You know the present President of the United States has a few problems, and he's got one good thing on his side. I'll explain it to you.

He was going through a security check by his Secret Service people, and one Secret Service man said to the other, "Psst. I can't find his brain." But the good side is that, just for that reason, it's impossible to impeach him! You can't accuse him of intending anything! Some people want to impeach him. The poor fellow wouldn't know what he's being tried for. He would call his mother up, and say, "What are they doing to me, Mummy?"

She said, "Run for President. You have all the qualifications. No prejudices. You never know what you're doing. No prejudices."

Anyway, I'll tell you a few things which are relevant about this situation we face, and I'll let you go at me, because rather than my presuming what you have to ask me, I shall simply tell you some things which maybe you should know, and then let you tell me what you want to know from me. Okay? Make that deal.

Okay, now. We have an interesting situation. For you, especially, since you're all young adult graduates of parents who have no future. They don't want one. They got you: "How did it happen to us? What were we thinking of when we did that?"

But here you are, stuck in a no-future generation, and you don't accept it, nor do I accept it, and we're trying to do something about it.

Now, an example of that is the present situation in the election process. I have nine putative rivals for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, officially at this time. Maybe there are one or two more in the woodwork someplace, threatening to come forward. Or waiting until the chaff clears, and then they'll stick their necks out.

But of the nine, none, so far, is qualified for President! They're not morally, or intellectually, qualified to be President of the United States, given the conditions which this nation and the world faces.

The one who comes the closest to being approximately qualified, is Senator Kerry, who has sufficient intelligence to know what the job is, but he does not have the emotional ability, or hasn't demonstrated it so far, to show that he has the guts to do what's needed.

Remember, he's had two failures, that you may find notable. One, he was in charge of an investigation of Iran-Contra, which you may have heard about in the distant past. He was up to the point of actually getting some results, and he virtually shut the investigation down, at the point that he was really moving in on some of the chief perpetrators, i.e., George Bush and company, the senior one.

Recently, he gave a press interview, a press statement, or a statement to the press, in which he said that George Bush, the President, had told him, that there were nuclear weapons in Iraq, or going into Iraq. He said, the President lied. But it wasn't the President who issued the lie. It was the Vice-President, the man who's in charge of vice. The Vice-President is the man who set the thing up, who set up the lies, and has been pushing them.

Why didn't he go after the Vice-President? Well, he knows he has not got the goods on the President. The President is relying upon his informants. You're going to accuse the President of lying, when he's simply believing his informants? And really doesn't have the intelligence to know when he's being lied to? How can you accuse him, impeach him on those grounds?

Whereas Cheney was fully aware of what he was doing, and deliberately. So, therefore, the gutless Kerry, goes after the President, who's almost untouchable, in the charge of knowledgeable guilt, because the poor man has no knowledge, so how can you accuse him of knowledgeable guilt? Where the Vice-President is explicitly guilty. Why doesn't he go after him?

Cheney is guilty, he's impeachable. I'll just explain--some of you may not know what the score is on this.

U.S. law has two areas of criminal liability, on fraud against the government. One is the ordinary fraud against the government. Each count, five years. The other one is much more serious. That is, fraud upon the government, by an official of government. That is an impeachable offense, which may carry ensuing criminal charges and penalties. That is Cheney.

In terms of points, we've got him virtually dead to rights. If we pull Cheney out, the whole pack of neo-cons would go, one after the other, because they're all culpable of this process. Oh, they're just disgusting. When you start getting members of a mob out, generally the whole mob goes. And then they begin telling on each other.

So, the point is, if we wanted to free the United States government, and the world, from the greatest danger which immediately affects the world, and the United States, now, any person of guts, who's running for public office, especially for President, who knows that the Vice-President is guilty of an impeachable offense, of high crimes and misdemeanors against the United States government, involving the worst kind of charges you could have of this nature: to lie to cause the United States to go to a war, fraudulently, is the highest of all crimes. It's tantamount to treason.

And we know that! Many people know it. The evidence is on the table. Therefore, if you went after Cheney, you would probably clean up the government to a good degree. And if you took out the neo-conservatives, along with Cheney, from the present government, you would probably put the government back into the hands of real people, not all good, but real. That is, actual human beings, from the military and others, who would take responsibility, in their departments, for advising the President on what the situation is. And, this President needs a lot of hand-holding. He needs a lot, a lot of guidance, from a lot of people, a lot of the time.

So, if you put him in a position where his advisors are honest servants of government, even if they're not so good, this country might make it. But with Cheney, and his crowd, pushing the world to new wars, one after the other, and pushing the country itself into fascism, the country wouldn't survive.

Therefore, anybody who's running for high office, especially for President now, who is not willing to go after Cheney, and his people, and get them out quick, is not fit to run for President.

On the Republican side, nobody is running for President right now, except the incumbent President. Well, that's a sad story, which we can get to later. But I think if we got Cheney out, if we routed the neo-conservatives, this would produce a change in the world, in terms of the relationship of the United States to other countries; it would produce a change in politics in the United States; it would lead to a purging of the Democratic Party leadership, of the fascists who are controlling the Democratic Party from the top, the Democratic Leadership Council, which is a bunch of fascist neo-cons, who are in bed with, deeply in bed, with the neo-cons we're trying to get out on the Republican side, in government.

So, that's the situation. So, at the present moment, we don't have a choice. I have to win the Presidency. And I have to win it by the route of getting Cheney out, and few other things done.

We Can Solve the Crisis

Now, look at the world situation.

In addition to this threat of war, which has arisen largely because the financial crisis is so severe, that people would like to make a war, in order to establish a dictatorship, so that the economic-financial collapse would not cause a revolt against the present policies of government. It's that simple.

So, let's look at that. We can solve that problem. No miracles, no rabbit out of the hat. We could do, essentially, what Franklin Roosevelt did, in 1932-33, when he was running for President, and became President, to pull the United States out of depression, with a recovery program, based largely on principles very similar to those which were used by Franklin Roosevelt to deal with the last depression, and to get us out of that mess. We could do that.

We also have, one of the greatest opportunities in the world for recovery, in terms of relations with Eurasia. That is, Europe and Asia. As you probably know, presently there is a growing collaboration among the governments and peoples of China, India, Southeast Asia countries, and so forth. As you probably know, I'm deeply involved in South Korea, in trying to deal with the Korea problem. There are people in Japan we're talking to, who would be willing to go along with that, if we could push that. We have, in China, the largest infrastructure projects in the world are now in progress. The Three Gorges Dam is now going ahead. Additional water projects are major. India and China are discussing now, using this great Brahmaputra water project, coming out of Tibet, for hydroelectric power, and also water management of one of the great rivers of the world.

And the Mekong Development region, which comes from China, south, affecting most of Southeast Asia, is also one of the great projects of the world.

China is building the highest-level railroad, in the world! In Tibet! Most of you couldn't breathe on that railroad, without some kind of an aspirator, with oxygen masks, because the pressure is so low up there, that you couldn't breathe through it, unless you're used to that sort of thing. But they're building a railroad at the highest level, a railroad that's never been built in the world.

They're moving vast amounts of water, from Tibet, into north China, which is arid, opening up the Yalu River, which is this great river in North China, which is drying out, and also areas like Sinkiang, to make an area which needs habitation--that is, the Chinese people need the habitation, they need to move a lot of the population from the coastal area, toward the inland area. But these inland areas don't have the infrastructure, they don't have the water, they don't have the development. So, if China engages in development, moves its population inward into developed areas, raises the level of technology, moves the water where it has to be moved, generate power, build a transportation grid, of the type that was designed first by Sun Yat-sen, the founder of modern China. Do these things, and China will be a great market for trade with Europe, and other parts of the world.

What I've been involved in over some years now, in pushing what's called the Strategic Triangle. That is, cooperation between Russia, China, and India, on the assumption that if these three countries which are dissimilar, in interests and culture, could agree on this kind of cooperation, the other nations of Eurasia could come into an agreement, with China.

Since then, we've had, because of the depression in Europe, there is more and more interest from Europe, from Germany, from France, from Italy, in improved relations, cooperation, with Asia. Some of the greatest projects in the world are now being discussed among these countries. This is one of the greatest bases for financial recovery of the world, known.

We have, in the Americas, a similar situation. You go out West, you go into the Great American Desert, and from the Great American Desert in the United States, down into northern Mexico, between the two Sierra Madres, a desert or semi-desert area. We have much water going into the Arctic Ocean, from the north. If we bring that water southward, we open up the development of the Great American Desert. We also cooperate with Mexico, in developing its water management, to turn the area between the two Sierra Madres, into a rich area of development, with enough water, power, and so forth.

We have a new relationship in North America. We have the Southern California, Arizona, the aquifers there are collapsing. The ground is actually collapsing, because the water, the aquifers are being drained. We can rebuild that.

We require large-scale transportation projects. We almost have no railroads any more in the United States. We don't have a transcontinental railway system!--of the type that was built in Lincoln's time! We don't have it any more. It's been destroyed!

We don't have enough power production to meet American needs. The power system is collapsed because of deregulation, and other filthy schemes.

So, we have a great market for development, internally, in the United States. A great market for development in Eurasia. And together with Eurasia and the Americas, we could solve the problems of Africa, at least of terms of providing the infrastructure they need, in order to undertake their own internal development and reconstruction.

So, we have a great opportunity. But what do we have? We have idiots in the United States, who, in face of a world depression, in face of a threat of war, are unwilling to deal with the actual threat of war; who spread wars into areas where the greatest potential for development exists; and will not attend to the problems of our own country, in which the lower 80% of the family income brackets in the United States, have undergone a collapse in absolute physical standard of living, since 1977. And that's been the policy.

Our health care system is disintegrating. Our education system is disgusting -- it's a disgrace. Everything is wrong. The country has become corrupt, because people in positions of leadership, looking at these conditions, which have been piling up over decades, sit out then, and say, "We have to learn to live with them." They say to us, "You can't put the toothpast back in the tube." And I've demonstrated many times, in the past, that I can put the toothpaste back in the tube! Give me a tube of toothpaste, and a couple of tools. Take the toothpaste out of the tube. I'll put the toothpaste back in the tube. So, we don't have to say, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. He can do it -- I can do it! That's why I should be President. I can put the toothpaste back in the tube!

The Difference Between Man and Beast

Now, we have another problem, another deeper problem, which all these other problems represent: The trouble with humanity, for as far back as we know, is that humanity has been characterized chiefly, by societies in which some people, a few, either hunt people down, like animals, or herd them, like cattle. This is the characteristic of the United States today.

For example, go back to the period right after Lincoln's assassination. Now, prior to the assassination of Lincoln, you had a great leader, for freedom, among the slaves in the United States, Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass said, to free a man from slavery, a woman from slavery, you must first free their mind from slavery. You do that by giving them access to the highest level of knowledge available in the world. And once their mind is free, and developed, then you can not keep them in chains. It's impossible.

What happened after the abolition of slavery, was, some reformers came in and said, "No, no. Don't overeducate them! Don't educate them above their expectation for employment in life, i.e. sharecropping, or similar kinds of employment."

This is only typical of the problem around the world, still today. To treat people like that, is to treat them as human cattle, not human beings. This is the condition of most people around the world--is they're still living in conditions which approximate those of human cattle, not people.

So, the deepest problem here, which all the problems are related to, is what's happening to the mind, or the lack of what's happening to the mind, of people around the world.

Now, you've noticed in this youth movement we've organized over the past four-odd years, that my emphasis was on precisely this: It's that you must start from the top. You must stop from elementary issues of knowledge, at the highest level of existing human knowledge. And once you've made the breakthrough, in these areas, as with this Gauss business on the 1799 paper on the complex domain; once you've made that breakthrough, and know what it is that makes a human mind different from that of an animal, you've made the breakthrough. You have now freed yourself from the chains on the mind, the chains that make people human cattle. Who say, "Well, we're just like that. We get information."

"You want information? Mostly lies. It's called information."

"We watch television, we know what's going on."

"You do?"

And so forth.

So the problem is, the greatest, the worst slavery, is the slavery of the mind, due to a lack of understanding, by people, of what the difference is between man and an animal.

No animal could discover a universal physical law of the universe. Only a human being can. Human beings are not animals. When you try to make them animals, you drive them into bestiality, and they begin to behave like beasts.

So, the big crisis is: what are we doing? There are physical problems that have to be dealt with. The danger of war. The collapse of economy. The failure to undertake the great opportunities to build the human race, to build opportunities. But the worst crime of all, is the neglect of the human mind. The neglect of those qualities of the human mind, which make a human being different than a beast.

Why is it wrong for people to hold people in slavery? Why is it wrong?

Don't you keep cattle? Don't cattle farmers treat the cows nicely? Don't they care for them? Don't they call for the veterinarian? Don't they give the cows their shots? Don't they milk them regularly? Don't they call them to the barn, at the right time? Don't they feed them?

Of course, they do. What are you complaining about?

What about human beings? You put them in the field to work at the right time. You move them to the field, back to the barn, and so forth: it's called commuting. You teach them which stall to go into: that's called education. You milk them, which is called employment.

So, what the difference between man and the beast?

You see, if man were a beast-- it's an old story I keep telling over and over again. But if man were in a beast, under the conditions on this planet, during the oscillating ice-ages of the past two million years, if man would have been an ape, or type of ape, with or without a tail, the human species at no time would have exceeded several million living individuals.

We have on this planet now, six billion or more living human individuals. How did that happen? How did the human race succeed in having over six billion people, when, if they were an ape, like some of the President's co-thinkers, there'd only be three million of them. How did that happen?

Because the human mind is capable of making discoveries, which we call universal physical principles, both principles of the physical world, and also principles of relations among human beings. Sometimes called culture. Sometimes called Classical art. These principles have enabled man to cooperate, to transmit this knowledge from generation to generation, in the form of what we call culture, scientific discoveries and so forth. This has enabled the human race to increase its power to exist, not only in numbers, but to increase life expectancy, to shift the condition of humanity from a beast-like going into the stall, or hunting in the woods, into the ability to have an intellectual life, a human form of cultural life. All of these things have come because man is capable of discovering principles.

And therefore, the most important thing about society, is not simply the physical considerations of human life. But more important are the social ones. That is: Are you, in your own mind, a human being? Are you doing things which correspond to what a human being should do, as opposed to a lower form of life? Being fed, being housed, being cared for, being employed? These are things that animals enjoy. What about things that human beings enjoy?

Well, what's the difference?

The Meaning of Life

You should know this well, because of the generation of most of you here. You have been dumped, by your parents, who are now between, say, 50 and 60 typically, a generation which is running the United States, and mismanaging it, very successfully, into what's called a no-future generation. Your potential for accomplishing something is, not only recognizing that fact, which I think most of you do, but recognizing that you can do something about it. That you can give yourself a future. You can give the children you expect to have, or your generation to have, a future. You can even persuade your poor dumb parents, that they too, can have a future, and that you are their future.

Because the meaning of the life of a human being is, what? We all die. So what's the meaning of life, if we all die? You don't get out of life alive, do you? No one gets out of life alive. We're all carried out, right? Or buried out.

Therefore, what is the meaning of life? What's your goal in life? To live forever? No, you're not going to do that.

What's your meaning, what's your purpose in life? Your purpose in life, is what comes out of it. What comes out of your generation, and your existence. What you contribute to the future.

It comes out of respect for what those who've gone before you, have contributed, to humanity. You study, and admire, the great contributions of preceding generations. You respect the sacrifices of your grandparents and parents, for what they tried to do for you. Because they made you possible. You are their future. You respect that. You try to learn from that.

But, more than that, you say, "I've got to do better. I've got to make something come out of my life, which means something for future generations."

This is a human quality, which no animal has. No animal thinks of changing the order of society, or animal society. Of changing the way the earth runs, in order for future generations of that species. Only human beings do that. The meaning of humanity is that. The courage to live as a human being, comes from that.

If you know that you have a mortal life, which has a beginning, and an end--you don't know when these extremities are, you've got a pretty good idea when you were born. You sometimes doubt how you were conceived. Especially these days, with the Baby Boomer generation hanging around. How did they do it? Which of these guys was actually my mother? Which of these guys was actually my father? "I don't know."

"Who's my brother? Who's my sister?"

"I'm not sure."

So, these are the problems we mutually face. You and I. You face the problem. I recognize the problem, and I face what you're facing.

But that's the situation.

So, what makes us human, is a sense that our life has a purpose. And you think, how does a soldier, in a justified war, fight?

He has to take the risk of dying. Not that he seeks to die. Only an idiot wants to die in warfare. But he takes the risk. Why? Because there's something more important to him than his life. And that is, what comes out of it: the future.

So, therefore, what you can do: you can find your courage, in giving yourself a sense, that you have a future, that you have the importance and ability to discover how to make a contribution to the future of this nation, the future of this planet, and the future of those who come after you, your children, your grandchildren. That is the source of your courage.

The source of your courage involves ideas. That you're able to assimilate important discoveries that were made by people before you, and use them. You're able to spread these ideas, to people who need them. You're able, if you work at it, to make new discoveries, or improvements in old discoveries, which are transmitted to future generations. You can undertake great projects, such as building water systems, transportation systems, power systems, better educational systems, health-care systems. You can contribute to this. You can make improvements in technology. You can build something where it's needed.

You can have a future in the outcome of your life. You never have to doubt the importance of being yourself, the importance of living, of making a contribution to humanity. That is what your parents' generation does not have. They became a no-future generation. They became a "now" generation. They're looking for a life-style. From week to week, they're trying to change their life-style, as the old one becomes boring. Or simply because they need variety.

"Gee, I wish I could change my sex."

"What would you change to?"

"I don't know. Maybe it hasn't been invented yet. I'll watch television, and maybe I'll find out. I'll look it up on the internet. Maybe there are new opportunities I don't know about."

This is the "now" generation! And that's the deep problem we face.

Thinking Several Generations Ahead

Now, what are my responsibilities in running for President?

My responsibilities involve all these things: Prevent war. There's no need for war. We will still need strategic defense, because somebody may go crazy. But we should have no purpose of going to war against some enemy. We don't have some enemy we should desire to make war on. Humanity is past the point that that makes sense.

Only wars to defend the order of society, to secure peace, are justified, when no other solution is available. So we're in a period where war is no longer properly on the agenda, as something to be desired. We're in the time where there is no inherent conflict, among nations. There may be conflict, but not inherent!

There's no reason that we should conflict with China, with India, with the countries of the Middle East, with Africa, or Europe. There is no justified reason to desire conflict with these countries. Rather we should desire that these countries would develop in ways, which would assure their good behavior in the future.

And that is not by beating them, that is by trying to strengthen them, by encouraging them to do things which are good.

That's our situation. We have a great crisis of humanity, many great crises, physical-economic crises.

For example, let's take the case of North Asia. Now, most of the mineral raw materials of Asia, today, are located in Central and North Asia. Central Asia is presently largely a semi-desert, or desert. North Asia is an arctic tundra, not a recommended neighborhood to live in, in the winter time. And the mosquitoes, flies, in the summertime, can be awful. And the muskeg can be terrible.

But, we have the possibility, first of all, of technologies to move water, which is going into the Arctic Ocean, into Central Asia, to bring back the Central Asia area around the Aral Sea, which is now drying out. To make Central Asia habitable. To make Sinkiang, a province of China, habitable, and so forth and so on. We have the ability to secure the development of this area, in which the large-scale natural resources, mineral resources, exist, for the future of all Asia, all Eurasia.

We also have the capability of understanding how this planet generates the organization of these so-called raw materials we require, especially minerals. That's known, or at least a good deal of it--we have to do more work on it. But we have to think ahead, several generations. Are we going to be using up certain minerals in parts of the world, when we need them? And how are we going to organize the replacement of those minerals? Either by recapturing them, or generating them anew?

These are great projects, for the coming generations, these kinds of things. Organizing the mineral resources, such as Central-North Asia, of the African Shield, of South America, and so forth, and some things up in Canada, and things like that. We have to organize this. We have to think about the future generations of humanity. We have to apply science and development to these problems, to ensure that we're taking care of humanity, three and four and five generations from now.

These are great projects.

We have to get out of the present mess in the world. We have to create the physical conditions, under which people in India and Southeast Asia and elsewhere, do not live like human cattle. We have to create the physical conditions, which free people from enslavement, to the conditions of human cattle. And the poverty in many parts of the world is immense.

India has now over 1 billion people, population. Just India alone. China, 1.3 or more billion people. In India, there's desperate poverty, among the great majority of the population. What are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about it?

In China, there's a two-generation plan of struggle, and development, to deal with precisely the problem of the poor in China. How do we secure for the poor in China, a future for them and their descendants? How do we develop the new areas, the water systems, and so forth, that are needed for this population, to raise its standard of living, and to secure its conditions of life? These are great projects.

We have to drive science forward. We have to explore space, because, by exploring space, we're discovering more and more about the laws of the universe. That's the function of space projects. It's not to conquer Mars. It's certain not to inhabit Jupiter -- none of you want to live on Jupiter. None of you presently would like to live on Titan, which is an Earth-sized moon of Jupiter, or Saturn, but it's not one place you'd like to live, with the kind of environment, the chemical environment--it would kill you instantly.

So, therefore, it's not just habitation of nearby planets, and so forth, that's our purpose in space, but rather to confront the universe, in ways which enable us to discover new physical principles we don't yet know. And since universal principles are universal, what we discover in space, will help us understand better....

These are the great projects.

We have to also think of education in new terms. We no longer qualify you, under a new educational policy, to pass an examination. A horrible thing -- passing an examination. It's like overcoming constipation or something like that. And there's no benefit from it, really. Overcoming constipation is a benefit, but this kind of education is no benefit.

I mean, what does it amount to? You go into a class. You rehearse in a present-day secondary school or university. You rehearse in the answers to what will be multiple choice questions. And if you pass the multiple choice examination, then the school gets a good mark. While you get ... nothing. Or virtually nothing.

University education's become more and more the same kind of thing. Look at the curriculum in the university! Look at the course levels! Look at what's in them! It's garbage. And you pay for it: The less content, the more you pay for it. And you don't have to pay for it now, you pay for it for the rest of your life.

And what do you get for it? Bubkes. Nothing.

This has to change.

And what my job is, is to take leadership, by taking the bull by the horns. Get us through this, and inspire your generation, to undertake the kinds of missions I've indicated, to commit mankind to solving the problems, these missions represent.

Why? To make us richer? No, not really. No, it's to make us better. Because if we are more efficiently committed to creating the conditions of life required by future generations, we can be happy in being ourselves. The main purpose of life, as Leibniz puts it, is happiness. True happiness is knowing that what you're doing in life, is going to be a benefit to future generations. And you take pride in being yourself. You have large courage, in being yourself! You don't run around trying to find an identity. You know what your identity is. It's your dedication to being useful, to future generations, by picking tasks, which you adopted, which you say, "This is what I'm going to work on in my life." You may change that from time to time, but you always have some idea of what am I going to do with my life? What is my purpose? What am I going to accomplish? And a sense of commitment to a mission, which benefits future generations, gives you a sense of identity, a sense of moral strength and authority, which otherwise is not available to you.

A Great Crisis in Humanity's Existence

My job is to set that forth before you, and to get others to engage themselves in doing the same thing I'm doing, in setting this thing before you more clearly.

We've come to a great crisis in the existence of humanity, with terrible threats, and some wonderful opportunities. We have to put these things together. And we have to cease the despair, which is overtaking this nation, and to a large degree, other nations as well, we have to say: "Get off the ground. Get up. Stand up. We have problems. We have opportunities. We have to have a future. Not just our personal future, but the future of those as expressed will come after me, who are expressions of my work."

And we have to change the world that way. The opportunities are great. Right now, as you know, from my trips to India, my trip to Turkey, my trip to France, recently, other trips, have been highly successful. I've been successful in the Arab-Islamic world, as being regarded as someone who is "different," who they prefer to live with on this planet, to what they have been offered by other people in the United States.

The same thing was expressed in Turkey. The same thing in India, the same thing in China, the same thing in other countries around the world. Our job, my job, is to be the friend of humanity, to become the President of the United States who is the friend of humanity, and recognized by humanity as their friend. That makes it possible.

That makes it possible, for us to reach out to other nations, to engage them with trust, in joint projects of great importance, and gives you the framework, in which to adopt a mission in life, for yourself, and for this nation. That's the big change. And now that you've seen the horror, of your parents' generation trying to turn you, not by intent, but simply by negligence and foolishness, into a no-future generation, you should realize --and I think many of you do -- that you have to do something. This must change! It can not go on this way! And therefore you have to have not merely the negative sense, of what's wrong, but you have to have a positive sense, of what could be right. What are the immediate tasks that could make things right, or at least better, and put them in a better direction.

You have to be a generation with a mission.

Thank you.

(Click here to read a transcript of the discussion period.)

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