Today's Generation Of Youth
Has a Unique Opportunity
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
November 16, 2023

To read the discussion which followed this presentation, click here.
 

This is a touchy subject. It's touchy for the population in general. But I think that you have now matured sufficiently, to be able to digest, and accept, what I have to say; at least respond to it, in a constructive, rather than, shall we say, “freaked-out” manner.

The question is, the subject of history, and looking at the present moment, inside the U.S. and the world at large, as really history, not current events. By history, we mean that certain principles of behavior, which are embedded as fixed or changeable values, like axioms of a geometry, embedded in the institutions of the people, their government, and so forth, and among governments, around the world, determine a long wave of history, which runs from one, two, or more generations. As opposed to current events, which is sort of “connect the dots” of who hit whom recently, or is about to hit someone tomorrow.

So, as opposed to that connect-the-dots current events view of history--which is not history, at all--we have to look at history as the unfolding effects of certain axiomatic features of existing institutions and culture. For example, take the case of your situation: You are now the victim of three successive generations of people who are more or less alive. People of my generation, who are, shall we say, the “grandfatherly generation”; we're a little bit nicer than your parents--the so-called “Baby Boomer” generation. And, you are the victims of rearing in a society, which is dominated currently, in most positions of government, and similar institutions--universities--by the Baby Boomer generation. And therefore, those changes which have occurred in U.S. and world culture over this period, which have molded the circumstances in which you live, and have molded, also, the set of rules, either stated or implicit, which control the circumstances to which people respond today.

So, that is really history--a process of unfolding determination, of human voluntary changes, in the axiomatic assumptions and conditions under which they live. And these changes are looked at, not in terms of the short term, not immediate reactions, not as current events, but changes in the course of the unfolding of the development of society: where society goes, toward Hell, or upward. Those are the kinds of things, which are most important. So, when we study history, we should be looking at that.

Popular Opinion, and Tragedy

Now, my particular “shtick,” as some people would say, is the way this works, from the standpoint of my function as the world's, now currently, most successful (that is, on performance) physical economist; the most successful forecaster known on this planet, today, over the past 35 years or so, that I've been on record as making written forecasts of the way things are going, and I've never been wrong. The reason I've never been wrong, is because I understand this principle of history: how events unfold; how, over successive generations, societies change.

Now, what I concentrate on, which is my forte, is not only that it is the so-called “Platonic principle” of discovery of universal physical principles, which enables us to cut through the veil, to cut through the curtain: the curtain of sense-perception, into the world of physical reality beyond what we sense. That is, what we sense is experience, but that is not the reality, which causes that experience. We have to look for the principles: the principle of universal gravitation, for example; or the principle of least action; or the principle of quickest action, which determine the way the universe actually works. Principles which can not be seen, can not be touched, can not be smelled, can not be felt. But we know them, and we are able to use these principles to change the way we behave, so that we gain increasing control of the human species, over the world around us, and the universe around us.

So, that's what we're concerned with. So, the question is, whether the principles, which people are using, enable them to control history, and to the benefit of mankind; or whether people, on the contrary, are influenced, in some significant degree, by false assumptions, which they treat as principles, which lead societies, repeatedly, to doom.

In European history, the most common cause of the great catastrophes of civilization, have been popular opinion. That is, the embedding of certain beliefs, in popular opinion, like the vox populi of the ancient Romans. Rome was not destroyed by its Emperors. It was destroyed by its popular opinion. And the Emperors were a reflection of the sickness embedded in that popular opinion. In the case of Hamlet, Shakespeare's Hamlet, contrary to what is taught in incompetent courses in schools, Hamlet is not a tragic failure, because he misled his population, because he caused the catastrophe. He was a tragic figure, because he failed to resist and counter popular opinion, the popular culture of his time, in Denmark. It was Denmark, that was the tragedy. The people of Denmark were the tragedy, and Hamlet typifies the leading figure in Denmark, who went along with the people. And thus, contributed to the tragedy, by bending to popular opinion.

This is the case of tragedy, in all cases, that you have two situations: You have either a people dooms itself, by the evolution of its popular opinion. And it comes into a time, where popular opinion has created a threat of doom for that society, either total doom, or a considerable amount of doom: If the people do not change their ways of thinking, they will, like the mythical lemmings, will go over the cliff, into the tragedy.

The question is, will a leader appear, who induces the people to give up bad popular opinion, and to choose a different course. In Classical tragedy, the epitome of that, is the case of Jeanne d'Arc. France was doomed, by a continuation of the Plantagenet/Anjou/Norman tradition. It was not a nation. It was subjected to feudal wars, internal feudal wars, pure fratricide among themselves. Jeanne d'Arc went to the King, and said, “Stupid King, God tells me, he wants you to become a real King, and to unite France.” Well, this is actual history. This is not just a play, this is the actual history. As a result of her courage, and unflinching adherence to that, despite her betrayal by her own King--betrayal to this crazy Inquisition, this Gnostic Inquisition--that her courage resulted in the creation of the first modern nation-state: the France of Louis XI. And played a key part in inspiring the Catholic Church to make the great reform, which is known as the 15th-Century Golden Renaissance, the reform centered on the great Council of Florence, in the middle of that century.

So, she, by changing, going “against the pricks,” going against the culture, with a very straightforward, elementary idea--an axiomatic principle: France must be a nation; it must be made for the general welfare; God wants you to serve the general welfare by being an actual King, and creating an actual national monarchy to do this. Sticking to that very simple message, which she may have also developed, because of her religious education, from where she lived, in the area she lived in: That saved Europe.

The Sublime: Proving Life's Principle

This is true in all the great heroism of history. An example of a great scientific discovery, like that work of Pasteur. Pasteur did not actually claim to have proven the principle of life, but he demonstrated it, and showed the direction in which his successors, such as Curie and Vernadsky, could prove, that life is a principle, intrinsically anti-entropic, which is not produced by the so-called “abiotic universe.” So, his contribution, was this contribution of an idea, which he did not perfect, as Jeanne d'Arc did not perfect the conception of the modern nation-state. But Pasteur's work made possible, this conception.

The same thing is true of Kepler. Kepler made possible a transformation of humanity. Kepler was the founder of a coherent, comprehensive form of mathematical physics, which did not exist prior to him. And everything from Europe that was good in science, followed from that work of his, therefore made successes.

The same thing is true in art. Bach was the great discoverer. He had precedents, precedents such as Orlando Lasso, and Orlando Lasso's interchange from the Flemish school, with the bel canto repertoire of mid-15th-Century Florence. Leonardo da Vinci wrote a book, De Musica, most of which was subsequently lost, but some fragments still exist. His concept of music, which harks back to the Pythagorean-Plato conception of music, became the basis, expressed by Bach, in the discovery of the well-tempered system. Which is not an equal-tempered system. The well-tempered system is based on the vocal polyphony--bel canto voice-training, vocal polyphony. Not on instruments. Even Pythagoras compared a monochord, by tuning the monochord with the human singing voice, and noted on the monochord, the difference between the human singing voice--singing through  ostensibly the same notes, up and down, and in different modalities. And this demonstrated the existence of a phenomenon, determined by the bel canto human singing voice, actually, which was called “the comma.” This is not a mathematical concept: It is a physical concept, which has some mathematical expression. But it is not a mathematical number. It is a physical concept, on the physical difference, between the human singing voice, and a monochord, which gives various tones by touching. So, the source of the comma is not a mathematical theory. The source of the comma, is the difference between a human singing voice, and an inanimate object: a monochord.

So, this is the nature of discovery. This is the nature of what we call “the Sublime,” which Schiller calls Erhabene--the principle of the Sublime: That those who make discoveries, discoveries of principle, which lead mankind to overturn faulty systems, and to venture into new areas of mastering the universe--these are the Sublime.

The Crisis of a Credit-Card Society

When you come to a crisis, such as the present crisis of the world, and the United States in particular, it's obvious that a fundamental, sweeping change, must be made in the ruling assumptions, under which the United States and other nations have been governed over the past 35 years, in particular. The change is specifically from a producer society, which the United States was, in its tradition and practice, up until 1964, and what it became since 1964, with the launching of the Indochina War: It became transformed into a parasitical, consumer society, or a credit-card-debt society, where you don't have any income, you just have a credit-card debt, and a carrying capacity to carry that debt, on a monthly basis (or not carry it, as the case may be).

So, this society is doomed. It's doomed by certain assumptions, which have been adopted, which are characteristic of the so-called “post-industrial” or “consumer” society, or “New Economy” society, over the past 35 years, approximately. We've come to the point, that this world system is finished. The financial system is finished. The present economic system, as defined by current habits, is finished. Much of the law, which has been enacted by the Congress, over the past period, the past 35 years, has to be scrapped. On that basis, we can survive, because the ability of humanity to survive is there. The mind of man is capable of solving all problems--that is, all problems within man's reach. If we know the answer, if we know the changes of principle to be made, the solution lies at hand. That solution is the Sublime.

Tragedy is in the people. It's not in the people, as such: It's in their popular opinion. The habituation to those assumptions, which have led the society, step by step, over nearly two generations, into the present doom.

So, you have a generation, the Baby Boomer generation, entered adolescence in a period of transformation, such that, they never, as adults, experienced a producer society, as a generation. They never were producers. Because, when they came to adulthood, they were parasites. They had joined a post-industrial, rock-drug-sex-counterculture, consumer society, whose dream was, that computers, or robots, made like computers, would do all the work. Where we would have a New Economy, in which nobody had to work. Everybody could be a white-collar slob; or a “dingy jeans” slob, as you might choose. We didn't have to work, we didn't have to produce.

That society has now come to its end. It's over. Therefore, the question is: leadership. Leadership, as the leadership in science: the discovery and implementation of a fundamental physical principle. Or a political principle, which has the characteristics of a fundamental physical principle.

So, my particular role, has been to stick to my guns, over these decades: that this system is an inherently doomed system, which will go through a series of crises, which I have described--each major change in the system, I've forecast, over this past 35 years, and the forecasts were published. So, I've never been wrong, because I understood this process: a lawful unfolding of a system that was doomed from the beginning. And therefore, to understand the system, you had to simply follow the evolution or devolution of the system, in a lawful way, consistent with the discrepancy between reality, and these assumptions which were governing us.

So therefore, now, the survival of society, the survival of the United States, especially, because we are still a key power, with all our tattered weaknesses, in the world at large: If we don't behave, the world's chances of survival are poorer. We have to, ourselves, make the change in ourselves, which enables the rest of the world, in cooperation with us, to solve our common problem.

That solution exists. Objectively, it exists. I know all of the essential ingredients--not the details--but the essential agreements that have to be reached among nations, to get this planet safely through the next quarter- and half-century. That's clear, right now.

Will we make the change? My function, is to provide that solution. That has been my function, all along. I was the only person ever qualified to become President of the United States, among all Presidential candidates presented, from 1976 to the present. No other person, who ran for President, was qualified for that position. Because no other candidate, was either capable, or willing, to adopt those changes in policy, which would have led the United States to avoid the catastrophe which is now descending upon us.

Therefore my role, is the role of the Sublime. To be the person who introduces into the situation, a concept, a personalized concept, which is capable of leading this nation, and the world, out of the present mess. Failures will all try to go to popular opinion: “But, can't you be more reasonable?” “You know, you want your ideas all time. Why can't you learn to compromise with other people?”

I say, “Well, you're already too compromised. That's your problem! You've got to stop being compromised! More compromises will kill you! You've got to un-compromise yourself.

“You've got to, at this point, be willing to change what you believe. And to get others to change what they believe. Because, if you don't, you--and they--are doomed.”

And that's the proposition that faces us.

Your Generation in History Today

Now, for you, who are younger, this choice is somewhat easier. You come from an age group, which, as I've said in other locations, you've come past the point of lawful insanity, which is called “adolescence.” People who are adolescent are lawfully insane, by any adult standard. An insane person is anyone, who reaches the age of 25 to 30, and acts like an adolescent; that's a lunatic. But, a person who is under 18 or under 17, who acts like a lunatic, may be just an adolescent. And, you go along with that; you deal with that; you try to keep them from hurting themselves, or committing suicide, or something--because they are very prone to suicide. This existential crisis of passage from childhood to puberty, and so forth, does produce great emotional stresses, identity stresses; and it does lead to all kinds of disturbances, such as suicide, or propensity to suicide.

So, you're past that--I should hope. And, you entered a period, which we think of, or associate today with a modern university, taking the range of the so-called undergraduate through graduate program, through the doctoral program. You're on a track, which normally, if you've been around a university, or were led into it, you would normally follow the track of a healthy society, up through the level of becoming a professional, of some kind, on the level of what we would call a “doctoral” level. You would go into society as a professional; you would help to change the society; you would be one of the leaders of society, in economy and other respects. And you would be the leading edge of progress for the society as a whole. And our goal would be to have the entire adolescent population, continue into that same kind of program, to the same level of development over the coming period; to establish a kind of true parity within the society, a truly healthy society, which can think together.

We're not there yet. But that's the direction we have to move in.

So therefore, you are capable of more readily assimilating ideas, such as what I've indicated to be the significance of Gauss's 1799 attack on d'Alembert, Euler, and Lagrange, on the issue of the fundamental theorem of algebra. This I've explained in other writings; I won't go through that here. That doesn't mean that all of you will instantly grab the solution. It means that some among you, as in any good university, will struggle through the process, and will actually begin to see the solution, to the paradoxes which I posed, and others posed. Then, you, in your discussions with others, say, “Now look, I don't understand it. Explain it.” So therefore, you have a collegial process, among people in the movement, where some people grasp the idea more quickly than others, and by this kind of social process, the conception, the world outlook, is developed among you all. You share a common world outlook. You're able to work together.

You are, therefore, able to turn around, even as younger adults, to turn around to the previous generation, and to begin to educate them. And, that's how we're going to save society. It won't be done in any other way--but, it has to be done fast. And, we're doing it.

Now, you also have, as I've indicated in another location, where we're discussing this: You've got to realize, in the great sweep of history, what the great historical opportunity is before your generation: a greater opportunity than before any generation before you. You may feel like you're the “lost generation”; the “hopeless generation”; thrown in the mud, especially when you find yourself in a university classroom--you say, “This is really a mud-hole, isn't it?” an intellectual mud-hole.

But, you are actually in a unique position, as a generation: Because we have, presently, with our knowledge--in parts of Europe, the United States, and so forth, especially--we have the ability, to produce from your generation, the beginnings of a new kind of mankind: a mankind, which really understands the implications of what is typified, by the issues posed by Gauss in that 1799 paper, which is why I emphasized it. Once you understand what an idea is, which very few university graduates in science, or professors in physical science, understand to the present day--all of you are potentially capable of understanding that, and similar ideas. That change, from ideology--which is what present science, today--what is taught as science is largely ideology. There are some truthful elements and very useful elements, in it. But it's all corrupted by this thick layer of ideology, coming directly out of things, of such as the influence of Lagrange and his successors. It's corrupted. You are capable of approaching this question, of how mankind thinks, how mankind is capable of organizing, in a way, which no generation before you has ever succeeded in doing. Yes, exceptional individuals, in previous generations, have done that. But, no leading layer of an entire generation, has ever succeeded in understanding this principle, upon which all true science is based: a principle on which an understanding, of the dynamic of history in general, is premised.

So, you have a unique opportunity.

My objective, as an old geezer, is to lead this nation safely out of the mess it has made for itself, and, to, in the process, mobilize people like you, to prepare to take over the society, to prepare to qualify yourself to play that unique role--in this case, as Americans--that unique role, which will lead man out of the dustbin of the past, into what is truly a true republic, or a republican form of government. And, a certain kind of humanity, among the sovereign nations of the world in general. You are capable of playing that role. My job, is to spark a process, which gets us out of this mess, and inspire you, or people like you, to undertake that great opportunity, that life-challenge, which lies before you.

Okay, that's what I have to say, so far.

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