LAROUCHE PAC WEBCAST TOWN MEETING
To Conquer the Drought,
Transform the Solar System
by Harley Schlanger
Sept. 28—As the killer drought in the Southwestern United States threatens the nation's food supply, a special webcast on Sept. 27 of simultaneous town meetings, in Houston and Los Angeles, put forward the only solution to the crisis—that Americans must change the way they think, to play a direct role in transforming the development of our Solar System.
LaRouche PAC Policy Committee members Kesha Rogers and Michael Steger were joined by Ben Deniston of LaRouche's "Basement" scientific team. The underlying theme of the three speakers was that the drought, as severe as it is, is not the real problem. Mankind is facing a deeper cultural and political crisis, which has made the drought an existential crisis. The drought was neither unforeseen, nor were solutions unknown. In the last three decades, Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly intervened, to both warn of the danger of the coming drought, and to fight for a solution, beginning with implementation of the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA). The fact that neither governments nor the population at large joined with LaRouche to fight for a solution, exemplifies the problem we face.
Each of the speakers took up the basic theme put on the table by LaRouche on Sept. 25: that action must be taken at once, to prevent the consolidation of a fascist dictatorship in the United States, and to bring the U.S. into alliance with the BRICS nations, which means a change in thinking in key sections of the American population. This requires not simply rejecting prevailing confrontational geopolitics and greenie ideology, but also taking up the perspective provided by the 17th-Century genius Johannes Kepler in his discovery of the orbit of the planets. We must literally think "top down," to take responsibility for the development of the Solar System.
No Simple Solution
Deniston said that no one should expect a "natural solution" to the drought, such as a sudden increase in rainfall passing through the Southwest. The last century has been the wettest of the last thousand years, according to a study from the University of California. In that state especially, policymakers took advantage of that abundance, as huge water projects were built to capture more water for human use. The result has been a spectacular development of the land, despite the fact that rainfall is limited in most of the state.
However, as the drought has deepened in the last years, even these advanced projects have been unable to ensure adequate water to protect food production from the collapse of water tables and decreased flows of water. The California state water system has completely cut off water deliveries for the rest of this year. Given that the best estimates of scientists is that this condition may continue, or even worsen, new solutions must be developed.
Deniston said that such solutions are not a matter of a particular technology or project, but will occur only through a shift in man's self-conception. We must reject anti-growth ideology, and instead take greater control over water cycles. To do this requires a rejection of any form of "localism"—e.g., how to solve the California crisis with "California water," given that water is part of a global system. He stressed the potential for collaboration with the BRICS nations, which have rejected the anti-growth policies of the genocidalists who control the trans-Atlantic region. This is explicit in their commitment to infrastructure development, including nuclear technologies, highlighted by the strategically crucial drive by the Chinese to mine the Moon for helium-3, for use in thermonuclear fusion technologies.
Former Congressional candidate Michael Steger followed Deniston, and said the choice for the U.S. is between a permanent war policy, enforced through a dictatorship, or allying with the BRICS, as a means for reviving the American System of physical economy. He contrasted the "failed culture" of today in the U.S. with what China and India are doing, and the optimism created by FDR and JFK. He said that what is especially interesting about developments in India, China, and Egypt, is that these are "old civilizations," with astronomical observations going back thousands of years.
Obama Must Go!
In attacking the present culture, he spoke of the resistance that LPAC Policy Committee members found, in their organizing in the Congress, to the idea that Wall Street must go, beginning with restoring Glass-Steagall banking separation. The compromises made on this matter, even in the best Congressional offices, explain why Obama is being given a free hand to conduct wars without the consent of Congress. In effect, he said, as far as Congress is concerned, we already see the effects of a J. Edgar Hoover-style dictatorship, with elected officials afraid to "step out of line."
Steger concluded that the BRICS nations are moving with a new sense of purpose and optimism. The U.S. cannot reject this, nor can it prevent this spirit from spreading. Obama only offers war and fascist dictatorship in the U.S. This will ultimately not be tolerated by Americans, Steger said. Getting rid of Obama is the precondition for collaboration with the BRICS, so that every individual will be offered a chance to contribute to the advance of mankind.
The final speaker was former candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas, Kesha Rogers, who drew out further ironies in the choice before the American people. Since 2001, the U.S. has been moving toward dictatorship, she said, while tearing down science, exemplified by Obama's attack on the space program. She contrasted the anniversaries of this month—six years ago China had its first space walk, while six years ago the U.S. bailed out the banks, while shutting down NASA—to sharply juxtapose the conflicting directions toward which the two major power blocs, the BRICS and the collapsing trans-Atlantic nations, are headed.
Rogers came back to a theme raised by Steger, of the ancient cultures of some of the leading nations in the BRICS, especially China and India, and the relative youth of the United States. The best of the American tradition, she argued, comes from older civilizations, singling out two scientists and philosophers, Nicholas of Cusa, whose work provided the basis for the European Golden Renaissance, and Gottfried Leibniz, who had a profound impact on the American Founding Fathers, especially Benjamin Franklin, which is reflected in the concept expressed in the Declaration of Independence: "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness."
Just as we see today the new President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi putting forward the idea that the people of his nation are now building a "new Egypt," so must we, as Americans, build a New America, reviving the best anti-imperial tradition, and the commitment to scientific and technological progress, so that the U.S. can collaborate with the BRICS.
Rogers concluded by saying that it is LaRouche, and his Policy Committee, which uniquely represent that real America today, which can bring our nation out from under the British Empire, and enable us to work for a future based on realizing the common aims of mankind.
These themes were expanded during the question and answer session, which allowed each speaker to go into more depth, always coming back to the challenge to the audience: You cannot complain that you didn't know there were solutions, because we have presented them, as Lyndon LaRouche has been doing for 40 years. If you fail to take advantage of this moment of opportunity, don't blame someone else; look at yourself, and your own willingness to submit to the tyranny of popular opinion and sense perception.
