Russian Symposium
Honors P. Kuznetsov

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

This statement was delivered to the Moscow symposium on LaRouche's behalf, by Schiller Institute scientific adviser Jonathan Tennenbaum.

May 26, 2002

The ship sank, because the captain gave blind trust to the ancient map he had been instructed to use. Is that not the situation with most among the governments and leading political parties of today's world? Are governments not controlled by assumptions which have no provable scientific basis, but which are accepted and followed as a matter of political authority, diplomatic agreements, or simply wishful, but prevalent popular opinions?

Or, take the worse case, in which the sinking ship is already settling down, as it prepares to plunge to the depths. At that point, a ship's official rushes in, assuring the terrified passengers that "Those are just rumors. The ship is not sinking. See!" he proclaims triumphantly, pointing to the stock-market chart he is holding up for all to see, "there are no reefs anywhere near this place!"

That is a fair description of the condition of political leadership and official economic forecasters throughout most of the world today. It is also the prevalent state of official science, in which arbitrary political doctrines, not science, are treated as if they were infallible principles of the universe. In place of science, mathematicians and others design games, which many people play with the obsessiveness of a compulsive gambler, who has gambled for three days without sleep, and is about to stake his life on one final throw of a pair of crooked dice.

Around most of the world today, there is a sea of such madness. The world is at the fag end of a system by which we have been ruled for much too long. It is a world in which it is usually said, "There is no truth, but only opinion." A world in which it is often said, "But, you can not go against popular opinion."

There is a famous story, by Denmark's beloved Hans Christian Andersen, about "The Emperor's New Suit of Clothes." In that story, a pair of swindlers persuade the foolish emperor and his advisers that the swindlers are crafting a wonderful suit of clothes for him. The clothes are, in fact, nonexistent, but the desire to believe is very strong, among the Emperor, his advisers, and the population of that city. So, on the appointed day, the Emperor steps forth from his palace to display his wonderful clothes to the admiring crowds of subjects standing at the sides of the streets. All goes well, until a little boy's voice penetrates the awesome stillness: "But, Daddy, he has nothing on!"

We need the voice of that little boy today. Perhaps, some of us should create that voice, a voice, as of an innocent child's, to be heard around most of the waiting, suffering world.