This article appears in the June 14, 2019 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.:
The Door to True Humanity
[Print version of this article]
Mrs. LaRouche offered these two sets of remarks, her prologue and epilogue, to those gathered in Manhattan for the Schiller Institute’s three-hour memorial event celebrating the life and legacy of American statesman, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., on June 8. That celebration was live streamed to satellite events across the United States.
Prologue
This is a unique moment in all our lives, where we assemble here for the memory and honor of our beloved Lyn.
Lyn changed the life of most of us, in the most profound way. And if we ask ourselves, “Where would I have been, if not for the unbelievable privilege to have met Lyn, the most creative thinker of our times?” If one looks around in our society today, so many ill-spent lives, people drowned in material greed, chasing money, objects, entertainment—some are very successful. They make lots of money, but their soul, since long, has been eaten up by more want. Many are not so successful. They can’t make ends meet.
Lyn opened the door to true humanity for most of us, personally, and in countless numbers of discussions he had with people, over the long span of his life, he touched the lives of thousands and thousands of people, in the United States, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America. He actually changed lives and touched people in profound ways, in most countries of this planet, on five continents. Lyn would talk to many groups and individual young people. He would lighten up the fishermen of Peru. He would tell the shoemakers of Italy about shoemaking. He would speak with Italian legislators and legislators around the world. He would teach entrepreneurs about physical economy. He would talk to trade unionists, teachers, scholars, the best musicians of the world. He opened the door to truth and knowledge to many, many people. And many of those said that Lyn knew more about their field of expertise than they, the experts themselves, and that he was able to change the trajectory of their thinking.
The existence of Lyn is a miracle. He defied all obstacles to the assertion of his powerful intellect. He felt himself, as a young person, an “ugly duckling,” who would not fit in the banal environment which surrounded him. But when he was a young adult, he already had the inner strength to reject any intellectual corruption.
But Lyn added something to that talent: He had, for most people, unimaginable intellectual diligence and rigor. He was truly a truth-seeking person, a universal thinker, who conquered and added something to almost all relevant basic fields of knowledge: the natural sciences, Classical music, poetry, history—and the great Norbert Brainin, after two days of very intense discussions, said, “This man knows so much more about music than I do.” You could say the same thing about Lyn’s knowledge of history, American history, the history of the Soviet Union, of Africa, of European philosophy. And in all of these fields, and I’ve probably forgotten half of them, he made unique discoveries and added qualitative breakthroughs in them.
Out of all of this universal knowledge, he developed his own science of physical economy, and it was recognized by many outstanding scholars in many countries, that his was the most profound economic method in the field of economics as such.
Lyn’s motivation for his work was—and is—love for humanity. When he was working on a project, he would work for 20 hours a day, and he would produce, in his best times, 60 to 80 pages, with footnotes, so that the editors would have absolutely no work to change anything.
He could not stand the idea of suppression of the potential of people, be it that they lived in poverty—he could not endure the idea of poverty in the developing countries, and he started to hate empire as that form of government which does that to people. But he also could not stand the oppression through erroneous ideas about the laws of the physical universe, because such errors would lead to the self-destruction of cultures and civilizations. I have never seen or heard of anybody who was so absolutely focussed on the necessary changes of the system of oppression, and so absolutely focussed on replacing it with his own vision of a more human and beautiful world.
This view enabled him to recognize very early, in the 1960s, the devastating danger of the rock-sex counterculture. And look at the United States today, in terms of that culture. If Lyn would have been President—and he could have been, because he was in a very good way in the 1984 campaign, and the Illinois campaign of 1986—this would never have happened. And but for the operation of the neoliberals and the neo-con establishment, he would have put the world in order. Think about the changes he already started to the effect: The development of Latin America through his cooperation with López Portillo. The beautiful idea of overcoming poverty in India, through his working with Indira Gandhi on a 40-year development plan for the Subcontinent. He was about to overcome the military blocs of NATO and the Warsaw Pact through his conception of the SDI, the idea to end geopolitics and to proceed with the idea of one humanity.
Think about what would have happened if his conception using the science-driver effect of the SDI to bring new technologies based on new physical principles to the developing countries had gone forward—a gigantic technology transfer, thus making it possible for these countries to leapfrog to the most advanced modes of production. For several decades already, the alleviation of poverty in Africa, Asia, and the United States, would have happened. You would have universal education of every child, already in the second generation, and of educated youth in the developing sector. In the United States, you would have a public debate of the issues Lyn raised in his beautiful speech of 1988 in Chicago, at the Food for Peace conference, to make the African deserts a lush garden, to produce enough food for the world population. There would be a debate in the United States, not about “Game of Thrones,” but about Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and the laws of the universe. He would have musicians discussing the principles of thorough composition in the tradition of the span of composition from Bach to Brahms. He would have caused scientists to have a deep understanding of the principle of life, where they would have found a solution and cure to most illnesses.
The creativity per se would be the highest value in society, and all would experience the intellectual joy of a new international Renaissance. And we, who worked with Lyn, had the privilege of getting a taste of what it means to live in the world of ideas. If Lyn would have become President, throughout the whole United States, and the world, this Renaissance spirit would have become the intellectually hegemonic power. The United States is very fortunate to have had such a person, with such a beautiful mind and such a prophetic vision.
Lyn and I had a meeting once with a bishop of Rome, and he said, Lyn is a man of providence, and I absolutely agree: Because Lyn’s life and his life’s work is in absolute tune with the intention of Creation. It’s a tragedy for the people of the United States, and the rest of the world, that the evil powers of the present, were able to derail this effort, at least temporarily. And a breakthrough for all of humanity will be associated with Lyn’s ideas.
But Lyn’s vision of a fully developed world becoming a reality in the form of the World Land-Bridge is now happening: Of a new form of international relations among nations, of a dialogue of Classical cultures replacing confrontation, and of the vision of an international cooperation of colonizing the Moon and a joint Mars mission. His enemies, who are the enemies of humanity and of the happiness of the people, may prevail in the short term. But they’re already haunted by the Erinyes. They may have been able to cover up their crimes for a short while, but there is this higher power of natural law, which will bring their crimes to the light of day.
Lyn, on the contrary, has earned eternal life. His life is in the simultaneity of eternity. His mind and ideas transcend all places and times. Lyn is now in a realm like that shown in the School of Athens: He is with Socrates and Plato, with Confucius, Kepler, Leibniz, Bach, Beethoven, Einstein, and Vernadsky, and all the best minds of all times, and all cultures.
You are immortal, beloved Lyn.
Epilogue
I want to give you a quote which William Warfield gave as a contribution to the Festschrift for Lyn’s 80th birthday in 2002. “Yes, the great Johannes Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge has been for me, as well, his last will and testament. My friend, what can be better than, ‘Now there remains Faith, Hope and Love . . . These Three, but the greatest of them all, of these Three, is Love’ . . . Liebe, die Liebe is the greatest of all.”
Lyn, we love you so very much, you, who have loved mankind in such a way, that we make the sacred commitment to carry out and realize your vision, to contribute with all our potential to make the world a better place. You are with us, and we are with you, forever. And I say to you, what your last words were to me: Ich liebe dich. [standing ovation]
