Question: Hi. Yesterday, you were talking about connecting pain and pleasure to paradox and hypothesis. And that made me think of St. Augustine's Confessions where he said most people sort of get a glimpse of the higher joy, and it scares the Hell out of them, and they settle for lesser things. And I thought, at that point, he meant, just, popular opinion is what scared you, because that naturally brings you up against it. But now, since you've been talking about fear of immortality so much, I'm thinking maybe that's closer to what he meant. Are you trying to, in a sense, lift us out of this usual pleasure/pain thing we're in?

LaRouche: Augustine is merely one of us, hmm? He's only one of us. He's not some separate movement. He became a movement because of the circumstances under which he worked. Augustinus was, essentially, a Platonic Christian. He had the influence of, in Rome, the Greek Classic, which had not died out entirely at that time. Christianity was essentially Platonic, into that century. And he was part of that movement which was based in Italy, because the Roman Emperor in the East was evil. He was of the Pontifex Maximus system, and his argument, Augustinus's argument is essentially that of a Platonic Christian. And he obviously was dealing with the same kinds of matters that I deal with from a Platonic standpoint: the question of immortality; the question of simultaneity of eternity; the question of the fact that you have an immortal place in the universe, even though you are a mortal-existing individual. And you deal with that. You do nothing shameful from the standpoint of immortality. You do nothing shameful, either by negligence, or by commission. And you go on living.

And the fear is exactly that: The fear is, the littleness--if you want to be little, if you want to cuddle up, and snuggle up, and be like a child, and be cared for: "Mommy, don't let them hurt me," eh?--then, that fear will make a Hamlet of you all. But once you have a sense that you have a mission in life, not one that you choose, like an application for a job, but a mission in life that is handed to you by the combination of circumstances and who you are at that place at that time. Then you say, okay, I live that life. This is my talent. I'm going to spend it wisely for something I think is worthwhile spending it for, that I need not be ashamed, before all humanity, and all future humanity, for what I'm doing. I need not be ashamed in the eyes of my ancestors, or those who come after me. So therefore, I'm going to do this good thing. Period. At whatever risk, like Jeanne d'Arc, who was only a farm girl, but inspired, who changed history, simply in that way. Something was handed to her, the idea of a mission. She went out to carry out the mission. Stuck to it, and changed the course of history for the better. It's the best you get in this life. And of course, the frying part, the being cooked alive, is not exactly a good part. But nonetheless, in the sum total of things, you'd rather be cooked alive, than be Henry Kissinger! [laughter]

So, it is; you're right. That's exactly what the point is.

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