connect with other people. It will give them joy, satisfaction, and meaning, and a meaning in life prevents depression.





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