Hank lives off of a pension he receives after years as a civil servant in Australia. He travels around the world, half promoting his various inventions and half adventuring through exotic lands. I met him on the street in Sydney on March 20th, 2002 (the day bombs started falling on Iraq), and we spoke over coffee at a downtown Sydney cafe.
FASOTE: What are your thoughts on the United States of America, either spiritually or politically?
HANK: I see it much like they see it in Europe, I think. American foreign policy seems to be dictated by Israel. That is mainly what the world is seeing right now. And what is happening, with this proposed war on Iraq, what is happening is that the Americans, whether they win lose or draw the war, will lose. Because they are going to become isolated. You can already see it now, with what the Americans call the 'coalition of the willing'. Well, France is the unwilling, and Germany, and Russia, and China. It won't be long before Russia is part of the European common market. Geographically, Asia runs right on to Europe. So when you will have Europe with Russia attached, you will have a massive trade block which only really needs to trade with the East. And you look at China - they have 10 countries in a trade block they have started. These blocks are just forming, but they will continue to form and America will become more and more isolated. This war on Iraq is the biggest mistake they will ever make, as it only makes all the other countries want to isolate them more. They think they can still bully people - and actually, I don't really agree with terrorism, but Bin Laden is quite right when he talks about the bullying by America, and of how upset people are. And, of course, in every war there are religious overtones. I was brought up during the Second World War, and if it had not been for the Catholic Church, maybe there would never have been a second world war in Europe. Because, the only country that went with Germany was Italy, and that was under a dictatorship. And after the war, the Catholic Church helped the Nazis to get out of Germany - they admit it themselves.
FASOTE: Why would they have helped the Nazis?
HANK: Because they were so against Jews - they were against anybody who wasn't a Christian. So they felt as though Hitler's stand against the Jews was to their benefit. So, any war has religious overtones, and in this one they are pretty evenly matched. The Christians and Muslims have similar numbers of people - about a billion people each. All these religions are really just businesses though - that is why I am an atheist. It is because all religions are undemocratic. No Christian or Muslim will come up to you and give you the Bible or Koran and say 'Read this and tell me what you think'. They will say 'Read this and believe it, because I do'. That is the undemocratic side to it - they don't let people make up their own minds.
FASOTE: OK - what do you think is the state of the Islamic world today?
HANK: When you look at it - they are not as progressive as they used to be. Remember, if it hadn't been for the Muslims many things would have been lost on Europe. The Muslims brought writing to Europe, mathematics. A lot of knowledge. But, what they have done - they haven't been as progressive as the Christians have been.
FASOTE: Do you think the Muslims and the Judeo-Christian world can live together peacefully?
HANK: Well, they have to. For the simple reason that - if they continue to do this, we will not be able to progress. You have to break it down to the basics - we started off in a very small way - you had village fighting against village, then you had city against city, then state against state, and if you go to the next thing, continent against continent, then that would be the end of the world, because there is too much nuclear power. And, I don't think we will get to that because the trade blocks are forming at a perfect time - I they had formed earlier or much later it could have been dangerous, but they are forming at the right time. The capitalistic forces are being unleashed to hold every thing into balance. You look at China - they are no longer communist - they are the biggest capitalists on the planet! You go there today - you look at Hong Kong and it is like Manhattan!
FASOTE: How do you define the word terrorism?
HANK: I think they're people who have taken one step further than guerilla warfare. At one time, guerilla warfare was considered terrorism. It happened when big armies attacked small countries - just look at what happened to the Americans in Vietnam. Guerilla warfare is how the Vietnamese won that war. And the Muslims, they just haven't the weapons to fight the Americans. The only thing they can use is humans, and that is what they are doing. Nobody in his right mind would approve of it, because you are killing a lot of innocent people, but that happens in any war. But, it is just the recklessness and unpredictability of it that scares governments, because they don't know what is next. It may be their own parliament house - who knows? But this is all the Muslims have - it is for survival. Look at what Bin Laden did in New York - he picked the World Trade Center - the heart of capitalism. The heart of it! It was a brilliant attack, with a minimum of collateral damage when you look at it. They don't have smart bombs.
FASOTE: Do you think that the War on Terrorism will help or hurt humanity?
HANK: It will hurt us. When you look at the very basics of it - the war on terrorism is directed by Israeli politics. If America were to put an army separating the Israelis and Palestinians and give the Palestinians their own state, if America were to do the right things, there would be no more terrorism, because there wouldn't be any need for terrorism. But this war will only hurt the cause, and there will be more terrorism than less. But the Israeli and American hawks won't allow that - they are pursuing their own agenda. This war - I mean, I can't believe that 280 million people voted in a dumb bastard like Bush? How can you have someone who is so stupid? They are thinking like a hundred years ago, that you can bully the world. And that is not true - time marches on, and right now this plan of theirs will only backfire.
FASOTE: OK - let's get a bit more positive. What is the best thing about Australia?
HANK: Well, it may be that it is isolated from the rest of the world, although we do get the occasional shortsighted extremist here as well. I mean, some of these people talk of a forward defense policy, but how can you have that when you are at the backdoor of Indonesia, with 200 million people? We are lucky to be isolated so we don't have to deal with so many of the other problems of other countries. It hurts us to, towards being progressive - we didn't even let Asians immigrate to here until 30 years ago. I mean, when I came here, in 1968, aboriginal people were not even allowed to vote, and they are the original Australians. But, the world has changed, although there will always be frictions, but our geography is the best thing we have going. It is so spread out - Sydney has 4 and a half million, Melbourne has 3 and a half million, and Brisbane only about a half, but they are all spread out and let the people have a bit more of a country philosophy. It is a bit simpler here than other Western countries. People love to retire and drive around the country and relax - I like that.
FASOTE: Do you have any heroes?
HANK: The greatest guy I think was Thomas Edison. This guy had 100s of inventions. He invented so much, but he kept it simple, kept it honest. To be an inventor, you have to be 150% honest with yourself and with your surroundings as well as having to possess hard, sound logic. These are the two things you need - and Edison possessed them both in great volume.
FASOTE: Thank you for your time
