Question: Yes, Lyn, I'm from Baltimore. There was already a related question to this, but I thought it was an important point, so I want to ask a question related to arbitrary rule, versus provable principle. Why is it that so many members of the no-future generation, have such a powerful emotional commitment to following arbitrary rules? Like, for instance, completing some type of degree program, at a university, as following an arbitrary rule. They'll actually express an aversion to rejecting an arbitrary rule, in defense of a principle that can be proven as true. I was wondering if you could address that problem.

LaRouche: I address it constantly. I address it not only in that generation, but also the earlier generation, and the generation before that, my own generation. Now, the problem is: that's the Hamlet problem.

Just look at the two pieces from Hamlet, the soliloquy from the second act, the "rogue and peasant slave," and then the one from the third act, the "to be or not to be," and look at these things from the inside. See them from the inside. And you see exactly that. You see this tendency, he says, "Yes, but..." Hamlet's one of your basic "Yes, but" types. He's a slaughterer, he's out there ready to kill again, and he says he could do better, "Yes, but..." "When we shuffle off his mortal coil," what then? And his fear of immortality confines him to return to those things which he's been conditioned to do, the thick set of rules, the set of goals, the conditioned reflexes, rather than call into question what his larger purpose ought to be.

See, Hamlet's not a coward because he's afraid of immortality. He's a coward because he's afraid immortality will deprive him of a sense of pleasure in life, and his sense of pleasure is decadent. That's exactly what you're describing, the Hamlet problem. Another manifestation of it. The only cure for that, is what I'm trying to do, and it works, to some degree, as we've seen recently, in changing some of the politics of the United States, largely with the impact of the youth movement. We get across to people that they can change their ways, and must. And the cry "Let us change our ways," is coming largely from a no-future generation, which is saying to the older generation, "We must change out ways." And what they're getting from the "now" generation, is the reaction, a gut reaction, expressed in many different ways, which says, "Go away! You annoy us. Stop doing that! You're not behaving yourself, stop doing that. You're upsetting us!" Huh?

And all these young guys are doing is saying, "Look, you've given us no future, Daddy. Time to change your ways." And the other guy says, "But I have my habits, I have my habits! I have my right. I spent my whole life developing these habits! They work out. Look, I rely on these habits. They may not be perfect, but they're my habits, and you should listen to me! Because I have more experience than you do!" Things like that, huh?

That's what the problem is. And you're hearing Hamlet screaming, when you hear that kind of chatter from the poor old geezer.

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