Anastasia Battle

Beyond Ideology

This is the edited transcript of the presentation by Anastasia Battle as part of Panel 4, “The Art of Optimism: Using the Classical Principle To Change the World,” of the Schiller Institute’s Sept. 10–11 Conference, “Inspiring Humanity To Survive the Greatest Crisis in World History.” Mrs. Battle is the Editor of Leonore magazine. The full video of Panel 4 is available here.

Hi! This is Anastasia Battle of Leonore, the Schiller Institute’s cultural magazine. I’d like to thank you for joining us on this wonderful occasion to celebrate Lyndon LaRouche’s 100th Birthday. I have to say, it’s really an honor to live in this time period when we have the potential for the greatest change for human history.

I want you to take some time to look back at all the different panels we’ve worked through together and think about what this weekend really represents. You are now part of a historical process to upshift humanity. Now, the next question you might ask, “How on Earth are we gonna do that?!” That’s what we’re going to talk about.

I bet that everybody here has, at some point or another, tried to talk with another person about the different ideas that we’ve presented here today. If you’ve worked on something, something very exciting, or maybe you’ve gone out and done some organizing, or you’ve gone to your Congressman—something like that—do all the conversations always go smoothly? Sometimes it just seems like the people you’re talking to are stuck, doesn’t it? They just won’t let go of a thought, they might even get upset, call you some names. They seem to go around in circles with you and they might even get a little bit violent. What you just experienced was an ideological wall.

Now, what we specialize in, as a whole movement, is not only our ability to identify an ideology, but to successfully work people through it to discover what’s truthful. Mr. LaRouche called this the “polemical method.” In order to get to this, you have to be free in your own mind in order to use irony and metaphor to successfully break someone else free of their ideology. Otherwise, you’re just fighting with each other’s ideologies; you might as well just be bringing sticks out.

So, where does that come from? How are you able to break through your own ideology so you can help others? Classical Composition—Classical Culture.

I’m going to read you a quote from Friedrich Schiller’s essay,

“Theater Considered as a Moral Institution,” to give you an insight into what I’m talking about:

The theater sheds light not only on man and his character, but also on his destiny, and teaches us the great art of facing it bravely. In the fabric of our lives, chance and design play equally important roles; the latter is directed by us, while we must blindly submit to the former. We have already come a long way, if the inevitable does not catch us wholly unprepared, if our courage and resourcefulness have already been tested by similar events, and our heart has been hardened for its blow. The stage brings before us a rich array of human woes. It artfully involves us in the troubles of others, and rewards us for this momentary pain with tears of delight and a splendid increase in our courage and experience.

Now ask yourself, “Is that the quality of mind that a culture of Lady Gaga, Rammstein, and yes, even Jimmy Hendrix gives you?”

Some people think that when you talk about Classical culture we mean that you have to wear old-timey clothes, that you might talk with a British accent, and that you only listen to orchestral music. That’s not what we are talking about. In fact, you might just be a British oligarch if that’s your idea of Classical culture. What we are talking about is a method of thinking. This is the method in which you can access the creative faculties of your mind which, human discovery being what it is, can be used to help others access their own, through your insight. This method can be applied to every aspect of your life, any subject—art, science, politics.

I want to challenge you to take this in, seriously. This is not a matter of taste, or preference of style. And if we’re being honest here, you didn’t even choose popular culture to begin with; it was chosen for you. These are not your own preferences.

You probably have run into these kinds of lines before, but when I’m talking to people out in the streets or even just on social media, on TikTok, they’re talking about this kind of stuff—popular psychology. “But people are perfect just the way they are. We shouldn’t change them.” Honestly? Can we look around at the state of the world and say people are actually “perfect” just the way they are?

I’m not bringing this up because I think we should run around and try to break people down and get someone to submit, just to give up everything and submit to a new ideology or something. But if enough creative individuals come together, like we are doing here today, to create polemics, collaborate on Classical composition in music, art, poetry, find a breakthrough in historical outlook, discover a scientific principle, this will be the difference in us winning. We could inspire whole generations after us into a new renaissance. That’s where we are right now in world history. That’s what can happen.

There are no other options at this point. There is no secret arsenal of trickery that our politicians can tap into and think that they can pull one over and save the system. It’s just not going to keep going; it can’t. This is what we have to do.

I want you to join in this mission; it’s a lot of fun. Work with the Leonore, work with the Schiller Institute. Please write; I want to encourage more people to write. Get active, paint, read great works, write great works. Find that polemic in [order to address] an ideology in your country, in your culture. This could mean the fundamental breakthrough, not just for you, but for your whole society around you, to understand how they can make a new upshift.

Please, interact with us, get active with us, mobilize with us. Let’s have a lot of fun being human while we do it. Thank you.

[More about Leonore magazine is available here.]