Question Actually Lyn, first I want to thank you for being the fearless leader of this youth movement, and the soon-to-be fearless leader of this great republic! [applause].

So, I have a question on fear. [laughter] I'm trying to understand this chameleon-like creature called “fear”--why there's so much of it. It takes all kinds of forms, and just when you think you've figured it out, it changes. Now, most of us who organize full-time for your campaign, go out every day, and we try to go down into the cave. Some of us fall asleep before we ever get in. Others hold onto rocks, resisting going down. Some of us decide we're going to go down, and then piss our pants because we're so afraid, making the ride real slippery and messy. Other times, we get down there, and it's so warm and dark, we think we can masturbate to the shadows and no one's gonna see us [whoops and laughter from the audience].

I want to know: Why is there so much fear? And what is the purpose? It just seems to be here to make our job a lot harder a lot harder than it has to be.

LaRouche: Well, well, well. You came into the spider's cave, huh? Well, it's very simple. It's a question of immortality. The fear of immortality. See, we can all die any day. Some more easily than others. Some quicker than others. So the question is, what does life mean if you can die any day? The question is, what do you do with it?

Now, if you see yourself as a member of a human species with a continuity and meaning in the universe, then you don't have any real fear. You may have a sense of physical fear, but no fear in the sense of a threat to your identity, because you know you're doing the right thing. And you know that your doing the right thing is necessary. And therefore, you don't have Hamlet's fear. You see, most people would rather die than face that kind of fear. Hamlet preferred to die rather than facing his fear of immortality. This is like flight-forward in battle; it's a common problem.

Imagine: You have all these Chickenhawks, including the fellow who actually did have military service, but who was, nonetheless, a Chickenhawk. He learned to fly for the Air Force, and he's still flying, without a plane. And he's not Superman. But these Chickenhawks are in flight-forward. The President is a Chickenhawk, in that sense: He's in flight-forward. He's a coward. Most of these guys ducked military service, during the 1960s, during the Vietnam War. Or, like the President himself, ducked overseas service, by going to a no-count National Guard unit in Texas, where he never got overseas. He was protected. he wouldn't be exposed to risk.

So the problem is, these guys, who have no conception of immortality, are all eager to fly everybody into Iraq, to fight a war, a clash of civilizations war. If you understand their minds, they're in flight-forward, which you have two types in combat--you have two types of people who are incapacitated by their fear: One sits in a foxhole and waits for the enemy to drop a hand-grenade in on them to end their misery. They're just huddling in the foxhole, hoping they're not seen, and somebody drops a hand-grenade in on them. That's the end of their career. The other one is like Audie Murphy, who won the Medal of Honor out of being scared. He just was so scared, he took his weapon and charged a machine-gun nest. And he got by with it. And often, many heroes, or so-called heroes, who win these awards, are people who did something quite similar. They were frightened, and they charged. And this is called “flight-forward.” The two kinds of cowardice: Flight-foward--”Let me get it over with. They're gonna kill me. I can't stand it. Let's get it over with. I'M GOING OUT THERE NOW!” Or, “I'm going to stay down here in this hole. I hope nobody--[whimpers].” So, you've got these two types.

And so, in life, whereas the soldier conquers that fear in military service, by saying, “Okay, my life's on the line. And I'm going to do the right thing, because I may lose my life, but I'm not going to waste it.” And the way you deal with fear, in a sense, starts at that level. We know we're all at risk. It's a world at risk--at risk from disease, at risk from the way people drive these days, especially women in their mid-30s around this area. Especially if they drive SUVs. You see a woman with a glint in her eye behind the wheel of an SUV, coming up behind you, tailgating you, you know you got one of 'em. Get outa there! She's crazy. She is really in flight-forward. She's got that baby in the back, and she wants to kill herself and that too--the only way she can stop the kid from screaming. Now, you've got this phenomenon, right?

So, my concern in dealing with these kinds of problems, which I know exist among all the people I'm dealing with, is exactly that: You have to have a clear sense of your personal identity in the human process. You're going to make a difference for all humanity, and it's the best thing you could do with your life. As the New Testament puts it: You have one “talent,” called mortal life. Spend it wisely. Don't spend it for the wrong thing. Risk it wisely--only for things that are worth risking it for. And that is for the meaning of your life in the skein of all humanity; that your life must mean something. Something good. Therefore, don't risk it for anything that isn't purposeful.

Sometimes, in the course of life, as in the soldier, in battle, as in World War II, the soldier does not have an overview of the total battle, the total war, but the soldier proceeds on the basis of confidence in the commander and the nation. Number one--which they don't have in the case of the Iraq war--that the war is just. That it's necessary and just. Therefore, their life is being risked for a cause that is necessary and just. Therefore, if they go down in war, their family and the people they leave behind, will have been well served. They say, “If I'm going to spend that life of mine, I'm going to spend it wisely. If they're gonna take me down, they're gonna have to take me down. But I'm gonna do it the right way.”

So, that's the case of the soldier: confidence in leaders, confidence in institutions--which most people in the United States do not have today, in the existing institutions and the existing leaders. Which most of the world does not have in the leadership of the United States today, as demonstrated by over 100 million people, known to be demonstrating in the past weekend on the question of the Iraq war, including 1 million, approximately, in Berlin; probably 3 million in Rome, and so forth and so on. The people in the United States do not want this war. On top of it, they have no confidence in the President of the United States, no confidence in the leadership of the United States today. No confidence in the Democratic Party leadership. And justly so. One reason for not going to war, is that we in the United States have no legitimate confidence in our leaders. And therefore, for that reason alone, we can't trust them. Because the average citizen can risk his life willingly only if he can trust the institutions which he's serving. Otherwise, without that trust, there's no justification for the war.

For those of us who are in leading positions, or doing as you are doing: as assuming, in a sense, leading positions among the people with whom you're working, you have to have a higher standard of a sense of security in your mission. It's not enough to have confidence in what we're doing, as such, as a soldier in battle would have. You must have some understanding of the strategic implications of the why, and so forth, of the war that you're fighting.

The source of strength to deal with these fears is in part that, but also, it's--the strength comes from a sense of joy in the process of development you're undergoing during this process. You feel good about yourself, because what you're doing, in terms of your own development and the development of people around you, is, in itself, intrinsically worthwhile. Therefore, that gives you the added strength: “Well, what I'm doing is worthwhile. I know, and I have confidence that what we're doing as a mission, is worthwhile. But I also, from day to day, from just the work I'm doing day to day. When I get discouraged in the course of the day, meeting one idiot after another, I meet two guys from yesterday, who say, ‘Hey, you were right. What do you want us to do?'|” And that makes it all worth while.

So, the only way to deal with fear is to be fully conscious of it. And to think about what the implications are. To think what flight-forward, what foxhole mentality is, eh? To think of the soldier, who goes out to a war that the soldier thinks is justified, a war led by a president, a nation, in which the soldier has confidence. Has confidence that the nation will take care of his or her family, in case something happens to them. And he says, “Okay. It's a justified war. I believe in it. I trust my leaders. I risk my life. I don't go crazy. I sit here knowing this is the case. I take no unnecessary risks, but I do my job.”

Otherwise, for us, we're taking leading positions, in the sense of telling other people what they should do, requires a higher standard of a sense of responsibility. We are now assuming responsibility for their lives, simply by telling them what they should be doing. Therefore, we have to develop ourselves to be certain that we're doing the right thing. We have to have the kind of organization, and discussion among ourselves, which assures us that we have adequately reflected upon what we're doing, and we know we're doing the right thing. Getting knowledge, spreading knowledge. And that's the way we're going to deal with it. [applause]

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