Speaker 1: All the media.
Speaker 2: Welcomes it could happen here. I'm Andrew of Future Channel Anturism,
Speaker 2: and last time I was on here discussing political cults generally.
Speaker 2: Today I'm here once again with.
Speaker 3: Oh Garrison, Yes Hello. I am also here to talk
Speaker 3: about cults because Andrew told me.
Speaker 2: To Yes yes, and I'm the I'm the leader in
Speaker 2: this dynamic.
Speaker 3: In many ways, this zoom call is kind of a
Speaker 3: mini cult where you are the leader.
Speaker 2: Indeed, in need, there is nothing except this call. There's
Speaker 2: no outside world, there is no cat on your desk.
Speaker 2: It is just this the cult. The cat is a revisionist.
Speaker 2: So last episode, we discussed how cults operate, essentially the
Speaker 2: rule coaster emotional ride that individual's experience during cult recruitments,
Speaker 2: where their feelings and ideas are manipulated and they're drawn
Speaker 2: into an exclusive and isolating group. We explore the rigid
Speaker 2: belief system that's created, the immunity to falsification, the authoritarianism,
Speaker 2: arbitrary leadership, deification of leaders, intense activism, and the use
Speaker 2: of loaded language. We spoke about the contradictions within political
Speaker 2: cults and the conditions of ideological totalism, and today, as promised,
Speaker 2: we're going to look at one political cult leader in
Speaker 2: particular whose influence spanned left to right, self described Platonist,
Speaker 2: a presdential conspiracy theorist. The alleged targets of an assassination
Speaker 2: from Queen Elizabeth are once Trotskyist, the one and only,
Speaker 2: the infamous, the loathsome London LaRouche.
Speaker 3: As soon as you said platon is, I knew we
Speaker 3: were in for just a horrible time, just just the worst.
Speaker 3: The only people who self described as Platonists are the worst. Actually,
Speaker 3: the last person I knew who self described as a
Speaker 3: Platonist was the target of an assassination because it was
Speaker 3: the daughter of Alexander Dugan was at.
Speaker 2: Anyway, what an interesting cast of characters.
Speaker 3: Indeed, indeed, and speaking of.
Speaker 2: Cast of characters, by the way, I should note that
Speaker 2: Tim wall Fourth, one of the cool authors of the book,
Speaker 2: that this research was based on the book being on
Speaker 2: the edge particular cults left and right. Tim wall Fourth,
Speaker 2: the other author's tenant is Dennis Torrish was a Trotskyist
Speaker 2: called leader at one point, oh like cult underling or whatever.
Speaker 2: But he was kicked out and then he needs a
Speaker 2: cool authored this book to call out some of their
Speaker 2: cultish tendencies. If you need that sort of backstory to
Speaker 2: take some of this with the grain of salt, so
Speaker 2: be it. Because, as far as I can tell, Tim
Speaker 2: Warforth and Lynn and laruche actually crossed paths at one point.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: So, as always, let's start from the beginning and get
Speaker 2: an early portrait of this guy. Laroche was born in Rochester,
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, in nineteen twenty two, then moved to Lynn, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: He was the oldest of three children in a Quaker home,
Speaker 2: where eventually his father would be expelled from the local
Speaker 2: Quaker community for his alleged misuse of funds. He then
Speaker 2: briefly attended Northeastern University in Boston and left in nineteen
Speaker 2: forty two, at least partly because he believed his teachers
Speaker 2: quote lacked the competence to teach him on conditions he
Speaker 2: was willing to tolerate.
Speaker 3: Sure, sure, I'll take a first word on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: At first, he was a conscientious objector to enlistment in
Speaker 2: World War Two, because you know, Quaker I Instead he
Speaker 2: joined a civilian public service camp in what is what
Speaker 2: you know, which is what conscientious objectors did at the time.
Speaker 2: But Eventually he would enlist with the US Army and
Speaker 2: serve with the Medical Corps in India and boomer which
Speaker 2: is now Myanmar Ye. In nineteen forty six, aboard the
Speaker 2: s S, General Bradley Don Morrill met the young soldier
Speaker 2: in Laruche and got into it with him about politics
Speaker 2: and particularly the political optimism of the post World War
Speaker 2: Two era what a time, the revolutionary spirit of the
Speaker 2: Indian subcontinent, and socialist ideas more broadly. Now, Laruche was
Speaker 2: already sympathetic towards Marx and Trotsky at this point. In fact,
Speaker 2: even in his preteens, he was a voracious reader philosophy,
Speaker 2: particularly of the German polymath Godfred Wilhelm von leibnizbut leibnizbut
Speaker 2: or however that is pronounced. But ultimately, by the time
Speaker 2: they returned to America, LaRouche was a Trotskyist. In brief,
Speaker 2: For those unaware, a Trotskyist is someone who hears the
Speaker 2: principles and politics of Leon Trotsky, who was a prominent
Speaker 2: figure in the early Soviet Union and a key figure
Speaker 2: in what I would call co optation of the Russian
Speaker 2: Revolution of nineteen seventy. Trotskyism is distinct from mainstream Leninist
Speaker 2: and particularly Stalinist thought, most famously for their rejection of
Speaker 2: socialism in one country and their advocacy of permanent revolution.
Speaker 2: By the time Laruche had returned home in nineteen forty seven,
Speaker 2: he joined his hometown Lynn, Massachusetts, chapter of the Socialist Workers'
Speaker 2: Party s WP, which was the main American Trotskyist group. Interestingly,
Speaker 2: he took on a party name which really reminds me
Speaker 2: of how religious missionaries would give those they converted Christian
Speaker 2: names baptism. So his party name was Lynn Marcus. You
Speaker 2: could just see it as a pseudonym for political work.
Speaker 2: Of course, I mean, the CIA and the FBI were
Speaker 2: very active in infiltrating these sorts of groups, so I
Speaker 2: understand having like a pseudonym, But I mean, considering we're
Speaker 2: talking about cul tendencies and political movements, I couldn't pass
Speaker 2: up on that observation. You know, Don Morrill, who was
Speaker 2: also from Lynn, Massachusetts, was also part of the SWP
Speaker 2: and very active in their union organized and activities. LaRouche
Speaker 2: Tho not so much. He was very intellectually oriented. He
Speaker 2: wasn't very into the union scene, and he eventually left
Speaker 2: Massachusetts in nineteen fifty two and settled down in New
Speaker 2: York City. He got married, he had a son, and
Speaker 2: he was focused in his career as an economic consultant
Speaker 2: in the shoe industry, with a nice, nice apartment in
Speaker 2: Central Park West. He didn't really have any ties to
Speaker 2: the working class efforts of the s WP, So what now. Well,
Speaker 2: eventually he and his wife separated and he moved in
Speaker 2: with a fellow s WP member known sometimes as Carol White,
Speaker 2: sometimes as Carol Schnitzer, and sometimes as Carol Larabie. And
Speaker 2: then he decided that the WP leadership had the wrong idea.
Speaker 2: Why they so obsessed with union organizing, Perhaps he should
Speaker 2: be the one calling the shots. You have to understand
Speaker 2: something about Laruche. You see, with little involvement or connection
Speaker 2: to actual working class struggle and disconnection. You see, with
Speaker 2: little involvement or connection to actual working class struggle and
Speaker 2: disconnection from the party's activity, he had already begun making
Speaker 2: a right word shift, even while still bearing the banner
Speaker 2: of leftism. As an intellectual, he loved his books, including
Speaker 2: Marxist Capital, Rota Luxembourg's The Accumulation of Capital and Hegeld's
Speaker 2: Logic and his intellectualism naturally fed into his elitism, Drawing
Speaker 2: for Lenin's what is to be Done larushe believes that
Speaker 2: a select intellectual group, which I mean he was clearly
Speaker 2: a part of. These professional revolutionaries held a pivotal role
Speaker 2: in transforming society, would their task being to gain dominance
Speaker 2: over the less intellectually developed masses. He also borrowed from
Speaker 2: Gramacy's idea of hergemony. He saw himself in competition with
Speaker 2: other intellectuals on the left for leadership over the hearts
Speaker 2: and minds of the dommy masses to undermine the capitalists
Speaker 2: hold on the working class. But unlike Gramcy, he didn't
Speaker 2: believe the working class was capable of developing its own leaders.
Speaker 2: He was that leader, and he also borrowed from George
Speaker 2: Lucas's concept of class consciousness and the importance of thinkers.
Speaker 2: Larush wasn't just a thinker. He saw himself as the thinker,
Speaker 2: the one who would take power and lead the masses
Speaker 2: to freedom. So he was fed up with the SWP
Speaker 2: limiting his clearly elite intellect and ability, and so in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty five he left and joined a small Trotskise
Speaker 2: group called the American Committee for the Fourth International. Yes,
Speaker 2: associated with George Healy, who was another left wing cult leader.
Speaker 3: A lot of a lot of left wing cults came
Speaker 3: out of the Fourth International, some of which are very cool,
Speaker 3: some of which are not.
Speaker 2: Very cool indeed indeed, but guess what, he didn't like
Speaker 2: the Fourth International. He only stayed there for six months.
Speaker 2: And apparently Healey did not even like him. I mean,
Speaker 2: I wonder why, right, I know, I mean.
Speaker 3: He seems like a very agreeable fellow.
Speaker 2: And not only that, I mean, when have you ever
Speaker 2: heard of cult leaders getting along? You know, call leaders
Speaker 2: sent to view other cult leaders as threats to their
Speaker 2: total control.
Speaker 3: You know, it would be funny if there was just
Speaker 3: like a conference for leaders to like share like tactics
Speaker 3: and they all have their dinner together.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So laruche pus out of that party. And then he
Speaker 2: joined the Spartassist League, which was another trot party, and
Speaker 2: again he didn't stay for too long. He decided he
Speaker 2: was going to put all those factions and leaders behind
Speaker 2: him and declared himself the pioneer of the Fifth INTERNATIONALE. So,
Speaker 2: for those unaware, the First Workers International from eighteen sixty
Speaker 2: four to eighteen seventy six was a coalition of labor
Speaker 2: and socialist groups seeking to promote workers' rights and international solidarity.
Speaker 2: It split because of the irreconcilable differences and divisions between
Speaker 2: the statists and the anarchists. Then in eighteen eighty nine
Speaker 2: and from then unto nineteen sixteen, the Second Internationale was born.
Speaker 2: That was an organization of socialists and labor parties, this
Speaker 2: time no anarchists allowed, and it was aimed at fostering
Speaker 2: cooperation among socialist globally, until it dissolved due to the
Speaker 2: divisions related to World War One. And then in nineteen nineteen,
Speaker 2: the Soviet Union founded the Third Internationale or the Common
Speaker 2: Turn to promote worldwide communist revolution and aid communist parties,
Speaker 2: but then it dissolved during World War Two due to
Speaker 2: the Soviet German tensions, among other things. And then in
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty eight, Trotsky, who was marginalized and persecuted by Stalin,
Speaker 2: founded the Fourth International as an oppositional alternative to the
Speaker 2: Stalin dominated comment tern. Technically, the Fourth International is still
Speaker 2: active today, but it's always been fairly irrelevant beyond small
Speaker 2: bi current sects and ever splinter in splinter groups and
Speaker 2: more than one political cult. So for a Trotskyist like
Speaker 2: Laruge to declare a Fifth International is like, you know,
Speaker 2: here we go again. How is it going to match?
Speaker 2: Do this? Nineteen sixty eight picture this a room with
Speaker 2: about fility students sitting on the floor, all eyes fixed
Speaker 2: on Lindon LaRouche. After playing a major role in the
Speaker 2: students strike at Columbia University, these students were totally invested
Speaker 2: in this man's every word. They were part of the
Speaker 2: National Caucus of Labor Committees lc NCLC, which was affiliated
Speaker 2: with the Students for Democratic Society SDS. Laruche held this
Speaker 2: meet in for a whole seven hours, that's longer than
Speaker 2: a church service, and he blended discussions of tactics with
Speaker 2: educational presentations. The SDS had a lot of spirit and action,
Speaker 2: but Larush believed that they were a bit short on theory,
Speaker 2: so he was there to fill that void and a
Speaker 2: bit more. The gathering marked the early stages of Wild
Speaker 2: lad become a political cult center around Laruge, where he
Speaker 2: served as an intellectual and political gurup, training his followers
Speaker 2: as devoted disciples nach for me, making his disciples feel
Speaker 2: like they were part of an elite club. They believe
Speaker 2: they were the only ones who truly understood the era
Speaker 2: they were in and had all the answers to fix
Speaker 2: society's problems. In nineteen seventy, Larush wrote that you should
Speaker 2: start with recruiting and educating our revolutionary intelligenzia, mainly young
Speaker 2: intellectuals like these student radicals, rather than the working class,
Speaker 2: because again laruthe thought the working class was stipid. He
Speaker 2: wanted these elite recruits to commit to intensive study and activism,
Speaker 2: particularly of his interpretation of ideas, so they'd lead the charge.
Speaker 2: And I remember at this point Larush was pushing a
Speaker 2: right wing form of Trotskyism. Like Marx, he believed that
Speaker 2: capitalism had to keep growing to stay alive. Once it
Speaker 2: hits his limits, it would go into crisis mode and
Speaker 2: eventually collapse. He also shared Marx's idea that human activity
Speaker 2: should be all about progress, particularly the growth of the
Speaker 2: world's productive forces.
Speaker 3: Do you know who's organizing the next International? Actually right now,
Speaker 3: right now, it is in fact that the products and
Speaker 3: service services that sponsor this podcast, So they're making the
Speaker 3: great shift the same way anarchism was expunged from the
Speaker 3: Second International. Now communism is going to be expunged from
Speaker 3: this this next upcoming international, and it's just going to
Speaker 3: be capitalists. So here, here, here are the sponsors organizing
Speaker 3: the next, the next international.
Speaker 2: Marx thought copalism was just a phase in human society,
Speaker 2: as crises would paved the way for a working class revolution,
Speaker 2: which would lead to socialism. Under socialism, the productive forces
Speaker 2: would flourish. Thought those pesky copleist constraints. Laruche came up
Speaker 2: with something he called the theory of re industrialization. He
Speaker 2: claimed that copulism, in its third stage of realism, needed
Speaker 2: fresh opportunities for capital investment. They even predicted that if
Speaker 2: world leaders did not follow his advice, the system was
Speaker 2: on the brink of collapse. Only he and his trained
Speaker 2: followers under his lead, could prevent this catastrophe. By the
Speaker 2: late sixties and early seventies, members were giving up their
Speaker 2: jobs and devoting themselves wholly to the cause and the
Speaker 2: leadership of Laruche. They were convinced that the world had
Speaker 2: all the resources needed for an incredible economic transformation. But
Speaker 2: they saw a big problem. They thought the nation's leaders
Speaker 2: were clueless, and of course they didn't think too highly
Speaker 2: the masses, so their solution was getting Linden and Laruxe
Speaker 2: Junior into power or whether he's a junior, ah, but
Speaker 2: their solution was getting Linden Laruz Junior into power as
Speaker 2: soon as possible, and then he would lead the trade
Speaker 2: unions that take over America. He expected their support and
Speaker 2: if they were slacking in their activism, he would call
Speaker 2: them out. Borrowing from the confrontational therapy with the new
Speaker 2: age for psychology cults, Lrush began holding ego stripping sessions.
Speaker 2: Anyone who failed in a political task was subjected to
Speaker 2: pure psychological terror as everyone attacked them and tore apart
Speaker 2: their past and personal life in front of the whole group.
Speaker 2: And because cults, and because cults and sex and inevitable
Speaker 2: combination like madness and badness, Larush also launched a campaign
Speaker 2: against the sexual impotence of his membership. Apparently Carol left
Speaker 2: him for a disciple of the movement. Interesting his name
Speaker 2: was Christopher White, and they went to England to set
Speaker 2: up a chapter of the NCLC. So that's probably why
Speaker 2: he got a little bit unhinged. But that's not the
Speaker 2: worst of it. I can't not mention Operation mop Up
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three, Laruge fully shifted the group's political
Speaker 2: stands from being far left to far right. Armed with bats,
Speaker 2: chains and martial arts, Gale his supporters physically attacked members
Speaker 2: of the Socialist Workers' Party and the Communist Party for
Speaker 2: He declared that he intended to wipe these rival parties
Speaker 2: off the map, going as far as to threaten their
Speaker 2: families as well. But it didn't stop there. He extended
Speaker 2: his attacks to groups like the Revolutionary Communist Party, the
Speaker 2: October League, and the Progressive Labor Party. Essentially, Laruche want
Speaker 2: to establish dominance through these physical confrontations. There were at
Speaker 2: least six day reported assaults during this time, and the
Speaker 2: whole operation only ended when the police stepped in and
Speaker 2: arrested some of Larushe's followers. Interestingly, though, there weren't any convictions,
Speaker 2: and Laruche insisted that his people were only acted in
Speaker 2: self defense. But here's where get a little bit mokier.
Speaker 2: Journalist and Laruse biographer Dennis King suggested that the FBI
Speaker 2: may have played a role in stirring up trouble among
Speaker 2: these groups. Do we have used tactics like sending anonymous
Speaker 2: mailings to keep these groups in each other's throats, so
Speaker 2: you know, plot thickens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that way, that was very typical kind
Speaker 3: of conel Pro stuff that was happening around this time period.
Speaker 2: That would not surprise me. Yeah, it's safe to say though,
Speaker 2: in this period of Larush's life, all the folks on
Speaker 2: the left were wondering if he was really still one
Speaker 2: of their own. Back to nineteen seventy three, Carol and Christopher,
Speaker 2: like I said, they were going to the UK to
Speaker 2: set up their own version of the NCLC, but then
Speaker 2: the Rush called them back to the US for a
Speaker 2: national conference, and during the flight, Stepher lost it. He
Speaker 2: started yelling that the CIA had plans to off Lwerby
Speaker 2: and the Rouche, Carol, Larbie and the Rush. The plane
Speaker 2: was an utter chaos. So Carol reached out to the
Speaker 2: Rouge and they decided to work together to deprogram Christopher.
Speaker 2: What we mean deprogrammed Christopher? I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 3: I think we have mentioned called deprogramming before, kind of
Speaker 3: been passing, but never never too much on it.
Speaker 2: I think yes. What I mean in this instance, though,
Speaker 2: is not that they were trying to inculcate him into
Speaker 2: the cult or deprogram him from mainstream ideology. You see
Speaker 2: in his Rantins and Ravens on the plane, Christopher claimed
Speaker 2: he was a Manchurian candidate who had been tortured by
Speaker 2: the CI and British intelligence in a London basement. He
Speaker 2: then said he was programmed to do some stuff like
Speaker 2: often his wife and setting up Laruge for a watery
Speaker 2: demise by Cuba and exile frogmen. So that's the kind
Speaker 2: of deep program and they intended to carry out Hmmm.
Speaker 3: I have some notes, but I suppose I'll just let
Speaker 3: them do their thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So Christopher was saying that he was a
Speaker 2: Manchurian candidate, and so then the whole group was in
Speaker 2: a frenzy. LaRouche and his disciples were releasing statements left
Speaker 2: and right, training their members and how to spot other
Speaker 2: Manchurian candidates and how to handle CIA torture. And here's
Speaker 2: what I guess, really crazy. One of the members, Alice Weitzman,
Speaker 2: she made a critical mistake in a political cult. She doubted.
Speaker 2: She didn't believe the whole CIA story that Christopher was pushing,
Speaker 2: and Larush didn't like that she didn't believe, and so
Speaker 2: Larush was like, oh, you don't believe that the CIA
Speaker 2: is infiltrating us right now, then you must be a
Speaker 2: CIA agent. So he sends a squad of six members
Speaker 2: of his cult to Wisman's apartment and they held her
Speaker 2: a hostage and cranked up Beethoven music to deafening levels.
Speaker 2: Why because Laruche believed that Beethoven's tunes could somehow deprogram
Speaker 2: Manchurian candidates. Whitesman managed to toss out a note through the
Speaker 2: window and a passerby picked it up and alerted the police,
Speaker 2: so she was rescued, but then she chose not to
Speaker 2: press charges against her captives. Larusha turned this party at
Speaker 2: this point, with one thousand members in three seven offices
Speaker 2: in North America and twenty six in Europe and Latin America,
Speaker 2: into an extreme right, anti Semitic organization, despite the presence
Speaker 2: of Jewish members. In fact, Carol herself was Jewish and
Speaker 2: she stuck around Dennis King. The biographer's book called Earlier
Speaker 2: found a deep connection between LaRouche and fascist and United groups.
Speaker 2: Nearly eighties. Laruche used a Strategic Defense Initiative or star
Speaker 2: Wars to bring together far right forces from Europe and America.
Speaker 2: He was even promoting like Revanism and defending Nazi war criminals.
Speaker 2: And he was known for blending his usual conspiracy theories
Speaker 2: with anti Semitism, particularly towards the British. He blamed the
Speaker 2: Rothschild for running Great Britain, and he was a typical
Speaker 2: Holocaust denial. Yeah, I really, I generally wonder why Carol
Speaker 2: left him, but I also wonder why she stuck around
Speaker 2: in the group. Anyway. The Anti Defamation League labeled the
Speaker 2: Rushes NCLC as the closest thing to an American fascist party,
Speaker 2: and well, it begs the question what was life like
Speaker 2: in that party?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I remember you Garrison describing a good party
Speaker 2: as a color and.
Speaker 3: See, I think part of part of the problem is
Speaker 3: when you know, a house party turns into a political
Speaker 3: party and then.
Speaker 2: Turns into a fascist party.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that never ends.
Speaker 4: Yea.
Speaker 2: So Larush was using these really sneaky tactics to drive
Speaker 2: a wedge between Laruge members and their families, partners, and spouses.
Speaker 2: There were members of Laruciu's elite who convinced one person
Speaker 2: that their own dad was laundering money secret leave for
Speaker 2: the drug trade. This organization was telling their members where
Speaker 2: they could live, what carter buy, went to quit their jobs,
Speaker 2: what they should read, what they should watch, how to
Speaker 2: scam their parents out of money, how and when to
Speaker 2: break up with their partners.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then while all this is going on, lari movement
Speaker 2: is also swapping out the red flags of Trotskyism for
Speaker 2: good old or red, white and blue. Members were soon
Speaker 2: educated with the ideas of Alexander Hamilton.
Speaker 3: Right, oh god.
Speaker 2: Hamilton's economic policies were basically the American version of what
Speaker 2: Marx represented in Europe, according to Laruge, And forget about Marx.
Speaker 2: They're not reading Marx anymore. Now, they're reading Plato and Dante.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty they even told the members to vote
Speaker 2: for Reagan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cool stuff, cool stuff, cool stuff. They dropped their
Speaker 3: left platonist philosopher Ronald Reges.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They basically dropped any ven air of left lean
Speaker 2: in in their recruitment tactics. And then they started doing
Speaker 2: things like soliciting people at airports and bus terminals. And
Speaker 2: these members they were caught in this whirlwind. They didn't
Speaker 2: have time to read, to think, to get a decent
Speaker 2: night's sleep. They were working twelve hour shifts and getting
Speaker 2: paid peanuts, like one hundred dollars one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars a week, and sometimes they'd even get paid
Speaker 2: at all. They were in a constant state of mobilization,
Speaker 2: living an adrenaline ready for anything, And finally, in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty one, around three hundred and six hundred people decided
Speaker 2: they had had enough and left the organization. Some of
Speaker 2: them were formal leftists, but not all those who stuck
Speaker 2: around with the die hard cult members completely under Larusia's control.
Speaker 2: Would it surprise you gun to learn that the Rush
Speaker 2: was a scammer?
Speaker 3: Oh, you're saying that the person involved in in running
Speaker 3: the cult was also a prolific grifter, as someone who
Speaker 3: tried to scam other people are really really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, A lot of people don't know this, but cult
Speaker 2: leaders and scammers actually go hand in hand.
Speaker 3: Ah yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Rush was a master of operating through a network
Speaker 2: of front organizations. He created the Fusion Energy Foundation, getting
Speaker 2: support from nuclear and aerospace industries to run a private
Speaker 2: intelligence to this focusing on terrorists and drug cartels. Get this.
Speaker 2: He even met with top officials from the National Security
Speaker 2: Council and the CIA in the eighties. Despite his parannoy
Speaker 2: about the CIA, and he somehow managed to get White
Speaker 2: House access.
Speaker 3: What yeah, yeah, why how.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He eventually infiltrated the Democratic Party and ran for
Speaker 2: president several times, and he launched the Proposition sixty four
Speaker 2: initiative in California in the eighties, aimant to impose strict
Speaker 2: public health policies for AIDS, which public health officials rejected.
Speaker 2: But basically he was instrumental and spreading a lot of
Speaker 2: unnecessary fear about AIDS. In fact, he was advocating for
Speaker 2: lynch mobs to deal with the AIDE crisis.
Speaker 3: Oh so he wasn't like spreading good health information when
Speaker 3: everyone was ignoring the problem. He was being like, we should,
Speaker 3: we should just killed everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much?
Speaker 3: Okay, I got h But you know.
Speaker 2: Every scammer has their day, and one of his scams
Speaker 2: got him in the pen. You see, laruche had a
Speaker 2: knack for recruit in the offspring of the wealthy and
Speaker 2: separating them from their money. To put it euphemistically, One
Speaker 2: of his most famous fruits was Lewis DuPont Smith A
Speaker 2: DuPont here that DuPont who gave a whop in two
Speaker 2: hundred and twelve thousand dollars to Laruge. He even moved
Speaker 2: close to Laruge, but eventually the DuPont family intervened, had
Speaker 2: him declared mentally ill and put him on a monthly stipend.
Speaker 2: Still Laruche was making a royal bank. His empire was growing.
Speaker 2: He had one hundred and seventy two acre as state
Speaker 2: in Virginia serving as his center of operations, which had
Speaker 2: phone banks, offices, a printing plant guarded twenty four to
Speaker 2: seven by armed individuals. But the Empire of LaRouche eventually
Speaker 2: went into a decline. This lost for publicity caught the
Speaker 2: attention of the public and federal officials, and his phone
Speaker 2: bank operator started making an unauthorized credit card withdrawals.
Speaker 3: I mean he he was like going to the White House.
Speaker 3: How did he how did he? He like trying to
Speaker 3: stay under the federal radar. He was literally in the
Speaker 3: in the one spot, the one.
Speaker 2: Place exactly exactly. It's it's baffling, But Dennis Kidding has
Speaker 2: a book all about it, so you could check it out.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty seven, he faced a trial on credit
Speaker 2: card fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which ended in
Speaker 2: a mistrial. Then a subsequent trial convicted him out in
Speaker 2: various charges, and he ended up in a federal penitentiary
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine. And what do all great cult leaders,
Speaker 2: or what do many great cult leaders do when they
Speaker 2: in jail? Some of them write book books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, all right, I'm back on now. Okay.
Speaker 2: So Lurci decided to write a book called In Defense
Speaker 2: of Common Sense. It's a mix of obscure geometric illustrations,
Speaker 2: defense of Platonism, attributes to the seventeenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler,
Speaker 2: and some heavy denunciations of philosophers like Kan't and most
Speaker 2: philosophers post Plato. In fact, as far as Larus was concerned,
Speaker 2: every philosopher after Plato sucked.
Speaker 3: That's so funny, that's really funny.
Speaker 2: Incredibly, But at its core his book In Defense of
Speaker 2: Common Sense was laruse re stating his modernist, somehow marks
Speaker 2: inspired worldview. We argue that scientific and technological progress set
Speaker 2: humanity apart from all other creatures, and it naturally leads
Speaker 2: to increased population density. In Larucie's eyes, there's no room
Speaker 2: for any entropic view that suggests a limit to human
Speaker 2: technology and population growth. Even coined the term neganthropic to
Speaker 2: advocate for ongoing industrial and population expansion no matter what.
Speaker 2: All right, So then if you didn't, okay, maybe you
Speaker 2: listen to this and you're like, none of this is
Speaker 2: all dramatic and wild or whatever. Here's where it gets
Speaker 2: even wilder. This is where we get to the intersection
Speaker 2: of Lynn Laruche and Elon Musk that we colonize Mars.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, honestly the whole his other what was
Speaker 3: the term he just said, like ner Trup, Yeah, that
Speaker 3: that is pretty similar to Musk's ideology as well, though
Speaker 3: pretty much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so LaRue says, let's go, let's colonize Mars,
Speaker 2: and what's that's done? In about forty years according to
Speaker 2: his estimation, then his philosophical standpoint will clearly rule all
Speaker 2: of humanity for all of time. But while the Rush
Speaker 2: is deep in thought, behind bars his followers, they're not
Speaker 2: twiddling their thumbs. They joined forces with other anti war
Speaker 2: demonstrators pose the Gulf War in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's interesting to note that the NCLC
Speaker 2: was not the only voice from the right among those
Speaker 2: left wing demonstrators. Pat Buchanan the Populist Party, the Liberty Lobby,
Speaker 2: and other ultra right and other ultra right and neo
Speaker 2: isolationist groups formed a sort of united front with elements
Speaker 2: of the left in terms of that opposition to the
Speaker 2: Gulf War and Laruche was eventually released on parole in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four, and by nineteen ninety eight, during the
Speaker 2: economic crisis, the Rush was demanding that Bill Clinton appoint
Speaker 2: him immediately as an economic advisor.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a good idea. Yeah, now he seems, he
Speaker 3: seems well qualified.
Speaker 2: And I coulte it was now time to abandon crisis
Speaker 2: management and Chile Shaian in other words, democracy. Laruge believed
Speaker 2: in the inherent tendency of popular opinion towards me mediocrity.
Speaker 2: The very tendency to rely upon collective decisions rather than
Speaker 2: decisions based upon foundation of principle is itself a wellspring
Speaker 2: of mediocrity, he fully explained to proposed as symbol of
Speaker 2: virtual rabel decision makers, usually featuring those parties who are
Speaker 2: still advocates of the policies which have caused and advocated
Speaker 2: the crisis, is scarcely a noble enterprise, nor a fruitful one.
Speaker 2: Some relatively few in the position to influence directives must
Speaker 2: preempt the situation, just in case there should be any
Speaker 2: question as to Laruci's concept of governance. He declared China
Speaker 2: to be probably one of the best governments in the
Speaker 2: world to be in terms of quality of leadership, the
Speaker 2: kind of leadership required to get through crisis. Laruche, like
Speaker 2: Mussolini and Hitler before him, borrowed from Marx and then
Speaker 2: changed his theories completely.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Marx's internationalist outcolook was abandoned in favor of the
Speaker 2: nation state. Marx's goal of abolish and capitalism replaced by
Speaker 2: a model of a tutalitarian state that is still primarily
Speaker 2: in the hands of private corporations and their owners, who,
Speaker 2: by the way, would have to take orders from the rouge. Now.
Speaker 2: Hitler called his national so his schema national socialist socialism interesting, curious.
Speaker 2: Larusha was a fan, but he was like, you know,
Speaker 2: let's add a little spice, let's give it some American branded.
Speaker 2: So Larush called his system and ideology the American system.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit less catchy.
Speaker 2: I gotta say, yeah, I mean, that's that's the story.
Speaker 2: Other than the rush.
Speaker 3: He died obviously, most people do. There's there's only a
Speaker 3: few that have not died Enoch and I think I
Speaker 3: think like one or two others, but most people, most
Speaker 3: people do do in fact die.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he was quite the guy. He died into
Speaker 2: onto nineteen by.
Speaker 3: The way, Oh no, that that recent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he lived a really long time. He had
Speaker 2: He lived for a hundred years for Cornald.
Speaker 3: Load did not realize he was still kicking around so
Speaker 3: so recently.
Speaker 4: Yeah, gone too soon him a right, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 4: at least at least now he's in heaven with Ruth
Speaker 4: Bader Ginsburg.
Speaker 3: That's that's yeah, that's why.
Speaker 2: Why do the good die young? You know?
Speaker 3: Oh, he was just a kid.
Speaker 2: So as we conclude our journey and the enigmatic will
Speaker 2: live in the rouge, I think we left with more
Speaker 2: questions and answers. How did a man on the fringe
Speaker 2: of radical politics end up in the White House?
Speaker 3: Yeah? That is that is That is one question I
Speaker 3: actually still have thinking about his What what were the
Speaker 3: conditions to his White House visits and.
Speaker 2: What led to his transformation from a committed leftist to
Speaker 2: a fascist. I mean I think we could see the
Speaker 2: science of that right early.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, yeah, in.
Speaker 2: The sixties, the Rouge displayed egotism and hints of instability,
Speaker 2: but he was also an intelligent individual who attracted serious intellectuals.
Speaker 2: His ideas, well sometimes peculiar, were generally rational because the
Speaker 2: adulation of students allowed him to gather a following around
Speaker 2: his ideas and personality. The collapse of student radicalism the
Speaker 2: seventies that the stage from his shift from left to
Speaker 2: right and the unwavering loyalty of his followers likely reinforced
Speaker 2: his increasingly psychotic worldview and perception of his role in it.
Speaker 2: The Rush was convinced that he deserved worship, that he
Speaker 2: was an intellect. He was fueled by his ideology of catastrophism,
Speaker 2: that he, as the elite, would play a significant role
Speaker 2: as savior of mnity. The practices of his organization resembled
Speaker 2: many of the extreme religious thought control groups UH. The
Speaker 2: practice of ideological totalism is very clear, The authoritarian structure
Speaker 2: is very clear. The paranoia foster to create a clear
Speaker 2: boundaries in the group and the outside world don't be likely.
Speaker 3: The l aruche please please.
Speaker 2: And watch out for his I want to be is
Speaker 2: I feel like Mopin is the Laroche of this generation.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I mean, I hope. I don't see
Speaker 3: Mappin getting invited to the White House anytime soon, nor
Speaker 3: other characters like like Chairman Bob. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: We live in a different time. I think because of
Speaker 3: how the Internet works, there's a lot there's there's much
Speaker 3: more cult leaders just dispersed everywhere all the time.
Speaker 2: But it's almost it's almost the democratization of cult leadership.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also made them more or less isolated
Speaker 3: to the Internet with occasional flare ups in the real world,
Speaker 3: which kind of which kind of limits their engagement with
Speaker 3: you know, normal people, so to speak. It's kind of.
Speaker 2: Help cults, right, they can't even communicate with people outside
Speaker 2: of them anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think part of part of that is
Speaker 3: definitely happening here on on on on the Internet, where
Speaker 3: there's just so many of them that they they're all
Speaker 3: very small, they're all very isolated, and they don't ever
Speaker 3: really break out of their bubble, which which you know
Speaker 3: is common with with with a lot of a lot
Speaker 3: of cults.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: The ones that we only really know about or hear
Speaker 3: about are the ones that you know, ended up doing
Speaker 3: some big, big horrific thing at some point you know,
Speaker 3: in that that generated you know a lot of eyeballs
Speaker 3: on them. But for every for every Heaven's Gate, there's like,
Speaker 3: you know, a dozen New Age holds that just fly
Speaker 3: right under the radar that are still like horribly horribly abusive.
Speaker 2: They just still going on to this day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just they just might not be tied to
Speaker 3: like a horrific act of like mass murder and mass suicide.
Speaker 2: And that's a scary thoughts. You know how many cults
Speaker 2: have not yet break broken containment as it will.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, it's uh, it's a fun time to to
Speaker 3: be alive.
Speaker 2: Surely indeed, So yeah, I mean, I hope, I hope
Speaker 2: that the audience has enjoyed this cautionary tale, a reminder
Speaker 2: of the profound and sometimes dangerous paths the ideology can
Speaker 2: take individuals and groups down. Once again, I'm Andrew, and Andrew.
Speaker 2: This is Garrison of Garrison of of myself. Yes, and
Speaker 2: this has been it can happening.
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