The Lead

'What You Love, You Own; What You Hate, You Lose'

by Dennis Small,Mike Billington (EIRNS) — Jan. 30, 2026

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche closed today’s 139th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) by citing the above passage from Friedrich Schiller, the namesake of the international institution she founded in 1984. Its importance to the strategic crisis we are facing today, is that the ongoing breakdown of the entire trans-Atlantic system is due to the fact that it has been built on a “vision of man” as a fundamentally evil being, a being to be hated who can only be controlled and made to submit by a strongman or authoritarian state.

It was British so-called “philosophers” like Thomas Hobbes, she explained, who argued that man is an animal who has to be restrained and controlled by a “Leviathan,” which is why the American Revolution was fought against the British Empire. The ideas of the American Founding Fathers were based on the diametrically opposite views of Gottfried Leibniz, that Man is essentially good and that every man has the right to live a fulfilled, productive life.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The wisdom of the Declaration of Independence is as true today as it was 250 years ago, especially when we are being told that entire categories of people are “animals,” “criminals,” or “terrorists” that must be contained, controlled, and killed at whim. It is this fundamental dehumanization of others that nearly a century ago opened the doors to fascism in Europe; it is the dehumanization we witness in the ongoing genocide in Gaza; that is being applied against nations like Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti in the Western Hemisphere; and that is knocking at the doors of American cities today.

Zepp-LaRouche urged special attention be paid to the “incredible danger” of the potential for a war in Iran, which could expand both regionally and globally. Equally dangerous is the explosion of the $2.4 quadrillion debt bubble, being driven by the intentional devaluing of the U.S. dollar, which could trigger the collapse of the entire world financial system.

The newly released U.S. Defense and Security Policy documents demonstrate that U.S. policy has now dropped any pretense of defending “democracy and human rights,” and is now openly pursues raw global hegemony, the power of the strong against the weak. The European economies are now in free fall, Zepp-LaRouche reported, and there is a clear danger of a new fascism on the rise to confront the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution.

At the conclusion of the IPC meeting, she called participants to action:

“If you are talking about a New Paradigm, it can only function if there is a complete change in the way we relate to our fellow human beings and the world at large. There are many thinkers you can study to look at how they approached that. You can look at Confucius. Confucius said, among other things, if you want to decide to love, you can switch it on; you can decide to love, and you do it instantly. Lessing said the same thing. I have tested it….

“With nations, it is the same thing. If you give another culture, another civilization, another nation the benefit of the doubt that they have something universally important to contribute, you will find that they normally do it.

“I would like to encourage people to look at these declarations, the Ten Principles, the discussion of Jan. 12th, when we had exceptional speakers from different countries who all addressed the need to go back to a system of international law. Then share your own thoughts with this organization, and help us build this big conference on March 2nd. I think we have an extremely short window of opportunity, which hopefully will not close within the next three days….

“So, help us to build this movement of international world citizens, and activate your colleagues, your neighbors, your family, your friends; because this is a time when we really have to make the international peace movement grow and overcome that which divides us.”