Conference Invite
This conference takes place in a time that challenges our moral fitness to survive. Even before the outbreak of the double crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing financial blowout, it was evident that the old world order — the attempted establishment of a unipolar world after the disintegration of the Soviet Union — was breaking apart. With the spread of the pandemic and the turn by the central banks to “helicopter money,” we have now reached exactly the moment Lyndon LaRouche had warned about in August 1971, when he forecast that the monetarist floating-exchange-rate policies adopted by President Nixon, following his abandoning of the Bretton Woods system, would lead to a new depression and the danger of a new fascism. From 1974 on, LaRouche and his science team warned repeatedly and published numerous studies, which pointed to the danger of the reemergence of old diseases and new pandemics as a result of the austerity policies imposed on the developing sector by the World Bank and the IMF.
Much of the so-called Western world lies in shambles. The dismantling of a previously excellent health system for the sake of private profit, which now glaringly demonstrates the shortsightedness of the liberal establishments, is just one of the many symptoms of a failed system. The demonstrated lack of solidarity within this Western Alliance in times of crisis, as has surfaced in the rift between the U.S. and the EU, as well as between the EU and its member states, is another such symptom — not to mention the disdainful disregard for the sovereignty of, and human life in, the nations of the developing sector. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, the moral crisis of the EU had become apparent to the world, in light of the EU policies on the refugee and migrant crisis.
On the other hand, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China has offered, for the first time in history, a real perspective to the developing sector to overcome poverty and underdevelopment. Since it was launched in 2013, this initiative has been joined by 153 countries. If one compares the BRI or New Silk Road with the concrete development plans for all continents worked out by LaRouche and his movement since the 1970s, one finds a great affinity, which is appropriately expressed in the several studies, The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, which are a blueprint for the global development of our planet. This also represents the economic platform for the needed new paradigm in international relations, which alone can stop the double pandemic of COVID-19 and the $1.8 quadrillion global speculative cancer.
Unfortunately, a large segment of the world’s liberal establishments is unwilling to reflect on the reasons for the failure of their system and unwilling to accept cooperation with the new system of collaboration offered by the BRI — even under conditions of pandemic and financial collapse. But a continuation of geopolitical confrontation under these conditions poses a threat to the existence of the entirety of human civilization.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche has therefore renewed the long-standing proposal of her late husband Lyndon LaRouche, that only the combination of the four most powerful countries — the U.S., China, Russia, and India — can put the agenda for a new paradigm on the table. She has called for an emergency summit of President Donald Trump, President Xi Jinping, President Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate the urgent reorganization of the bankrupt financial system through a New Bretton Woods system, and to establish a new level of international cooperation concerning strategic questions, joint science endeavors, physical economy, and a cultural renaissance.
The Schiller Institute will hold an international conference over the internet on April 25-26, which will bring together top experts from these fields from different parts of the world, to discuss with an international live audience the principles on which the new paradigm must be based to guarantee the durable existence of the human species.
Conference format
This internet conference will be live-streamed. Speakers will be connected by video, and will have the opportunity for dialogue with each other during the panel discussion periods. Live questions and discussion will be available for conference attendees, in written form, with a possibility for video questions to be determined.
Saturday, April 25, 10:00 a.m. U.S. EDT (16:00 CEST)
Panel 1: “The Urgent Need to Replace Geopolitics with a New Paradigm in International Relations”
This panel will discuss the principles on which a new strategic order must be implemented urgently — the common aims of humanity, the sovereignty of all nations, and the mutual benefit of all members of the human community. These principles can be found in the best contributions in the universal history of civilization, in the scientific principles of the physical universe and great classical art. These principles must be reflected in the definition of the interest of mankind from the standpoint of where the development of our species must be 100 years from now. That perspective from the future must inform the way we shape a new economic platform, as well as a new security infrastructure, new forms of scientific cooperation and a dialogue of classical cultures.
3:00 p.m. U.S. EDT (21:00 CEST)
Panel 2: “For a Better Understanding of How Our Universe Functions”
Existential threats to mankind such as the present COVID-19 pandemic can only be overcome by the strict application of measures of epidemic control, as China has created a new standard for this. At the same time, there must be an expansion of biological and virological basic research (including optical biophysics) to understand what life really is, and to understand better the interplay among the non-living, the biosphere, and the human noösphere. The thoughts of Kepler, Leibniz, Vernadsky, and Gurwitsch in terms of a “harmony of the universe” are essential.
Lyndon LaRouche called this approach the “Strategic Defense of the Earth,” encompassing both the defense of the planet against asteroids and comets and the fight against pandemics. This requires the development of new technologies based on higher energy-flux densities, such as advanced nuclear technology, energy and particle radiation, space science, superconductors, new materials, additive manufacturing processes, and robotics. Now, faced with the twin viruses of COVID-19 and monetarism, it is more important than ever to be optimistic about the human potential to build a better world against the Malthusian pessimism that views man as a predator and polluter.
As LaRouche has demonstrated in many fields, it is the creative potential of the human species which allows for the establishment of ever-higher scientific and technological platforms and discovery of the lawfulness of the universe in an unlimited way. The exploration of space is the physical challenge to our human identity that will spark the best of our potential to discover and inspire a community of destiny.
Sunday, April 26, 11:00 a.m. U.S. EDT (17:00 CEST)
Panel 3: “Creativity as the Distinctive Characteristic of Human Culture: The Need for a Classical Renaissance
The decadence that has entered much of the culture of the Western world is itself a sign of the end of the system. The cult of ugliness is dominating much of what counts as art today. Meaningless violence and perversion in the so-called entertainment industry play a role in shaping a popular culture in which mass shootings, drug addiction, and cultural pessimism are prevalent.
The replacement of the Dark Age of the 14th century, described in literature by Boccaccio and in paintings by Bruegel and Bosch, with the cultural optimism and new image of man of the Golden Renaissance in Italy and other parts of Europe, is a good example that human ingenuity can overcome terrible crises and replace them with new ideas and works of great art.
Today a revival of classical art is the indispensable precondition for mankind to open a new chapter in human history. A renaissance of classical music, and a dialogue of the best classical traditions of all cultures, must lay the foundation for a new renaissance. Works such as those of Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Du Fu, Shakespeare, Schiller, Tagore, Huang Gongwang, Rembrandt, Goya, Cervantes, Rabelais, and Pushkin, just to name a few, embody principles which inspire the creativity of the human mind and are as universal as principles of physical science. The knowledge of these arts is the basis for the aesthetic education of man. As Lyndon LaRouche wrote beautifully, the essence of great art is love. In this Year of Beethoven, we absolutely can gain the inner strength to master this crisis by evoking his spirit and by thinking like the great composer.
3:00 p.m. U.S. EDT (21:00 CEST)
Panel 4: “The Science of Physical Economy”
If anything has been demonstrated in this breakdown crisis, it is the complete failure of what normally passes for economics in the universities. Lyndon LaRouche’s recognition of the fraudulent character of the theories of Norbert Wiener and John von Neumann, which still today dominate the world of statistics and algorithms, laid the basis for his advancement of the science of physical economy. LaRouche bases his understanding on the ideas of Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich List and the authors of the American System of economy, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, and Henry C. Carey, and develops it further on the basis of the physical conceptions of Bernhard Riemann and Albert Einstein. His record as an economic forecaster is outstanding.
It is notable that the Chinese economic model has much in common with the American System of economy, which among other things has to do with the role of Sun Yat-sen and the better periods of American-Chinese cooperation.
Physical economy is not a specialized branch of science; rather, it encompasses the entirety of human knowledge, since it pertains to the creativity of human beings as such. What is needed today is a complete redefinition of what economic science actually is, for which new platforms of space science and space economics can serve as an orientation.
The conference will also be the proud occasion to present the publication of the first volume of the planned edition of the Collected Works of Lyndon LaRouche, which will contain some of his basic writings on physical economy.