SAN FRANCISCO SCHILLER INSTITUTE CONFERENCE:
Forum for a New Paradigm:
A Second American Revolution
by Harley Schlanger
In the midst of an intensifying general global crisis, with the dangers of World War III and mass starvation threatening the planet, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the International Schiller Institute, initiated a series of conferences, with the intention of creating a New Paradigm for mankind. By emphasizing that the goal of the conferences is nothing less than the creation of a New Paradigm, Zepp-LaRouche made it clear that these would not focus only on the negative—how bad things are, who is responsible for the deteriorating conditions on the planet, and why—but on the solutions, which require a change in the conception of man, the way that human beings conceive of themselves, and the purpose of their lives, so that a change in the direction of policy is not based on momentary popular opinion, which can be easily manipulated, but on a more profound, and sustainable, scientific, humanistic basis.
On June 29, the fifth in this series of conferences, which began Nov. 27, 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany, was held in San Francisco, with the sub-theme, "The Second American Revolution." The nearly 200 attendees engaged in a truly unique event, in which the assumptions they had held entering the conference were challenged. By the end, there was a general recognition that there is now a real opportunity for a Second American Revolution, and it is the responsibility of those attending to make it. This was explicit in the resolution adopted by the participants (see box), and in the commitments made to expand the organizing process.
The Role of Lyndon LaRouche
It must be noted that the success of this conference was built on the revolution in human creativity which Lyndon LaRouche has initiated over the recent period, in an ongoing series of papers, on the subject of the human mind (see this week's Feature. While LaRouche is best known for his successful economic forecasts, since he began forecasting in the middle of the last century, his recent writings offer a unique insight into the relationship between human creativity and the evolutionary advance of the physical universe, which underlies his successful forecasting.
In particular, LaRouche has been focused on the principle of human cognition: It is not what you think, but how you think, which is crucial, especially in challenging the American people to break with their small-minded pragmatism, so they may take up the great themes implicit in our relationship with our Solar System.
From LaRouche's vantage point, the ongoing collapse of civilization is neither cyclical nor "natural," but the result of the deliberate intent of the present-day Anglo-Dutch Empire, to reverse the successes of the American Revolution, which grew out of the scientific and cultural renaissance of 15th- and 16th-century Europe, by reducing man to reliance on sense-certainty, which, in turn, reduces populations to the status of vassals, incapable of challenging the power of the empire. In fact, the goal of the controllers of this Empire is the reduction of the human population by 6 billion human beings! The danger of World War III erupting in the Middle East, the blow-out of the financial system, and the related destruction of the food supply, are the result of this deliberate intent to reduce the human population.
The creation of the Schiller Institute in 1984 by Zepp-LaRouche represented a forceful intervention into policy fights on this higher level. The example of Friedrich Schiller, as a patriot and world citizen, whose writings and activities exemplify the principle that each of us must act for all mankind, by developing the "ideal" in one's self, so that we may bring it out in others, is what is required today to defeat the Empire.
It was with this consciously in the mind of the organizers, that the San Francisco conference was built. Organizers took, as a starting point, the growing recognition among leading sectors of the population, that action is required now, and challenged them to understand that what must be done must come from the most profound and beautiful conceptions of the nature of man, i.e., that there is no "practical" or "pragmatic" means of overcoming this crisis.
Glass-Steagall and NAWAPA
The conference was opened with powerful keynote speeches by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche. What characterized both presentations was the clarity of their analysis of the crisis, as well as the solutions. Without Glass-Steagall, they both emphasized, there is no way out of the crisis, yet Glass-Steagall, is just the opening phase of a three-part policy, which includes the return to a Hamiltonian credit policy, and funding of massive infrastructure projects, beginning with NAWAPA (North American Water and Power Alliance). This will not only end the speculative looting of the population, by bankrupting the speculators, but will restore the physical production necessary to sustain a growing population.
That this is possible was emphasized in a video from U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who urged the attendees to mobilize Congress to pass H.R. 129, the bill to re-introduce Glass Steagall, of which he is a co-sponsor (see below).
Following the keynotes, there were three presentations elaborating the dangers ahead, as well as the solutions. Marcia Merry Baker of EIR, a leading expert on food and agriculture policy, detailed the accelerating food crisis, resulting from burning food for fuel (ethanol), free-trade policies, and weather-related crises. She demonstrated that there is nothing "natural" about the crisis, but that the policies pushed through by global financial and food cartels are intended to kill people, in a systemic genocide, which far surpasses that of Hitler's British-directed genocide in World War II.
Baker also presented greetings to the conference from a prominent Indian agronomist, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, who emphasized that India's "Green Revolution" was based on applying the American System principles of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
Frank Endres, a California farmer who is a leading member of the National Farm Organization, backed up Baker's presentation with a discussion of how agriculture advanced, under the parity pricing system, implemented under FDR, and how that system represents the principles of the American System. He then showed how the elimination of parity pricing, under the Adam Smith/British System mantra of "free trade," is destroying the family farm, which has been the most productive agricultural system in history. The Adam Smith policy of "cheap food," he emphasized, is causing starvation.
These themes were elaborated further in the afternoon panel, which took up the issue of how LaRouche's policies will usher in an era of peaceful cooperation and development between the U.S. and Asia, in contrast to the confrontation between the U.S. and China, which British puppet Obama is pursuing. This theme was developed by Philippine LaRouche Society leader, Butch Valdes; EIR's Michael Billington, who spoke specifically of the contrast between the Leibniz-LaRouche approach to statecraft, and that pushed by Obama; Robert Barwick, a leader of the LaRouche movement in Australia; and Dr. Wenji Victor Chang, of the Institute of Sino Strategic Studies, whose theme, "China and the U.S.: Inevitable Partners," demonstrated the parallels of Confucian thought with that of the American Founding Fathers.
They were joined by Dr. Hal Cooper, who showed how NAWAPA-Plus, an integrated system of transport, water, and power production, can bring together the U.S., Central and South America, Russia, and China, into a productive alliance.
The afternoon concluded with a presentation by this author, on how California's unique agro-industrial economic powerhouse was built by FDR's Glass-Steagall and infrastructure policies, and has been destroyed, since the late 1970s, by the deindustrialization imposed by free trade and deregulation, combined with the anti-science outlook of the Greenies.
Prior to his presentation, Schlanger read greetings to the conference, which show the growing support from across the political spectrum for the LaRouche solution. First, from Colorado Republican State Senator Owen Hill, who introduced a memorial bill in support of H.R. 129 into his state legislature, said Glass-Steagall is "not a Republican or Democrat issue, ... not a liberal, conservative, or libertarian issue," but "simply the common sense that well-functioning markets have to appropriately align risk and reward so that no one can go gamble with taxpayer's money." Second, from Sean Turnbull, whose website, the "SGT Report," has been a forum for anti-Fed, Sen. Ron Paul supporters, who endorsed Glass-Steagall as the only option. A third message was from former Peace and Freedom Party Presidential candidate, Roseanne Barr, who wrote succinctly, "We need to stick a pin in the bankster balloon—Glass-Steagall is the way."
Science and Culture
The evening panel exemplified the passionate commitment of the LaRouche movement/Schiller Institute to ennoble souls, through the quality of thinking required for scientific discovery and Classical culture. The second panel had been preceded by a beautiful performance by members of the Schiller Institute of four selections from J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass. The tension, which results from the concentration demanded by Bach's compositional method, forces a decision to be made by members of the audience, as to how serious they are, really, about acting on this higher level? With a couple of exceptions—people who walked out during the performance—it is clear, from the quality of deliberation which followed the panels, that most decided to accept that challenge.
The evening panel opened with a performance of Mozart's "Dissonance Quartet," K. 465, and ended with an intense performance of Beethoven's Cello Sonata, Op. 69, by My-Hoa Steger and Jean-Sebastien Tremblay. In between these performances, was a video presentation by Mexican scientist Dr. Omar Pensado Diaz, on man and the biosphere, in which he proved the evil incompetence of the British Imperial System. LaRouche PAC's Megan Beets, speaking on the theme of "The Sense Uncertainty of Truth," developed this theme as it was presented in LaRouche's recent papers, with examples of the fraud of sense certainty, and the opposite approach of Johannes Kepler, in his discovery of the orbits of the planets.
Phil Rubinstein, a veteran LaRouche movement leader, took this theme further, in discussing various ironic aspects of human creativity, using devastating humor to invoke in the audience a recognition of how we have tolerated "animal" sense certainty in our day-to-day lives, in contrast to the potential we possess to harness the power of the physical universe.
As the conference closed, Zepp-LaRouche challenged the participants to act on the unifying theme of the conference, that we can, and must, create a better human race, if we are to survive. But this is not a painful challenge, she emphasized, but something which is exciting, and is within our reach, if we accept the challenge. The optimistic spirit she conveyed, at the end of a long day of deliberation, shows that the inspiring contributions of those creative individuals who preceded us, such as Cusa, Kepler, the Founding Fathers, and especially Schiller, are still alive today, and will find new life in the minds of those who attended this event.
