This Week You Need To Know

New Year's Message from the Schiller Institute: Finally! Good News from the U.S.A.: New Hope for Germany

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

The following is a translation of a mass leaflet now being circulated in Germany:

Dear Citizens,

The Democratic victory in the U.S. Congressional elections on Nov. 7 brings tidings of hope for Germany. The Democrats' landslide victory was due in large part to the massive increase in voter participation by young Americans aged 18 to 35. And this shift in attitude in a growing number of America's youth, has become a decisive factor in international policy-making and in America's foreign policy.

There is also a second change in America with worldwide significance, and that is the timely coincidence of this Democratic election victory with the release of the so-called Baker-Hamilton Report, which contains proposals for a fundamental change in U.S. policy toward Iraq and toward the ever-expanding civil warfare in Southwest Asia. Despite the bullet-heads in the White House, quite another attitude prevails in the rest of the United States. Direct talks being held by a number of U.S. Congressmen, including former Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, with governments in the region, are hopeful signs that the nightmare currently engulfing Southwest Asia, can be ended by joint efforts by the United States and Europe.

If this new trend takes firm hold, concrete steps can then be taken toward dealing with the currently escalating civil warfare now threatening to spill over from Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian districts, into the entire region. And this change in the United States is of no less importance for solving the dramatic systemic crisis of the world financial system, because beyond the United States, there is no other nation or group of nations which is capable of effectively proposing and implementing the measures required to overcome the most dramatic, imminent global financial panic to have faced the world in centuries.

The Democratic landslide victory now opens up the possibility that in the short term, the United States will introduce reforms in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, in cooperation with the key nations of Eurasia and Ibero-America, will not only halt the current plunge into worldwide economic depression, but will also cause a turnaround of the world economy, through reconstruction.

The new spirit among young American voters was most prominently catalyzed by the LaRouche Youth Movement, and has created a change of heart in the Democratic Party as a whole. If this new spirit grows stronger still, then we in Germany, as well as those in other European nations, will be able to play an important role in shaping world policy to the benefit of all humanity.

These transformations in U.S. political affairs are crucially significant for us here in Germany, because they give our citizens hope that there is a way out of the economic crisis, and that it is possible to master the other dangers threatening us. Among these are the prospects for long-term economic cooperation on the Eurasian continent, in which Germany can and must play a central role, if we are to overcome mass unemployment.

If the United States implements reforms in the tradition of Roosevelt and his New Deal—i.e., if it provides long-term government credit for productive investment in infrastructure, industry, and agriculture—then we in Germany and other European nations can introduce similar measures, in the tradition of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (Reconstruction Finance Agency)'s credit policies, and of the post-World War II "German economic miracle" era. Such an economic reconstruction program is the best antidote to the despair and fear which has been spreading among the population on both sides of the Atlantic.

Because the greatest danger threatening Germany today—one which is widespread both in the population and among political leaders—is cultural pessimism, and the paralyzing feeling that, "You can't change anything." This cultural pessimism had fatal consequences during the 1930s. And of course, the situation in Germany today is indeed catastrophic: There has never been a time when political leaders, managers, and the so-called cultural elite have been as completely discredited, as today. And of course, the media are completely rigged, and instead of confronting people with reality, they have launched one wave after another of black propaganda against us. And even though, according to a new poll, some 58% of all German citizens would like to abandon the euro and return to the deutschemark, there currently exists no institutional opposition to the dictatorship of the European Central Bank and of the Maastricht Treaty.

It should therefore be clear enough to every well-informed citizen, that the crisis in Europe cannot be overcome without the cooperation of the United States. And that is why the positive news of the changes in America are so crucially significant: We in Germany can regain hope, and we can now seize the future opportunities which many in our country had lost all hope of attaining.

We in Germany must also rediscover our soul: i.e., we must revive the ideas of our great poets, philosophers, and scientists—ideas which are by no means outmoded, but which rather carry with them a power against which the thoughts and utterances of today's "elites" are downright pitiful. I'm referring to the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa, father of modern physical science and of the modern nation-state, and to the ideas of Johannes Kepler, whose scientific method is still today highly applicable to solving economic problems.

I'm referring to Gottfried Leibniz, whose ideas were a determining influence on the American Constitution; and to Carl Friedrich Gauss and Bernhard Riemann, whose concepts are indispensable for organizing today's physical economy. And I'm speaking about the importance of the music of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann for the development of the individual's creativity. I'm referring to the importance which Gotthold Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, and Friedrich Schiller give to aesthetical education for the development of a beautiful personality; and of the scientific knowledge of Friedrich List concerning the difference between the "American" and the "British" systems. Just to name a few.

The Solidarity Civil Rights Movement (BüSo) is firmly committed to bringing about a renaissance of this great cultural tradition, so that out of this, something completely new can take shape. The shift in the United States was effected by the LaRouche Youth Movement there; but Germany, too, needs a new politics, and the LaRouche Youth Movement in the BüSo is going to play a prominent role in making sure that happens.

Provided that we, in alliance with America, unite economic reconstruction with a renaissance of Classical culture, Germany will have all the opportunities in the world to shape our future!

Yours,

Helga Zepp-LaRouche