Candidate for U.S. Senate in New York Diane Sare began her May 15 “New York Symposium” discussion by recalling Lyndon LaRouche’s forecast of both the post-industrial shift in the U.S., as it began over 50 years ago, and the cultural warfare that accompanied that, whose intention was to destroy the idea of Man made in the image of the Creator, with infinite potential. What makes humans unique is our capacity to change our nature at will, unlike animals. The Global South, today, is moving in the needed direction which LaRouche had outlined and fought for, while the West has abandoned the principles which built our nations. We must change our policies. While traveling around the State of New York, she explained, you can’t help but be amazed at the decline of many of the upstate New York cities. However, that can change in the span of a generation!
Sare’s guest was Roger Ham, a long-time LaRouche associate, born and raised in the Binghamton area. Paraphrasing FDR, Ham began by identifying pessimism as that evil which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In spite of the difficult times through which we are passing, we are on the verge of the greatest leap forward in human history. Ham described two qualitative leaps in the economy of Upstate New York as an example of what is possible. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, reduced transportation costs by up to 95% and led to an explosive growth in the population and economic activity in many New York cities. From 1820 to 1850, the population of Syracuse increased 8,900%! You could never have predicted that in 1820. The canal linked the entire interior of the United States to the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. Railroads later replaced much of that transportation, but furthermore, built up the economy.
As a second example, Ham described the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power plant, inaugurated in 1895. An 1892 book, The New Wonder of the World—Buffalo, The Electric City, forecast the unlimited potential of Buffalo, New York. The city had already become the largest grain- and coal-receiving center in the world, as well as one of the largest trading centers in lumber, livestock, and fish. All new revolutionary technologies have discontinuous effects, he noted. Today, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is being built and connecting many nations. The U.S. could join with other nations in the greatest development age ever.
