Helga Zepp-LaRouche

The Ontological Beauty of Our Humanity Is at Stake

This is the edited transcript of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s response to the Panel 4 presentations on the theme, “The Beauty of True Human Nature,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 13-14 conference, “All Moral Resources of Humanity Have To Be Called Up: Mankind Must Be the Immortal Species!” Mrs. LaRouche is the founder of the international Schiller Institutes.

I’m actually very happy, despite the, in part, very alarming and terrible assessments such as those from Professor Wahab, which we know are unfortunately the situation. But I was extremely happy when I heard the sequence of discussions reported by Denise Rainey, because that confirms everything I have observed in my own experiences in China. Then, we heard from Xu Wang, elaborating on what they are doing in China, and then Professor Döring giving something of a theoretical background. And what Diane presented, which I fully agree with because ever since the pandemic started, it was immediately clear that it would only stop if there were a thorough world health system, meaning a modern health system in every single country on the planet. That has not changed.

Look at the short-sightedness of the rich countries, only taking care of their own vaccines and completely ignoring the needs of the developing countries. And a meager $6-7 billion is needed presently to save 45 million people from the immediate danger of starvation, and the West has not been capable of mobilizing this.

I think we are at a point where the collapse of the neo-liberal system is absolutely clear, with all of the implications of that, especially the moral aspect. It is also clear that the establishments of the western nations, at least so far, have shown no inclination to reflect on why the Western system is doing so poorly.

The Schiller Institute has been clear, since its inception in 1984, but sometimes it takes a while before ideas find the right moment; the idea is that we need a renaissance movement.

To Overcome the Intolerable

We need a movement of people, of education, of good will, people of humanist convictions who think that the present condition of humanity is not tolerable anymore. And therefore, we are here creating a movement of people who say we need a renaissance of the best traditions; a dialogue of cultures in which each nation and each civilization brings forward its best traditions and makes that available to the others, so that they know about it. I think that can become a very powerful counter-movement against the present decay that we see in what Jacques was talking about with Squid Game and similar bestial—I don’t even want to say that it’s animal—because no animal does this. This is much worse than any animal is capable of.

The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, which we heard about yesterday, is already in motion to combine all of these efforts. It can be built, it can grow. Adopt Haiti and Afghanistan as the two most urgent cases in which in-depth humanitarian intervention, with immediate aid and basic economic reconstruction assistance, has to occur. Combine that with training programs for young people to give them a mission and a task.

In the case of Afghanistan, let’s call this “Operation Ibn Sina,” because Ibn Sina was one of the greatest universal thinkers of universal history. You can put him on the level of thinkers like Plato, Confucius, Schiller, Leibniz, and many others. Give the effort to save Afghanistan a beautiful image of a man of genius, because we are talking about saving the souls of humanity.

Schiller had the idea that every individual has the potential to have a beautiful soul, but his definition of beautiful soul was that of genius; because only the genius is the person for whom freedom and necessity, passion and beauty, exist as a one. And it’s only the genius who enlarges the rules in a lawful way. So, Ibn Sina is a perfect example of that idea of a beautiful soul and a genius. He was an absolutely outstanding independent and original thinker, who not only transmitted a lot of concepts from the Greek Classical period, but he also added very important philosophical conceptions such as the idea of the Necessary Existent, which again influenced people including Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Nicholas of Cusa, and many others.

So, I think that would be a perfect way to give it some, let’s say, almost ontological depth, to do this. Because we are fighting in one sense for the survival of civilization; not only because of the danger of nuclear war, but essentially to face the question: Are we a human species and can we hold on to that human quality in a moment of crisis like today? What I have heard in the presentations is extremely encouraging, and we should discuss it some more.