A MISSION FOR TWO GENERATIONS
We Are Now the Only Hope
for Humanity as a Whole
Lyndon LaRouche gave this presentation to a private luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 10, 2011.
[PDF version of this transcription]
As many of you suspect or know, we are now faced with the greatest crisis in the history of modern man. There's nothing comparable to it, to what we face now. There are solutions, but the question is, will the solutions be tolerated, or accepted?
There are two generations in the United States which are interesting; the others are a little bit less than interesting. One is the older generation, which I have the privilege of representing, probably being the oldest person here, and therefore, I'm still standing and fighting, and that's a good sign in itself. The other thing is, we have a younger generation, which is generally in the range of 25 to 50 or so, and among them, you will find people who are a little less well-informed than we were in my generation, but who have a spirit of trying to conquer these problems, as I've seen.
And then, we have a middle generation, the Baby-Boomer generation, which is the victim of what happened with the assassination of John F. Kennedy and his brother, who were murdered, because John was opposed to the war in Indo-China, and the only way they were going to get that war in Indo-China, was to kill John F. Kennedy. And they weren't content with that, just in case his brother was going to be effective, and the brother was about to be nominated as a candidate for President, to succeed his brother. At that point, that in-between generation—what we call the Baby-Boomer generation today—collapsed. They sometimes have good ideas, but they have no practice to match it, if they have good ideas.
So we're stuck with a situation where we're dealing with a younger generation, that, particularly between the ages of, say, 25 to 50 or so, and they will tend, among them, to fight, show some degree of competence, some degree of effort to succeed. The older generation, the Boomer generation, is largely discouraged, even though some of them have interesting ideas and valid judgment, their ability to act on that judgment is zero. They're not a generation one would want to take to war, if you were in command of anything, because they will always vacillate, always vacillate, always fail.
As we see, we have a so-called environmentalist movement in Europe, in the trans-Atlantic region: You will find that among Boomers, as they're called—the Boomers do not have the courage to do anything about concerns; they will always be deferential to that generation, or de-generation, which is called environmentalist. And the environmentalist generation is one of the great problems of humanity today.
No Limits to Growth
What's the issue? Contrary to the popular misbelief, that the course of events is determined by a fixed limit—the whole idea of fixing the limit of growth, the whole idea of the so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics, is a complete fraud! If anyone took the care to examine the history of living processes on this planet of ours, and somewhat beyond, they would understand that you have a progress in which, of all the species of life which have ever existed on this planet Earth, during its entire existence, 98% of those forms of life, are extinct! Just like the dinosaurs: extinct.
Then you look at the other side of it: You take from say, half a billion years ago, for example, up to the present time, and you examine the record of living processes. And you find that the record is, that the order of living processes, which supersede one another in this great train, is that the order is in terms of higher energy-flux density; in other words, higher levels of concentration of power. Superior species! The superior species, biologically, supersede the lower order of species; that is the general pattern of destruction of species.
Among these species, all of them, there's only one species which we can expect to survive the kills of one generation after another which becomes extinct. The only species we know of—we don't know the full universe, so we can't tell about beyond our own galaxy; we don't know what we can find out there—but, we know that within this galaxy, insofar as we know it, the only species that's capable of surviving the series of great kills which have wiped out 98% of the forms of life, on this planet, and within the Solar System, is mankind. Only mankind has the actually creative powers of reason, with which to discover the means, by which it can survive the periodic great kills that wipe out whole layers of species into extinction.
Therefore, the fight today, which is the underlying reason for all these crises, is that mankind has been plagued by the idea that there should be a limit to growth, a limit to progress. Only mankind has the specific ability of voluntary creativity, to create the conditions under which we, as our species, can survive the threats of great kills, which have wiped out 98% of the species known to us to have lived, so far today.
And therefore, we have to praise mankind, praise the advancement of science and technology, praise the application of this power to improvement of the conditions of life for mankind, and think of measures, from generation to generation, and think about the motives involved in that. What's the great motive of humanity? What is the great discouragement of humanity? The belief that the meaning of life is terminated with their death: That's the great problem.
And only when we understand mankind as a willfully creative species, and allow that willful creativity, specific to the progress of mankind, to take over direction of our policymaking, will we be able to create the conditions, by that understanding, and by the inspiration that that understanding gives us, to create and motivate the changes in ways of thinking, away from zero growth, away from this degeneracy which is now prevailing, and to think again, in terms of the creativity of mankind; the promotion of the creativity of mankind; the inspiration to make discoveries, go to higher energy-flux densities, as the technology for the term for this: That's the one chance for mankind we have.
A Hope within Mankind
We once had, until the assassination of Kennedy and his brother, we once had in the United States, still, the inspiration which led to the founding of the space program and similar kinds of great efforts. We've now crushed those efforts. We suppressed them!
We are under a tyrant, who is not really an American; he's an agent of the British Empire, which has always had this kind of policy. And we, of the nations that believe in humanity, are now the only hope for humanity as a whole. There are many of us in various countries, in the Americas, in the trans-Atlantic region; in Russia today, we see a resurgence of optimism among some circles; in China, there's a sense of optimism; in India, somewhat lesser, and so forth: There is the hope within mankind, that the development of our creative powers and the realization of them, can lead to a better condition for mankind; and can lead us to the point, which is now possible—scientifically, it's possible—we have the possibility of great advances in technology, in science and technology.
If we unleash these advantages, we can reach the point where we can create conditions of very high energy-flux density, as the term is called; we can create those conditions under which mankind will be able to defy the kind of mass death which threatens species during the present phase-shift in the system, in the galactic system. We're getting to the point where the Solar System is moving around, fatally, into the same position, at which the famous dinosaurs were wiped out, as if with one blow!
We, with the technology, will have the ability, if we use it, to defeat such a threat to mankind. Only mankind has the creative power of judgment, which is capable of mustering that kind of defense against the threatened extinction of the human species. So we fight as members of nations; we fight as representatives of cultures; we cooperate with one another, to bring about these changes which are necessary, now. We have to begin now, in order to prepare the way for the future, the great challenge which faces us, as the Solar System moves gradually around to the point that it's above the layer of the galaxy, and the mass kills occur, because the radiation to which we're exposed, we can not defend against today, but we could defend against in the future, if we begin to work on that today.
And we must think of the other aspect of this, this personal social aspect of this thing: We must think of what we can do, in order to protect the human species. We have to think also, in doing that, that we do not die completely, as human beings, when we die. Because if we contribute to the process of discovery on which progress depends, if we develop the kind of educational system, and the orientation of it which this demands, we can each sense that we are participating, even as we go to death, in having made contributions to mankind which assure the continued existence and power of the human species within this galaxy. We can do that. But we have to begin. We have to commit ourselves to that method of thinking, that outlook.
It's still possible. It's possible among our younger people. It's possible among older people like me, who still have the fire left over from the World War II experience. We still remember that, we remember that passion. We remember the passion that inspired a generation which supported President Kennedy in the space program and other programs: We can still do that, but we have to begin, now! We have to reverse the trend which is carrying us toward extinction in this world.
There are nations which hope. China has hope; India has a little less hope, in this sense. There are other countries that have hope, in Asia, as elsewhere. We have to give way to the right of those who have hope, to lead us out of this darkness.
And with that, it's like some of the great conceptions of history that, on the one side, humanity is the only species that has this kind of optimism—only humanity. If we activate humanity, on behalf of humanity, we can inspire among our people those measures which are needed to produce this effect. But we have to understand, we're threatened by a great danger: We're threatened by a force of evil which says, "We have to lower our level of technology; we have to stop science; we have to have a Green policy." These are the things which are the great treason of human beings against human beings. Environmentalism is the great danger which could exterminate the human species! And we have to fight it accordingly.
We have to fight it with optimism, with an understanding that when we create something of value to future humanity, we achieve a certain kind of immortality, not immortality in the flesh, but immortality in the consequences of what we contribute to the process of human progress.
Bringing the Nations into Harmony
We're in such a situation now: This week, for example, at this present time, coming out of Europe, and coming out of the present U.S. Administration, we have a policy which would guarantee the virtual extermination of humanity! Because the cuts that are to be made, the lower grade of production allowed, the cutting of nuclear power, the cutting of these other kinds of power on which our existence depends, the power to make great inventions, to energize them: These things are being taken away from us!
If we allow our culture now to be degraded, as the British monarchy and our funny President prescribe, we will create an irreversible situation, in which the extinction of mankind becomes probable. If we make the change now, we will not merely stop a depression, the greatest depression in modern history, globally—because China can not withstand the collapse of the trans-Atlantic system; India can not survive that; other countries can not survive that—that while the immediate danger comes from the trans-Atlantic system, the so-called European trans-Atlantic system, the danger comes from there. But if we allow that danger to explode, considering the present economic situation of the planet as a whole, we could not sustain mankind! Everybody would go into the pot, into a long dark age, and the question would be: Would we be capable, under those conditions of destruction, of ever recovering in time to save the human species?
We have to love mankind, among all nations, because mankind is precious. The nations represent the cultures of mankind; they have to be brought into harmony, in terms of a fundamental common interest, the interest of the future of mankind. And that now stands before us. And that is the root of the crisis today.
There are forces in the United States, and in Europe, in particular, which are determined to bring about this great revival, the revival of death, of zero growth! If we do not stop that, mankind is doomed. That means, if we don't throw this President out of office, probably, mankind is doomed as a result! This President should be thrown out of office: He has violated many acts. He is also mentally not capable of being President, by the standard of the 25th Amendment, Section 4: That condition would result in his expulsion.
He has also committed offenses against the Constitution of the United States, which demand his expulsion from office, immediately! Immediately! If we don't get him out of office, the chances for humanity in general, are very poor.
And you see the cowardice of the leading generation: They will not take this on. And it's those of us who will take it on, on whom we depend for succor from this great threat of extinction in the future of the human species. This is the situation; this is the result of the economic trend in policymaking since the assassinations of President Kennedy and his brother, successively. That's the issue. Because we in the United States are crucial, because we are the United States. We moved out of Europe, in order to get away from this threat, this kind of threat which dominated Europe then, and still dominates Europe today. When the United States fails its specific mission, providing the alternative to the corruption of Europe, then, the world is still in trouble, today.
So, that's my point of view. Take a shot at it; see what you have to say about it.
