Conference Dialogue—
Statecraft, Science and Culture

by Marcia Merry Baker

[Print version of this article]

Nov. 23—In addition to extensive informal discussion among the 300 attendees, from 30 nations, over the two days of the Schiller Institute’s November 16-17 conference in Bad Soden, Germany, there were four question-and-answer periods for the whole assembly. The 23 panelists, three video messages, and many video and audio clips from Lyndon LaRouche himself, provoked a rich discussion. Prominent among the topics, were remarks and questions concerning Africa, Russia, space, nuclear energy, scientific musical pitch, and LaRouche’s perspective on development and God, as well as impromptu remembrances of LaRouche.

On the second day, as the conference was coming to a close, Helga Zepp-LaRouche expressed the strong view, that the fourth panel—“Beauty and Classical Art as Mankind’s Vocation: The Cultural Silk Road”—would have been better earlier on the agenda:

We should not have had this panel at the end, because it is the most important discussion. After the collapse of the French Revolution, Schiller wrote in his aesthetical letters that from then on, improvement in politics can only come from the aesthetic education of man. That’s the reason why I’m in politics. The populations are now awfully degenerate, stupid, and manipulated. Why are they not standing up against policies that will destroy us? They are numb. Schiller and Lyn were in cohesion. People have to become better people through great classical art. . . .

In the course of the discussion, several issues came up concerning Africa. It was reported that 14 countries in the France-associated CFA currency bloc are now seeking “to end their monetary slavery.” From the podium, Dennis Small drew out the principles involved, that all economic thinking has to start from physical economy, not money, and that control over currency is an issue of national sovereignty. “Credit is the future; money belongs to Satan.”

Another questioner, referring to the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in October, asked, “How is Russia’s approach to Africa different from that of France, and its long colonialist domination?” In reply, Prof. Andrei Ostrovskii, Deputy Director of Russia’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies, who spoke during the conference’s first session, referred to the long history of the Soviet Union in Africa, from the 1950s through to 1990. Then came the break. But now, as of 2019, Russia will develop new connections on the African continent. Zepp-LaRouche added that development in Africa is “where mankind must go,” and Russia will help, with nuclear power in particular. She stressed the point that countries need to collaborate in advancing economic development, to be powerful enough to overcome the Wall Street/London grip. Two African audience members recalled that there was an early nuclear power project in the Congo, a research reactor in Kinshasa (in 1958), and Congolese uranium went to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

There was also an exchange of views over the prospects of Pan-Africanism.

The status of economic development in Russia’s Far East was a subject of much interest. In reply to a question about this, including whether there is a Glass-Steagall aspect to Russian banking, Ostrovskii said that banking cooperation between Russia and China is “the weakest link” in their relations. For example, Russia’s Sverbank does not even have a branch in China, just a representative.

Another line of discussion was provoked on the first day, when an audience member said that he was concerned about the threat of Albania harboring “Islamic terrorists in the heart of Europe.” Members of the Albanian delegation took issue with the line of reasoning necessary to reach that conclusion, during informal discussion. Then on the second day, an audience member spoke of the historical contributions of Islam. For example, Averroës, in Andalusia in the 12th century, was active in science, poetry, and music. However, again in informal discussion, an Islam scholar pointed out that the merits of Averroës are questionable, while the great contributions of Ibn Sina (ca. 970-1037 A.D.) are indisputable.

The depth of the dialogue throughout the proceedings was indicated in an exchange over fusion energy research, and how discovery of a new state of matter is involved. Jacques Cheminade, former French Presidential candidate and a conference speaker and moderator, pointed out that in all our studies and endeavors, the purpose is “not personal improvement, but to improve social conditions for society” to make advances. He said that “the principle of creativity is the principle of goodness.”