Lyndon LaRouche Addresses Manhattan Town Hall Event

In the spirit of the Fireside Chat series with Lyndon LaRouche, Mr. LaRouche addresses a live town hall event in Manhattan, answering questions from supporters and activists in the greater New York area.

Transcript

What follows are the opening and closing remarks from Mr. LaRouche’s participation at the live event. The transcript of the Question and Answer period will be posted later.

DENNIS SPEED:  About in October of last year, Lyndon LaRouche initiated what was called the Manhattan Project, and this was a project to begin to retake the United States, by reinvoking, in an efficient way, the memory of, and the work of Alexander Hamilton, and the Hamilton/Washington Presidency, the first American Presidency.  To that end, we’ve been holding town meetings, we’ve been holding other meetings for many months now, and the process has now begun to mature, and we’re about to take it to a completely different place, different level.   For the last six weeks, Lyndon LaRouche has been addressing the nation, via a Thursday telephone conference call, and over 500-plus people each week get on, and there have been now a few thousand people that have now gone through this process.

What we’re beginning to see is that the citizens, are beginning to get the idea that they are free to think, and free to find out how to think in a time of crisis.  There’s no American more prepared and has had a better record of actually demonstrating his ability to forecast and to know what the truth is, because he sticks to the truth, no matter what the adversity is, that’s his mission; and he thinks that that should be your mission.

And so without further ado, I’d like to introduce somebody whom you all know:  Lyndon LaRouche. [applause]

LYNDON LAROUCHE:  Look, as I indicated before just by the remarks leading in here, I’ve been conducting a series of Thursday events, in the late evening, and those go on beyond that, because we’re going into a national broadcast, effectively, discussion.  Now, this thing has worked, and I think as a result of what has worked so far, that, we have now decided, among bouncing ideas around us, that I should appear on this date, and perhaps for later dates in the same way.

Now, the intention is, and my intention is, we have a scattered organization in the nation, that we, our organization; so different parts of the local organization have their own particular style.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with having an own style, but the question is how do we get a coherent, national viewpoint expressed through that medium?

So what we have done, as we’ve done for the recent weeks each Thursday, we’ve done just exactly that, and we’ve taken account of what the effect of this has been, what the discussions are, what the issues are, what the nature of the questions are, what we can do as an organization in order to bring about a coherent, not a random this or that, but a coherent view, of what the state of the United States is right now, from what our standpoint is as a patriotic organization, and in respect to important people abroad who are interested in this same issue.

And so therefore, that’s been the intention, and what we’re done generally so far in the experiment which we’ve run, on the Thursday event, late at 9 o’clock [Eastern time] or so; late in the evening, in order to synchronize our audience which, of course, obviously goes primarily around the six regions of the United States.   So by putting it that way we’ve been able to have some very profitable results, because the results are largely not only what I say, but what the questions are which are the people on the other end of the phone are asking, and also in terms of discussion; discussion of those matters, and trying to clarifying an understanding of what the principles must be, which must be considered in order to address the obvious implicit message of our organization as such.

We are a unique organization; there is nothing like us at our best, in any part of the United States, in any part of the world in general,  we are, as an organization, a unique institution.  We have, however, suffered from the effect in recent years in which we have different organizations, or different parts of the organization — but they’re really different organizations; and they’re fairly, relatively small in number.  Not by any means, in no case something comparable to what happens in Manhattan, in the events here.   And therefore, the point was, is to introduce a coherent approach, to the problems which this scattered form of organization has produced, when we’re trying to do, while we have different people in different areas, as in this locale as such, or in other parts of the United States, where we’re active, that we’re going to have an effective, common approach, in terms of the discussion process in different parts of the nation, and among different individuals.  And if people were interested in these things, whose ideas  are coherent with the kind of questioning which we think would be profitable.

And this has been elementarily very profitable so far, very successful; it’s not some bamboozle, it’s not something great or this, it’s simply us, dealing with leading projects, not just accidents but leading projects, on which the development of the function of the United States as a leading body must cohere with each other.  It doesn’t mean they have to agree with each other on everything, but the discussion should be coherent, in the sense, dealing with the issues, broadly defined issues which are most urgent inside the United States, but also internationally.

And what I’m able to do essentially, because of my relationships with international affairs, in distant, related organizations to our own; that we are trying to build, and are building a broad organization, in the United States, which is coherent with the people of the United States who are in this process.  And to unite that, inside the United States, with coherent issue-matters which are international.

We are concerned with China;  we are concerned with Russia; we are concerned with Germany; we’re concerned with Italy; we’re concerned with France, and so forth and so on, and including Greece, of course.

So therefore, we’re trying to create an international coherent force, among different nations which have different specific cultures, to bring the forces of that type into collaboration in the form of a dialogue relationship in common concerns.  And therefore, the time has come, to come to my point which I’m making right now, is that the natural place in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton is to situate the formation, or re-formation and redevelopment, of the United States, by locating the questions to be asked, and answered, from the standpoint of Manhattan, from Alexander Hamilton.

So Hamilton was the true founder of our society, in leading it, bringing it to a unity.  There would have been no unity in the United States without Alexander Hamilton.   He was the genius who took a sloppy organization in Philadelphia, and turned it into an organization, the mightiest organization intellectually, on the planet.  He, however, of course, had opponents, and some of these opponents came from what we call today, the Southern states, and we have never been rid of the obscenity of what some of these Southern states have tended to represent; not because of the people themselves, but because of the kind of leadership in the area which is the area, of course, of the Confederacy.  And there’s no significant difference between the Confederacy and what goes off in many parts of the United States today.

Now, my view is this:  That what we must do, is take the area of Manhattan, which for reasons of Alexander Hamilton and related matters, is the natural center of the intelligence of the people of the United States, and to bring that thing into a united force, or a unifying force which will enable us in the United States in particular, to develop a coherent kind of consideration by the United States itself.  But also, thus, by that method, to create a much-needed inspiration, for our people, but also for other people in other parts of the world.

Most parts of the world are divided, deeply, in culture and other respects.  I believe that the United States is the most unifying organization on the planet, in terms of the history of things as such, and in terms of the emergence of new developments, as in China.  Well, China’s a very ancient nation, as you all know; it’s one of the original societies which are of cultivation, in the whole planet.  It’s had setbacks at certain points; it’s coming back full.

China today is the most important nation, in terms of capability of all the nations of the planet today.  They have the greatest rate of genius; now this genius is deep within China’s culture, but what’s happened is the Chinese culture, the culture of China has restored itself, to the kind of the thing it was at the earlier periods of greatest achievement of China, then.

Now, that’s only a model.  We have other parts of the world. Our job is, while we are a certain nation, the United States, with close alliances, we also realize the time has come, that the old idea of nations as being set against each other is nonsense. Disagreements have to be resolved; false things have to be corrected.  But the objective is to bring mankind as a body together, in their different languages, their different cultural histories or the examples of that.

We must unify the planet!  Get rid of the diseases which have killed mankind repeatedly.  You know, the Renaissance is a good example, of what the achievement was.  The time has come, that we must do our part to this effect.

But first of all, foremost, we must bring coherence to the United States itself.  There is in cultural divisions, there is no efficient coherence within the United States as a whole.  This area, the area which is situated around Manhattan, contains all kinds of people in it, but there’s a very significant part, of the population of the Manhattan area, in the immediate vicinities, which has a very special common belief and dedication; maybe it’s only 25%; maybe it’s as much as 35%; I don’t know the measure, we haven’t tested it.   But we do know that when you get into about the 20-25% range, of the population of the area of Manhattan and its immediate surroundings, you are dealing with a force which is the most efficient means and instrument, for bringing the people and culture of the United States, to some common degree of understanding.

Considering the evil that’s going on in the Congress, the foulness which is destroying us, swindling kinds of policymaking, bad Presidents — I mean not just bad Presidents, I mean evil Presidents!  The Bushes, for example.  The Bushes are not things you want to be caught in.

You have other kinds of people;  Obama is not fit for human consumption.  What he’s doing now is evil, absolute, Satanic evil.   The man is stupid; when he’s pumped up, he’s arrogant, and he vicious.  And he’s trying to get us into thermonuclear war, globally.

So therefore, we must have a certain development of togetherness, not as something just a wishful thing, “oh, we’re going to join the same club” — we’re not talking about a club. We’re talking about human beings, we’re talking about society, and cultural things that are important.  We’re trying to bring these things together.

But the main thing is, mankind, contrary to some people’s ideas, is not something which anyone can just pass off.  Mankind is a  creative force.  There is no other animal, or no animal who can equate what mankind represents.  The human mind is a unique thing.  It has no comparison directly; yes, you want to pat your dog, you want to milk your cow, but this is not what the matter is.   The point is, it’s the development, the progress of human beings’ ability, to change the course of mankind.

I’ll give you one example, because I want to get into the discussion as such:  One of the issues that are on the plate right now, is the question of water.  Now, this issue is particularly strong, in California and in southern states west of the Mississippi.  There’s a dreadful water problem.  Some people say we have to kill people to save the water; that’s going on in California, right now. The governor of California has that policy!  He’s declared it publicly; it’s not something we picked up from gossip or bad information, it’s his words alone!

Now his father was a good governor.  He’s a no-good governor!  He’s hostile to humanity per se, unlike his father, who was a generous man and an efficient representative.   But some things that got in there from Britain, between the father’s role, which was a good one,  and Schwarzenegger,  — Schwarzenegger, that is the devil himself, not in disguise, but in almost naked exposure!  So therefore, these are the kinds of things we have to consider.

We have to organize our intention with respect to humanity. We have to understand the issues of the future of mankind; as we know, nobody comes back from death, no one!  I don’t think it’s happened.  I mean, I’ve been close to death a couple of times, in health care and so forth.  But!  No one, as I’ve known, has ever come back from death.  The meaning of life therefore, is the role of what the individual can contribute to the future of mankind.  And this comes in all kinds of ways:  It comes in concern by some people for other people; all the kinds of things that make life better for humanity in general.   And that’s what we’re supposed to be.

And I would say that one thing here is extremely important: Where’s the unity,  the efficient unity of our system of government in the United States, when we have what’s happening in the Southern states now?  What’s happening in other locations? What’s happening to our children?  The degeneration of the society.  The stupidity of the educational system!  The destructive force which has now become, what, for example, Manhattan had one of the best systems, of education anywhere — what happened to it?  What happened to the destruction of the teaching process which existed in Manhattan, among children who often came from poor families, and other families.

And therefore, what’s happened, we have to come to ourselves, and to organize ourselves as actually part of the nation, not New York as such, but the role of the New York area portends for the people of the nation.  Hamilton’s tradition.

And therefore, my contention was, well, look:  I was living in Manhattan for a considerable time; I went through all kinds of experiences there, good and bad.  I was generally successful in what I wanted to do on the good; on the bad, I was not always able to beat off the beasters.  [laughs]  But so therefore, my view was, for me, for my background, from my history, from my past, for my destiny, I said, even though I’m not living in Manhattan, I said, “This is the area, in which the place is, to rebuild the United States.” And therefore let’s take the forces in this region, not just limited to this region but forces in this region, and mobilize them by their own conscience, to define what they can make as a contribution, to restoring the quality of intention of Alexander Hamilton.  And Manhattan is the headquarters, in the spirit of Alexander Hamilton.  It’s in that part of Manhattan, that Hamilton is remembered.  And it was Hamilton who created the effective role, of the United States.

And I think therefore, we can do it; we can organize it. Let’s reorganize the United States, to what it was intended to be, as Hamilton intended, and let us determine what action we have to take in concert, to bring back, very quickly, more and more influence of the legacy of Hamilton.  Which is not what it was at his time in practice, but the quality of intention which his life represented and his assassination represented, is a factor, which if unified within the region of Manhattan, can be the strongest force, that we in the United States can provide to save and to improve our United States.  [applause]

– CLOSING REMARKS –

DENNIS SPEED:  What we’re going to do now, since it’s coming up on 5 o’clock, we’re just going to have you do now a summary. Those of us who are here will take the rest of the questions, and I think I will ask you, therefore, a final question in relation to what you’re seeing here.

Here you have assembled people, who have organized around various of your initiatives.  You’ve heard the discussion, and of course, we have the upcoming Thursday phone call.  You made a big emphasis about this, and what I’d like you to do, since you’ve also talked about organizing; knowing what the potential is here in Manhattan, and knowing how you have recently — shall we say — cleaned certain things out of the environment, both of our organization and otherwise.  If you could say something to people about what you’d like to have them do.

LYNDON LAROUCHE:  OK, I’ll do it.  What we need to do, essentially, is we need to take this area here, which is Manhattan; the general area of Manhattan as a concept, not necessarily as an exact territory, but a concept.  And we know that while there are many funny things that go on in Manhattan; some juicy, but not good.  But we know that the question of music, Classical music composition and its performance is very important in terms of its role in Manhattan.

Why?  Because in Manhattan, you have people coming from all kinds of walks in life; they come from different parts of Europe, different parts of other parts of the world.  And you have a small part of the total part of the Manhattan population, and around it, you have a number of people who are human, really human, intrinsically.  That is, their impulses, their inclinations are human.  They’re artistic, they’re thoughtful, they’re scientific, this sort of thing.  This is what they fall into.  They fall into what we would call really a citizen; a citizen type.  A citizen type which is characteristic of a minority, a significant minority, in Manhattan.  This is a legacy of Alexander Hamilton; and you find that the Alexander Hamilton legacy is one of the most powerful influences in the United States.  It had also correlatives in Europe among the great artists, the greatest painters and musicians and artists in Europe.  But Manhattan has that quality in it.  They’re not all like that, but there are people who agree with that; convergent. People come into the United States; they find they fit into this Manhattan phenomenon.  They’re interested is in Classical music, they’re interested in science, they’re interested in all kinds of achievements of this type, of teaching and so forth — all these things.  And they are a group which is a very important unit in the Manhattan environment.

My view is, if I look at the United States as a whole, as I do, then I say this area of the Manhattan area contains within it the kind of group which, brought together in its proper active form, or enhanced active form, which provides a center of reference for transforming the United States itself, especially in the Manhattan region.

We’ve lost other parts of the United States which used to be good regions, because the technologies were gone.  The automobile industry was taken out of existence in the United States.  There were some skills in there which were almost lost; they’re not lost, there’s a little bit left of it here.  But you look at Detroit today, Michigan and Detroit today, it’s a destroyed nation practically.  You see other parts of the planet where we used to have great technology capabilities; they’ve been destroyed.  So, the question is, under these circumstances, how do we save the United States from the implications of these kinds of problems?

And therefore, if you wanted to do that, you would say, “Well, there’s one place there.  San Francisco has some interesting things, and some other places have some interesting things in them; but the best place to do it, if you want to do it — if you want to do what I know can be done — the place to center it, is Manhattan.  Not to limit it to Manhattan, but to center it.  You’ve got the best chance of meeting not screwballs, but good solid citizens with some talents of various kinds.  And that is the kind of thing around which you can regain some of the best things of what Manhattan had shown over the past time. Classical music is one of these things.  Certain scientific studies which are no longer very up to date, shall we say, and so forth.

So, my view is that this organization, this area, is the natural center for assembling the people of the United States as a whole, into a unified, or unifying force, which is needed desperately right now for the United States, and for the role we can play as the United States, in solving the deadly threats which humanity faces  right now.  I think we can, at a relatively high rate of progress, we can bring that trend about.  And if we can bring the trend about, we can get the trend to improve itself.  And that’s the way I would say we have to get it.

That’s why I came here today this way, with this kind of message.  I think we can take a core of what is the Manhattan region; identify that core, and realize that core — when assembled properly — can be a force within that region, which can then radiate a unifying effect on other parts of the United States.  I think that’s the best shot, in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton, the best shot we can take right now.  The most efficient shot we can take right now.  [applause]

DENNIS SPEED:  So, I want to thank Lyn, I want to thank you for being with us today.  I think you’re indicating that you intend to do this again.  We’ll be very happy to accommodate you in that, and one way or the other, we’re going to hear from you this Thursday.

LYN:  That’s right.

DENNIS SPEED:  That’s right; OK, good.  OK, so just join me again, everybody, in thanking Lyn for being with us here today. [applause]