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The LaRouche Youth Movement makes Its First Trip to Moscow

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LaRouche Youth Movement members in Moscow, at the Moscow State University. Left to right: Daniel Grasnack-Tente, Jessica Tremblay, Prof. Andrei Kobyakov, and Sergei Strid.

The LaRouche Youth Movement Makes Its First Trip to Moscow

by Sergei Strid
from the April 24, 2006 The New Federalist, Vol. XX, No. 8

April 17 (EIRNS)—Three members of the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) from Berlin, Jessica Tremblay, Daniel Grasenack-Tente, and Sergei Strid, were invited to attend a conference, in Moscow in early April, on “Human Being Formation,” organized by the Moscow International Film School (MIFS), a secondary school using alternative methods in education, which was founded in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The principals of the school had visited the LaRouche movement’s office in Los Angeles earlier this year, where they became inspired by the curriculum encompassing physical science and Classical art, and were overwhelmed by the level of concentrated intellectual work, which began early in the morning with the geometric curvature group, and ended late with the rehearsal of a string quartet. Now, they want to bring this process to their school in Moscow, Russia.

Thus, when the conference began on April 5, the LYM was given the honor of giving the first presentation, which we entitled, “Out of the Bushes, Into the Future.” Attending were approximately ten international guests, eight teachers,what we gave him, and 70 students, from the ages of 13 to 17.

Tremblay opened by emphasizing the uniqueness of the American Constitution as a concept of a nation-state committed to the general welfare, and how the oligarchy launched the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) in order to destroy this idea. Although people here are well aware of the devastating neo-liberal shock therapy employed against Russia in the 1990s, neither the contemporary collapse of the economies of “the West,” nor the history of the struggle between the “two Americas,” is very well known in Russia. So, when Tremblay read the quotes from Lord Bertrand Russell on how to “produce an unshakeable conviction that snow is black,” half the audience was stunned. Developing the method employed by the LYM to create a paradigm-shift, she elaborated on the principles of bel canto voice training, showing a video of how the singing made the difference at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention in Boston, and another clip of the German LYM performing Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus,” as an example of the power of well-tempered polyphony originating from the human singing voice.

Platonic vs. Romantic ‘Love’

The question of the equality of emotion in discoveries in physical science and performance of Classical music, caused the most controversy throughout the conference, where we clearly saw the difference between “love” as in the Platonic-Christian idea of agape¯, and the superficial, Romantic notion of “love,” represented by most of the participants.

In reaction to speeches by the other participants, including international guests involved in similar projects in Thailand, Japan, Poland, Holland, and South Africa, we were able to make some interventions, which clearly showed how the power of LaRouche’s ideas in a dialogue among cultures, through the introduction of the higher principle, lifts the discussion to a different level, based on universals, rather than a mishmash of different opinions. An example:

On the ostensibly destructive behavior of the Thai government against local tribes, Grasenack-Tente spoke about the effects of globalization on all nations of the world, and the need for the institution of the nation-state to defend the people. If we don’t solve these problems, different ethnic minorities will not have a chance to survive anyway.

Russia’s Intellectual Identity

The difference between how Russians and Western Europeans look at themselves quickly became clear to us: Whereas much of the Classical, humanist tradition of scientific thinking in the West has been destroyed through the influence of the CCF’s rock-drug-sex counterculture, in which anyone who claims to know something to be true is labelled an “authoritarian personality,” Russians have no problems with mentors from whom they can learn something—it is even something to be praised!

Individual thinking is seen as a virtue. Sometimes this results in endless debates inside the fishbowl, or, as the saying goes: You have two Russians, but three opinions! However, on the positive side, if you take the conversation into the realm of ideas, and, for example, bring in LaRouche’s discoveries in the science of physical economy, you will often get an interesting discussion going.

This was the case when we addressed about 30 chemistry students at a meeting which lasted more than two hours, at Moscow State University. We gave them a full political briefing about the cultural paradigm-shift in the West, and how Lyndon LaRouche has created a youth movement. This led to a short presentation of what physical economics is, with illustrations such as LaRouche’s Triple Curve pedagogy, and V.I. Vernadsky’s conception of the Noösphere as the necessary approach the development of Russia and Eurasia—concepts with which these chemistry students already had some familiarity. During the discussion period, students wanted to know our view on the “Rainbow Revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia, the impact of the LYM on American politics, and on music and culture. Afterwards, we engaged in further private discussions.

Another noteworthy example of this intellectual tradition, was the comment of a former parliamentarian, who approached us following one of our interventions at the education conference. He said he found our ideas interesting, and wanted to know more about LaRouche and our movement. We gave him some literature and set up a meeting, which opened by reporting that he had read the material, and started commenting on it; this already showed a higher degree of intellectual rigor than we find among the average U.S. Congressman or MP in Europe. From there, we had a good discussion on the nature of physical economics, globalization, ecology, and oligarchism, fighting out ideas on how to measure the performance of an economy, and the question of power vs. energy. This was only one of the meetings we had with different groups.

This first visit ever by a LYM delegation to Moscow, opened up a lot of new doors for further collaboration. With the now-imminent collapse of the world financial system, getting to know LaRouche’s ideas and mastering the principles of physical economy will be essential also for Russian patriots who want to help their country. As one of our Russian friends put it: This is merely the beginning of a process, of doing the good!

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