The LaRouche Youth Movement
Makes Its First Trip to Moscow
by Sergei StridThree members of the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) from Berlin, Jessica Tremblay, Daniel Grasenack-Tente, and Sergei Strid, were invited to attend a conference in Moscow on "Human Being Formation," organized by the Moscow International Film School (MIFS), a secondary school using alternative methods in education, which was founded in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The principals of the school had visited the LaRouche movement's office in Los Angeles earlier this year, where they became inspired by the curriculum, which encompasses physical science and Classical art. The Russians were overwhelmed by the level of concentrated intellectual work, which begins early in the morning, with a study group on geometric curvature, and ends late in the evening, with the rehearsal of a string quartet. Now, they want to bring this process to their school in Moscow.
Thus, when the conference started on April 5, the LYM was given the honor of making the first presentation, which we entitled "Out of the Bushes, Into the Future." Attending were approximately ten international guests, eight teachers, and 70 students, from the ages of 13 to 17.
Tremblay opened by emphasizing the uniqueness of the American Constitution as a concept of the nation-state committed to the general welfare, and how the oligarchy founded the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) in order to destroy this idea. Although people in Moscow are well aware of the devastating neo-liberal shock therapy employed against Russia in the 1990s, neither the contemporary collapse of the economies of "the West," nor the history of the struggle between the "two Americas," is very well known in Russia. So, when Tremblay read quotes from Lord Bertrand Russell on how it were possible "to produce an unshakable conviction that snow is black," half the audience was stunned.
To demonstrate how the LYM works to create a cultural paradigm-shift, Tremblay elaborated on the principles of bel canto voice training, showing a video of how the singing made the difference at the Democratic Party Convention in Boston in 2004. A second video clip of the German LYM performing Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" was shown as an example of the power of well-tempered polyphony originating from the human singing voice.
The question of the equality of emotion in discoveries in physical science and performance of Classical music, caused the most controversy throughout the conference; here, we clearly saw the difference between "love," as in the Platonic-Christian idea of agape, and the superficial, Romantic notion of "love," represented by most of the participants.
A Dialogue Among Cultures
In reaction to speeches by the other participants, including international guests involved in similar projects in Thailand, Japan, Poland, Holland, and South Africa, we were able to make some interventions, which clearly showed how the power of Lyndon LaRouche's ideas in a dialogue among cultures, through the introduction of a higher principle, lifts the discussion to one based on universals, rather than a mishmash of different opinions. A couple of examples:
On the ostensibly destructive behavior of the Thai government against local rival political factions and ethnic minorities, Grasenack-Tente spoke about the effects of globalization on all nations of the world, and the need for the institution of the nation-state to defend the people. If we don't solve these problems, different ethnic minorities will not have a chance to survive anyway.
In a discussion about traditional ways sometimes being harmful to children, and whether or not one can prohibit certain customs by law, Strid made clear why the concept of natural law, based on the creative potential of the human mind, as opposed to interpretation of positive law, is necessary to establish any kind of truthful criterion for how to approach such problems.
The importance of such a community of sovereign nation-states for the development of the Eurasian continent, was again brought into focus by Dr. Yuri Gromyko, guest speaker from the Moscow Academy of Culture and Educational Development, in his lecture on national genius, using Yevgeny Schiffers' analysis of Alexander Pushkin's role in poetically capturing the essence of the Russian nation. He spoke of the necessity of the individual finding his own identity in order to develop those ideas that ignite men's hearts, as Pushkin did. Dr. Gromyko also discussed the current destruction of national cultures through the dominance of globalization, which destroys the ability to communicate profound ideas amongst the people. He then highlighted LaRouche's notion of a dialogue of civilizations as a necessary means for achieving cooperation, not only for foreign policy matters, but also in connection with joint development of industry and infrastructure, citing the Eurasian Land-Bridge proposal.
Russia's Intellectual Identity
Something that quickly became clear to us, is the difference between the way that Russians and Western Europeans look at themselves. Whereas much of the Classical, humanist tradition of scientific thinking in the West has been destroyed through the influence of the CCF's rock-drug-sex counterculture, in which anyone who claims to know something to be true is labelled as an "authoritarian personality," Russians have no problems with mentors from whom they can learn something—it is even something to be praised!
Individual thinking is seen as a virtue. Sometimes this results in endless debates inside the fishbowl, or, as the saying goes: "You have two Russians, but three opinions!" However, on the positive side, if you take the conversation to the realm of ideas, and, for example, bring in LaRouche's discoveries in the science of physical economy, you will often get an interesting discussion going.
This was the case when we addressed about 30 chemistry students at a meeting, which lasted more than two hours, at Moscow State University. The LYM representatives gave them a full political briefing about the cultural paradigm-shift in the West, and how Lyndon LaRouche has created an international youth movement. This led into a short presentation of what physical economics is, with illustrations such as LaRouche's Triple Curve pedagogy (see Economics), and V.I. Vernadsky's conception of the Noösphere as the necessary approach to the development of Russia and Eurasia—concepts with which these chemistry students already had some familiarity. During the discussion period, students wanted to know our view of the "Rainbow Revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia, the impact of the LYM on American politics, and the question of music and culture. Afterwards, we engaged in further private discussions.
Fighting Out Ideas
In another noteworthy example of Russia's intellectual tradition, a former Parliamentarian approached us after one of our interventions at the education conference, saying that he found what we had said very interesting, and wanted to know more about LaRouche and our movement. We gave him some literature and set up a meeting. He opened that meeting by saying that he had read what we gave him, and began commenting on it, which already showed a higher degree of intellectual rigor than your average U.S. Congressman or Member of Parliament in Europe. From there, we had a good discussion on the nature of physical economics, globalization, ecology, and oligarchism, fighting out ideas on how to measure the performance of an economy, and the question of power vs. energy. This was only one of the numerous meetings we had with different groups.
This first visit ever by a LYM delegation to Moscow, opened up a lot of doors for further collaboration. With the now-imminent collapse of the world financial system, getting to know LaRouche's ideas and mastering the principles of physical economy will be essential also for Russian patriots who want to help their country. As one of our Russian friends put it: This is merely the beginning of a process, of doing the good!
