St. Augustine reported that if human beings were exposed to enough horrific violence, such as the Roman amphitheater spectacle of lions devouring Christians alive, most would become numbed to the violence—partially as a psychological defense mechanism—and could be driven into denial, passivity, and moral paralysis.
A century ago in Europe, people claimed that they didn’t smell the gas ovens. This century, the images of Gaza have become so painful that many just avert their eyes and try not to think about it.
And now, we hear: “Plans to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran or Russia? Nobody is crazy enough to do that…”
Today there is widespread public reporting, amply documented in fact, that there is planning underway in London and Washington for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in one of various current theaters of war. The U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy, Elbridge Colby, is on record saying as much. So, too, are top advisors to the U.K. Defense Secretary, such as Malcolm Chalmers.
Additionally, warnings are coming, with increasing frequency and strength, from media celebrities such as Tucker Carlson, dissident retired military figures like Col. Larry Wilkerson, and of course the hundreds of prominent citizens from all around the world who have signed on to the open letter, “Appeal to Pope Leo XIV to Organize a Global Leaders Summit to Address the Questions of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament.”
And yet a stubborn political paralysis still pervades most of the population of the United States and Europe, a seeming unwillingness to believe it’s real, and that action is therefore incumbent on each and every one of us—before it is too late, and our last moment of mortal existence is engulfed in unquenchable regret.
The will to act, to organize, to protest in the streets comes largely from an internalized strength of optimism, even in the darkest hour, that a solution to the crisis exists and can be achieved. In other words, the old adage “I’ll believe it when I see it” is actually false. We are often self-blinded to obvious, visible problems when we are convinced that no solution exists. The truth is the contrary of the adage: “I’ll admit to seeing the problem, only once I believe that a solution is possible.”
This is why Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, has been emphatic that the solution to the crisis in the collective West is the double emphasis on returning the joy of Classical culture to those societies, so they can recall their power to create; and having the optimistic voice of the Global South heard loud and clear around the world, so that a “community of shared future for mankind” can be jointly built.
Readers of EIR should take note of the fact that, even as the collective West escalates its financial and military warfare in both the Iran and Ukraine theaters, three high-level international meetings will occur in the first half of September which will take up global policy alternatives to this reigning insanity. On Aug. 31-Sept. 1, the 25th annual summit of the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; on Sept. 1-4, the 11th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) will meet in Vladivostok; and on Sept. 12-13 the 18th BRICS Summit will take place in New Delhi, India.
In the middle of this set of events, EIR and the IPC will co-host an international roundtable on Sept. 4 that will be centered on the solution-concepts to the crisis: “An Alternative to War and Looting in the Americas.” And the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus will hold a concert on Sept. 11 “9/11 25th Year Memorial in America’s 250th Year—Beethoven’s Ninth: A Pathway Out of War.”
Pessimism is boring—and also deadly. Get active with the LaRouche movement, and contribute the funds we need to keep the spark alive.
