Description

Racism is rooted in the law of equivalence of form and manifests in human nature as the directive we hate, and are suspicious of, anyone different from us. While we may agree on the surface that all people are equal, on the inside we can't help but feel anyone different from us remains remote and separate. Equal rights movements of the past went wrong because they failed to change human nature. Thus we continue to experience racism and hate others to the extent that they are different from ourselves. History has taught us that human nature cannot be changed, but it can be transcended. The force driving our nature is egoism and only by transcending our egoism can we totally eliminate bigotry.

Transcript

TV Program with Dr. Michael Laitman
"20 Ideas"

"The Truth about Racism"

With participation of Trénell Ladd

June 29, 2009
New York

Trénell Ladd: I came to a point where I started to take a look at the world and wanted to make a dramatic change; I've always been attracted to songs, art, any type of media that expressed this. Then I actually came to a point where I wanted to be similar to... Basically all the revolutionaries balled up into one.

And one that really caught my eye was a character named Malcolm X. During the 1960s in America he was very popular. He actually mentioned at one point that it wasn't a color thing, that it was actually a human problem, which hit me. So I wanted to model him. I used to stay up until 5:00 in morning listening to his speeches, how he's expressed, and of course the whole general movement and all the different pieces and how they were expressing themselves.

I actually got to the point-and this is going to be my first question-I got to the point where I always expressed to people that I was ready to actually, if it came to it in my life, just to succeed in achieving this goal. My first question is, what makes a person, for the whole of humanity or even a small portion, but actually the whole, to be willing to no matter what happens, who comes to them, to just let go of themselves and just go for it?

Dr. Michael Laitman: I'm not sure I quite understood your question, but let's try to see what's happening in humanity. Racism is a natural thing. We hate anyone who is not like us. I want to see in other people something that exists in me, because what is in me I love and what is not in me I don't love.

So I look at every single person and I see how much they are similar to me, how much they're good to me or I understand them, how close they are to me. Accordingly I judge my love, and it exists in a law of creation; it's called the law of equivalence of form. There is no way to go around it, it's rooted in nature-I love what is similar to me and that's it.

At the human level, we can never traverse it, come out of it. We can only do that if we elevate ourselves above the level of our ego: what I love, what's close to me, in terms of my opinions or understandings or habits or who I am; if we rise to a higher level and I understand that everyone is as one human being, one soul, one body, interconnected, globalized, integrated, as we can now see in the world.

You see that gradually the time is coming, after millennia of human evolution, that we're beginning to see that we have no choice: we're equal, we're similar, we're connected. Even culture is becoming global. The same for education and language and Internet and what not; and that's how we gradually advance, but it's a long way.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that if we truly want to remove racism and bigotry so everyone will be close to me, then I have to transcend my own nature, my ego. Only there will I find everyone as being parts of my own body, my own soul. Only under that condition.

How can we rise above nature? Here comes a special method which explains that it is possible, but you have to work on it. We have an example from history. The same that's happening now happened about three and a half thousand years ago in ancient Babylon. There people felt that they were connected: hateful of each other, but also dependant on each other.

Then one fellow rose-one of the Babylonian priests by the name of Abraham, he was a very learned person-and he says, "It's happening because we have to truly connect among us, so let's start connecting." But only a very small part of the Babylonian population heard him and they kind of grouped themselves around him, and they decided to start working on loving others and not follow the ego.

That part, that group, which over time became the people of Israel, is the only group where there were no slaves; there were never slaves in it. A slave there was one who was working for you with tenure, like someone who's an employee. But they never had slaves in the ordinary sense.

They were always equal. There were never masters, lords, greater or smaller people; everyone was equal. There were wealthier people or poorer people, but that's not how a person was judged, but only by a person's virtues. That's how it was. But it was because they were using the principles of Abraham, who said, "Love thy friend as thyself," that this is the rule. They were constantly trying to rise above their ego. That was in the old days.

The rest of the Babylonians couldn't adopt the method of uniting as brothers-he wanted everyone to unite-they were scattered everywhere around the globe and they began to struggle and they created castes and classes within peoples. Some of the nation therefore became servants to the other part, which was the lord. That's how it was in every nation or one nation towards another nation. They were always at war, trying to dominate, etc.

We can see from history that if we follow our egos, then you cannot get rid of the hatred of others and others will always be someone who is not like me. If we want to achieve equality, it is only by rising above our nature. The way to rise above our nature is the method of Kabbalah. I hope that today we're at this special period in time where our lives are forcing us to create that kind of connection.

The world has become round, global, integral, interdependent, and it's becoming more and more apparent that we're interdependent. We're going to have to use the wisdom of Kabbalah to reach equality. But that's the only condition to reach equality. In other words, if you think that the world will be...people will be equal tomorrow without any bigotry, it's incorrect. There will not be bigotry only if we rise above nature.

Trénell Ladd: Okay, so here's my... You kind of shaped my first question. My first question is, with these virtuous people that see this, you're saying that without a proper understanding of their own nature-or actually the nature of everyone, this global nature, this interconnection-that even if someone has this great desire and he's willing to die and do all the things that you spoke of-connect people, peace, erase all the racism-it won't work unless they understand this method that you've mentioned?

Dr. Michael Laitman: We can accept the fact that everyone's equal, judging by the law and the state. We can come to a point where black, red, yellow, blue, whatever-everyone's equal; that there are those that have a kind of sexual tendency that fifty years ago was unaccepted, like homosexuality, and today it is acceptable; or other things. We can accept that.

But I'm talking about an internal agreement by nature, where you start feeling people as close. I can treat people decently, like everyone else, but that's a superficial attitude. It's a social norm. Inside, in my nature, I remain separate from others; and then everyone who's not like me, I hate them to the extent that they're different from me. Hatred doesn't mean that I have to say that I hate them; hatred means I feel that he and I are two separate, remote entities.

Trénell Ladd: What is this cause then, if a person is so outwardly giving; what is this cause that it doesn't matter if they're outwardly giving? What conditions or consequences does this cause within the world, even though they're expressing it outside, but it seems to be nothing but turmoil?

I have one more question that I want to say before you answer, Dr. Laitman, is that in these mass different time periods, there were many people that ran and actually gathered a lot of people. And they wanted to make specific changes; they even had movements and the music and everything art-wise or anything going on in the world expressed the same thing. Why wouldn't it work then as the way it should work now? Why didn't it work then?

Dr. Michael Laitman: Well, first it didn't work because the people didn't place before them a goal of transcending their egos. It wasn't clear to them that this is the goal. Today, it is beginning to work because we have no choice. If we feel that we are connected and interdependent, and at the same time are hateful of each other, then we have to do something about it. On one hand we're interdependent; on the other hand we have to be afraid of other people. So what's going to happen?

We have to kind of resolve that state into some direction: either go to general destruction or general bonding. Either one, but there cannot be... We can't stay where we are and continue that way. So I'm really hopeful that in the near future we'll see people tending to unite, to bond, because...for lack of choice. Then it'll come in the right way, but we have to transcend our nature; not towards some social norm or code, but we have to reach something where we will feel interdependent in a good way.