John Hagelin on Principles & Values

	John Hagelin on Principles & Values 2000 Natural Law Party Nominee for President

Endorses Dennis Kucinich for President

In this little pocket of Iowa, houses are built to face the rising sun, something called yogic flying is a popular pastime and Dennis Kucinich is a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Kucinich has become a phenomenon in Fairfield, population 9,500.

Fairfield is not a typical Iowan town. The home of Maharishi University of Management and a center of the Global Country of World Peace, Fairfield and the surrounding area is home to 2,000 practitioners of Transcendental Meditation who began settling there in the early 1970’s. “The main appeal is that he has established himself vocally as a peace candidate,” said John Hagelin, a Fairfield resident and the founder of the New Age-oriented Natural Law Party, who himself has run for president several times. “This is a town dedicated to peace, to work for peace for the world and to radiate peace in the world.” Hagelin has endorsed Kucinich for President.

Source: Jennifer 8. Lee, New York Times , Jan 18, 2004

Take back democracy from special interests

Q: If you join the Natural Law Party, what do you believe?

HAGELIN: You believe in taking back our stolen democracy from special interest control, you believe in commonsense, forward-looking solutions that are being ignored by government for purely political reasons, the prevention of disease, the proven preventive medicine, ending our costly energy addiction of foreign oil through the development of renewable, abundant energy sources.

Source: Third Party Debate on Meet the Press , Oct 22, 2000

Prevention-oriented, scientifically proven solutions

Ending special interest control of politics through elimination of PACs
Creating a prevention-oriented health care system as opposed to a disease care system
Protecting the environment through the use of renewable, safe, nonpolluting energy sources
Safeguarding America’s food supply through sustainable, organic agricultural practices
Mandating the labeling and safety-testing of genetically engineered foods
Reducing crime through innovative, field-tested crime prevention programs
Promoting education that develops the full mental potential of each student
Cutting taxes deeply and responsibly through proven solutions to costly social programs
Promoting more prosperous and harmonious international relations.

Source: Press release, “Reform Party” , Sep 29, 2000

Focus on being inclusive; not on divisive social issues

The path to victory is “not through a message of exclusivity and intolerance, not through embroiling ourselves in divisive social issues,” he said, “but by putting forth an inclusive message, a broad-based platform of common-sense reforms that the overwhelming majority of people support.”

Hagelin offered proposals on a litany of issues, including campaign-finance reform, preventive health care, and clean energy.

He declared: “The reports of the demise of the Reform Party are exaggerated.”

Source: CNN.com , Aug 11, 2000

Alternative to Buchanan for Reform Party nomination

Hagelin preaches the benefits of transcendental meditation. He runs the physics department at an Iowa university named for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But Hagelin is also the man standing between Buchanan and $12.6 million in federal matching funds. With Perot now declining to challenge Buchanan for the nomination, Buchanan opponents have been desperately casting about for an alternative. Hagelin is it.

The two could not be more different. Where Buchanan is ebulliently brash, Hagelin is soft-spoken. He emphasizes his pedigree, peppering his literature with the phrase “Harvard-trained,” while Buchanan has fashioned himself anti-establishmentarian. And while Buchanan has made opposition to free trade, immigration and abortion the staples of his campaign, Hagelin champions preventive medicine, criticizing what he calls a “disease-care system”; advocates a moratorium on genetically engineered foods, and proposes using “coherence groups” of meditators to reduce stress and crime in major cities.

Source: Amy Waldman, New York Times, p. A14 , Jul 7, 2000

Platform basis is development of human potential

The full development of human potential is the cornerstone of my platform. This is because, in the final analysis, America’s problems are human problems-crime, domestic violence, drug dependency, and declining health in the face of an epidemic of unhealthy habits. The way to uplift human behavior is not through legislation regulating the details of our lives. You can’t have police in every home, playground, business, and classroom. Instead, the way to elevate human behavior is through education that expands creativity and intelligence and brings broad comprehension, and that harnesses America’s most precious resource-our human resource-bringing national life into harmony with natural law. This will empower people to govern their own lives better, so they create fewer mistakes and fewer problems for themselves and others, and lead healthier, more productive, more satisfying lives. Source: www.Hagelin.org, ‘What Hagelin will do’ , Apr 1, 2000

Decline of moral standards follow from breaking natural law

Hagelin believes there has been a decline in moral and ethical standards in America. He addresses this concern as follows: “The decline of moral, ethical, and behavioral standards in America-the widespread violation of natural laws governing health, behavior, and environment-is exacerbated by historically high levels of societal stress. The Natural Law Party supports programs that bring life into accord with natural law-programs shown to dissolve individual and societal stress, promote moral reasoning, and awaken our citizens’ fully creativity. Behavior in accord with natural law is spontaneously far-sighted, life-nourishing, and comprehensive, thus naturally upholding high moral and ethical values.“ Source: 2000 National Political Awareness Test , Jan 13, 2000

Priorities: health prevention; criminal rehabilitation

Implement prevention-oriented health care programs shown to prevent disease and cut costs by 50% or more, saving hundreds of billions of dollars by keeping people healthy.
Implement effective, field-tested crime prevention and rehabilitation programs to sharply reduce crime.
Create crucial campaign finance and democratic reforms that would reduce special-interest dominance & restore government’s accountability to the people.

Source: 2000 National Political Awareness Test , Jan 13, 2000

Preemption of third party ideas is desirable

If our ideas get preempted by the Republican or Democratic parties, I will be happy. But until that happens, [the Natural Law Party’s] 2,000 candidates are going to get out there and we are going to fight for ideas that are long overdue and are essential for the future of our country. Source: Jim Bohannon Show, Westwood One radio , Nov 16, 1999

Natural Law candidates are not career politicians

None of our 2,000 candidates are career politicians--a whole new generation of leadership; let’s put it that way. These people are in touch with common sense ideas that are working in their own classrooms, for example, to hold the interest of the kids, to develop creativity and intelligence. Source: Jim Bohannon Show, Westwood One radio , Nov 16, 1999

Broad-based platform, unlike other third parties

What really distinguishes the Natural Law Party from the Libertarian Party or the Reform Party is that we have a broad-based platform, I would say the most broad-based platform of any political party. Source: Jim Bohannon Show, Westwood One radio , Nov 16, 1999

Natural law of physical world applies to human society

My expertise as a scientist is natural law, how nature governs this immense, complex universe without a problem; how our ecosystem supports seven-and-a-half million species in this beautiful, interconnected web of mutual nourishment. There are laws that govern human society, the growth of a child and learning, the fertility of the soil, our own ability to maintain our health. It’s high time that the most up-to-date scientific knowledge of natural law is put to work in man-made government so that the conduct of human affairs and our government becomes as life-supporting and as efficient as the government of nature. Source: Washington Journal, C-SPAN , Sep 5, 1999

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