The Challenge of the Times - Rudolf Steiner by mach4C

THE CHALLENGE OF THE TIMES

by Rudolf Steiner

THE ANTHROPOSOPHIC PRESS Spring Valley

New York

These lectures, originally published in English with the title. In tilÂŁ

CluJ:nged Conditioi'Ls of

the Times,

were given in

Dornach, Switzerland, November - December, 1918. They were translated from the German by Olin D. Wannamaker and are included in Die soziale Grundforderung unserer Zeit (Vol. 186 in the Bibliographic Survey, 1961).

Prin.Ud in tM United Statu of America

CONTENTS

East and West from a Spiritual Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

November 29, 1918

II.

The Present from the Viewpoint of the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

November 30, 1918

III.

The Mechanistic, Eugenic and Hygienic Aspects of the Future . . . . . . . . 70 .

December 1, 1918

IV.

Social and A ntisocial Instincts . . . . . . .

119

December 6, 1918

Specters of the Old Testamen t in the Nationalism of the Present . . . . 152 December 7, 1918

VI.

The Innate C apacities of the Nations of the World . ... . .... .. .... . . 179 .

December 8, 1918

iii

EAST AND WEST FROM A SPIRITUAL POINT OF VIEW

n my last lecture deal i n g w ith p resent events, I called you r attention to the n ecessities of a social order resu l ting from the impulses of the modern age. I must expressly emphasize the fact that I do not by any means wish to develop a program. You all k now how l ittle i mportance I attach to such th i ngs. They are mere abstracÂ tions. What I have d iscussed w ith you is not a n abstraction, b u t a reality. I have expressed the matter in the fol low ing w ay to various persons with whom , in the course of the l ast few years, I

have spoken of these i m pell i ng social forces as

_someth i ng i nevitable. I have said that w h at we are seeking to set forth, w h i c h is something utterly different from an abstract p rogram, w il l by its own connectio n w ith the i mpelling forces of history come to real ization i n the world w i th in the next twenty or thirty years. "You have the choice"

I could express myself at that time i n

this way because people still had the choice, as they do not any longer possess i t - "You have

the choice between adopting a rational attitude and accepting such things, or realizing later that these things will come about in the most chaotic way through cataclysms and revolutions." There is no other alternative in these things in the course of world history, and the demand simply faces us today to understand such things as proceed from the impulses actually at work in the world. As I have repeatedly declared, this is not a time when each person can say that he believes this or that will happen or ought to happen, but it is a time when the only person who can speak effectively in regard to the necesÂ sities of the age is one who is able to perceive what bears within itself the impelling force for its realization in the course of the times. Now, it is most important to understand that it was impossible for me to gi v e you anything more than a sketch of what I am c om pelled to view as a necessity embodying the impulse to realization. In order to establish a connection with what has already been said, I sha11 repeat briefly today what I then spoke about, that is, that the conÂ fusion in the social structure that has gradually led to these catastrophic events of recent years over the whole world must be set aside, and it is imperative to replace it b y that threefold organiÂ zation of the social structure of which I spoke to you at

our last meeti n g. You have seen that the

outcome of this th ree fold organization wi11 be to distribute into separate spheres what has hither-

to constituted, i n a confused fashion, the basis of the see mingly unitary organization of the state. It will be d istributed among three spheres, the first of w hich I design ated as the political. or security, order; the second, as the sphere of the social organization , the economic organization; the th ird, as the sphere of free spiritual producÂ tion. These three spheres will be i ntegrated independently of each other, each i n its own way. I ndeed, this w i l l become man ifest w ithin the - x ne t few decades even to those persons who are unwil l ing today to u nderstand i t. We shall escape the great perils toward w hich the world is stil l continui ng to move only i f w e endeavor to underÂ stand these things, but we shall not understand them unless we really study them thorough ly. I n order that what fol lows may not b e m isunderstood, I should like once more to emphasize that it is not our business either to create the social question or to discuss it in any merely theoretical way. In the light of our recent reflections, you will already have seen that the social question actually exists, that it must be accepted as a factor, as an actuality, and that it can be grasped and understood only in the same way in which an occurrence of nature must be understood. You will already have seen that everything! set forth here last Sunday as constituting the necesÂ sary impulses leading to the future is of such a. nature as to supersede, in a just and legitimate way, the elements left over from ancient times in 3

our social structure, elements that permeate it destructively through and through. Especially if you reflect more deeply on the practical results of what I said to you last Sunday, will you see that these practical results of the social organization of which 1 spoke are of such a char·acter· as to super sede in a suitable way what those who call them selves socialists but who live in illusions rather than in realities, wish to overcome in an imprac tical way. What must be superseded - as will become clear to you upon deeper reflection over what was said last Sunday- is the membering of the social structure according to classes. What must be achieved in harmony with the period of consciousness in which we live, the fifth post Atlantean epoch, .is that the human being as such shall take the place of the ancient distinctions according to classes. For this reason it would be disastrous if what I developed before you here last Sunday should be confused with something that is perpetuated in our contemporary social organiza tion out of past ages. Something extends into our social organization from the Greek period that must be superseded according to the principles holding sway in the course of world events. The differentiation of humanity according to the an cient Greek classifica_tion into husbandmen, sol diers, and teachers must be superseded by the very thing I brought to your attention last Sunday.

It is the differentiation according to classes that brings chaos into our contemporary social struc4

!ure. This d i fferentiation w i l l be su perseded by the fact that h uman beings w i l l n ot be divided in any way accord ing to classes u nder the organ iza· tion of society of w h i c h I spoke to you last Su nday. In the very natu re of things, these classes_FU completely disappear. I t is in t h i s direction that _ historic necessity moves. Man, as a l iv i n g being and n ot as an abstrac tion, shal l bring about the con n ections among the th ree spheres of society. We are by n o m eans dealing w ith a differenti ation accord i ng to classes, as �usband men, sold iers and teachers, w he n we say that we must m ove forward toward politi cal justice, econ o m i c organ i zation, and free spir itual production. What this si gnifies is that rel a tionships shall be integrated in this way, and that it will be i m poss i b l e for h u m an beings to belong to a si ngle class w hen the relations h i ps are really integrated in this way. The h u man bei n g exists within the soc ial stru ctu re and he h imself forms the con necti ng l i n k among the d i fferent elements integrated in these relations h i ps. _There w i l l not be � separate economic class, a separate class of pro _

ducers, but a structu re. of econom i c rel ationships. In the same way, there w i l l not be a special class of

"teachers" but the relationships w i ll be such that spi ritual

production

will

be free in

its ow n

nature. Likewise, there w i l l not be a separate class o f sold iers, but the effort w i l l be m ade gradually to achieve for the first sphere of the soc ial order i n a l i beral democratic manner that

for which a confused struggle now proceeds on behalf of all three spheres. The very essence of the matter is the t1·uth that the passage from ancient times to modern times makes it imperative that the human being shall take his place in the world. There is no possi bility of our reaching an understanding of the demands of our age otherwise than by acquiring the capacity to understand human beings. This can be achieved, of course, only on the basis of those perceptions that a science of the spirit brings to light.

As I recently declared, what I liave developed before you must be viewed against the broad background of world history. I have set before you certain things from the content of this his toric tableau. In order that we may now continue further in describing such conditions as I began to explain to you last Sunday, I wish to lay a foundation today derived somewhat more from occult sources in order to make it clear to you that the manner of dealing with these things cannot be one in

w hich

each person thinks out

something for himself in utter disregard of th e facts of the case, but that the way to deal with these thi n gs

is to

view them in accordance with

the actual movement of events. Here my point of

�eparture must be the statement that the first necessity in developing the social structure is to

base it upon social understanding. Indeed, this is the very thing that has been lacking for decades.

The realm we here touch upon is one in which the greatest number made.

�

of blunders have

been

great majority of persons in positions of

leadership have been utterly lacking in social understanding. It is not surprising, therefore, that such revolutionary movements

we now

have in Central Europe seem to people like some thing springing out of the earth, something for which they have had no preparation. They do not appear as something unexpected to people who have a social understanding but I

fear that

people will continue still to be permeated by the mood that filled them before the year 1914. Just as the World War, obviously hanging over the heads of everyone at that time. came as a sur prise, people will still behave in even more vital matters in just the same way. They will still con tinue to sleep while the social movement, which is spreading over the whole world, breaks in upon them. Because of the phlegmatic habits of thought now characterizing humanity, it may be just as impossible to prevent this

j)revent

it was to

mankind from permitting the pr�sent

�atastrophe to overwhelm it unprepared. What really matters most of all is to learn the truth that human beings must not conduct them selves in one way or another in the various parts of the world according to abstract notions, but that, the moment .their conduct may have social consequences, they must choose their course ac cording to how they are impelled 7

to act by the

impulses existent

in the

sequence of cosmic

events into which man himself i s integrated. An elementary fact is utterly ignored by people even today. I say this on the bas i s of experience, for I have been compelled in recent years to discuss these matters with men belonging to the most varied professions and classes, and I know the response one meets when these things are dis足 cussed. I refer to the fact that people of the East and the West- and everyone will take part in the future shaping of things- are quite unlike one another in their impulses, and are different in what they will for themselves. Indeed, if we pay attention only to the social environment nearest to us, we shall reach no clear judgment as to what is proceeding as a matter of necessity in the world. We reach a clear judgment only when - and I must once more employ this ex足 pression- we form our judgment about things according to the impulses existing in the univer足 sal course of events. The people of the West, of the Western European states and their append足 age America, will have their say. The people of Eastern Europe, with its Asiatic hinterland, will have their say during the next two or three decades,

but their manner of speaking will vary beings in

_greatly among themselves, for human

various parts of the world necessarily have different conceptions regarding what man feels and must

inevitably feel as a necessity of his human

dignity and his nature as man.

We cannot discuss these things un less we see clearly that events must necessarily occur i n the future that people wquld like best of a l l to avoid. I told you last Sunday that it is simply imÂ possible for effectual, fruitful social ideas to be discovered in future by any other path than the one that leads in the search for truths beyond the threshold of ordinary physical consciousness. Within the l i mits of ord i nary physical conÂ sciousness there are no effectual social ideas. For th is reason, as I ex plai ned l ast Sunday, these social ideas, w hich are truly effectual, must come to people. But this statement i m plies at the same time that it will not do to shr i n k back in future from acquainti ng onese l f, s o far as this is poss ible for each person, w i th the real nature of the threshold of the spiritual world. Within the limits of everyday life and science, humanity may continue for a l ong time on its beaten path w i thout becoming acquainted with the threshold of the spi ritual world. I n these fields we can get along as well as is absolutely necessary. B ut, as regards social life, it is not possible to get along without giving attention to what is here cal led the threshold of the spiritual

world. There exists with i n peopl e of the present age- still unconscious, of course, but thrusting ever more upward i n to consciousness-the imÂ pluse to bring about such a social structure as will permit every person to be, as his nature demands, a hum an being. 9

By no means clearly, and yet in a n insti nctive way, people i n all regions o f the earth feel the meaning

human

d ignity,

o f an

existence

worthy of the h uman being. T h e abstract social democrat of the present time believes that it is a simple matter to express in a n inter national way the meaning of human dignity, human rights, etc. T his cannot be done. If these t h ings are to be expressed, it is imperative that w e bear i n mind the truth that the real concepti o n of the human being belongs inherently beyond the threshold of the spi ritual world, since man rea l l y belongs to the world of spi rit and sou l. In other words, a true and comprehensive conception of what the human being is can come to us o n ly from beyond the threshold of the spiritu al world. I n reality, the conception does come from this source. Even if the American, Briton- , FrenchÂ man, German,

C hinese, J ap anese or

Russian

speaks to you of the human b e i ng, expressi ng quite u nsatisfactory conceptions and ideas, t here yet dwells i n his subconsciousness something far more comprehensive, but somethi n g that must be clearly grasped. This more comprehensive thing dwelling there struggles to rise i nto conÂ sciousness. In other words, we may say that historic evolution has progressed to the point where an i mage of the human being l ives in the hearts of men. W i thout givi ng attention to this image of the human being, it is i mpossible to develop any social u nderstand i n g. This image is 10

alive but it lives only in the subconsciousness. The moment that it struggles upward into con sciousness and really enters there, it can be grasped only by means of the capacities belong ing to the form of consciousness that is in its nature supersensible - at least, by means of �hese capacities i n the conceptual field, as they have been taken up by sou nd common sense. An image of the human being lives in those persons who are engaged at present in the social struggle that may remain unconscious and only instinctive so long as the impulse is lacking to see the matter clearly. If, however, there is a . desire to arrive at clarity, it can be done only by i rrad i at i ng the matter with the light that comes from the other side of the threshold. Then it be comes obvious to the objective spiritual observer �hat the image of the human being lurking instinctively in human souls varies greatly in people belonging to the West. and those belong ing to the East. This will become an enormously important question in the future. It plays a role in all actual conditions. It plays a role i n the Russian chaos, i n the revolution i n M iddle Europe, in the confusion that is in its early stages in the West, even all the w ay to America. In other words, w h at is in process of develop ment must be viewed i n the l i g ht of supersensi ble consciousness if it i s to be understood. It must be g rasped by means of the capacities that are derived from supersen s i b l e consciOusness. 11

There is no ap proach from the side of sensory consciousness that w i l l enable us to unde rstand what dwe l ls i nstinctively as an image of man both in the peop les of the West and of the East. In order to achieve this understanding, how ever, it is necessary that you acq u aint you rselves with two things. Fi rst, w i th the peculiar manner in which something that actu a l ly obsesses the subconsc iousness of a pe rson rises u p into real supersensible consc iousness. A p erson learns in two different ways through the G ua rdian of the Threshold how something that is stirring chao tical ly in his instincts and does not belong to the person,

for

only

what

grasps belongs to him,

p erson

appears

consc iously before

him.

Things that instinctively obsess a person appear in one case before the G uard i an of the Threshold in such a way that they seem l i ke external per ceptions.

is an hal lucinati on,

external

perception, actually appearing before the person and presenting i tself like something e x te rnally percei ved. That is the specte r character . When something that has l ived insti nctively and chao tical ly in an individual

comes

known

clearly in the presence of the G u ardi an of the Threshold, where all instincts cease and every thing begins to be known consc i ously and to take its place in the free spi ritu al l i fe , such an i nstinc tive l i v ing e lement may a ppear as a specter. T h e person i s then rid of it a s a n instinct. T here is no need for fear because of the fact t h at such a 12

thing appears as a specter. This is the sole way in which the person can get r i d of i t. He sees it i n external objectivity and what has been ch aotical ly sti rring within h i m is really before him in the form of a specter. This is one of the forms. The other form in which such an instinctive thing may appear is that of a nightmare. T h is is not an external perception but an opp ressive feel ing or the aftereffects i n the form of a vision of something that oppresses one. It is an im足 aginative experience but i t may at the same time be fel t

a nightmare. What exists insti nc足

tively in the person must come to m a nifestation either as a n ightmare or as a specter if i t is to be brought up i nto con;;ciousness. Just as every instinct l iving in a person must gradually rise to a higher level e i ther as a specter or as a n i ghtmare, if the person is to become ful ly human, so must what l ives uncon足 sciously

and

i n st inctively

the

fee l i ng

human dignity, as the i mage of man i n the West and the East appear to h i m in one for m or the other an d be understood by hi m but u nderstood primari ly through sou nd com mo n sense. Thus, it may happen that the p racticing spi ritual scientist will be able to show that some thi ngs appear as nightmares, others as specters. What a spiritual scientist expe r iences on the basis of his o bserva足 tions will be expressed by h i m in words applicable to historical or other conceptions i n o rder to render it possible for what he has ex perienced to be 13

grasped by the sound common sense of those who do not yet possess the occu l t ca pac i ties neces sary for seeing these th ings. T h e fact that a person does not actually behold these things is not in the l east a val i d excuse for not accepting them, s i nce everything perce ived is pre sented in such concepts as can be grasped by sou nd common sense. Confidence in the p erson who does see these thi ngs shou l d not go beyond bel i ev ing that he can give suggesti o n s. It is not necessary to bel i eve h i m because, if a person e m p loys h i s own powers d i l igently without p reconceptio n , every thing that is declared to be true can always be grasped with sound common sense. Now, the situation i s such that those i nsti ncts l iving in the West, as consti tut i n g the i m age of the human being and stri v i n g toward a soc ial struc ture, appear before the G uard ian o f the T h reshol d a s specters. T h e i mage of t h e h u m an b e i n g l i ving in the people of E astern E u ro pe w i th its Asiatic h i n terland, man i fests itsel f as a nightm are. The occu l t fact i s simply that, i f you ask an A m' e r ican. and this is most marked in the case of America, to d escribe what he fee ls to be the i mage of true human dignity, and you work over th i s i m age in an occu l t way and carry it al l the way to the G uard ian of the Th reshold, and then observe w h at you ex pe rience in h i s presence in con nection w i th this im age, it appears befo re you as a specter. If you p re vai l upon an Asiatic or an i nformed Russian to des cribe what they con ce i ve as the i mage of man, it

will work u pon you, i f i t is carried all the way to the · Guardian of the T h reshold, as a n i ghtmare. What I am say i ng to you here is o nly a descrip tion of an occu l t ex perien ce that has its basis i n h is torical i m p u l ses and events because w hat takes form in sti nctively i n the hearts and souls of men grows also out of h i storical substrata. The peoples of the West-B r i tons, F renchmen, I talians, S pan iards, Ameri cans- because of certain h istorical sti m u l i in the cou rse o f th e i r development from an cient ti mes u p to thei r p resent state, have per mitted to take root in the i r hearts, not in full clear consci �usn ess but in an instinctive w ay, such an i mage of the h u m an being as can be described when we study h i storical sti m u l i adequately. T hese i m ages of Eastern and W estern man m ust _be replaced by w h at can actually be d iscovered by means of spiritual scientific research. This alone can becom e the basis for a true social order. not one that will be dom i n ated by either specters or night mares. If we i nvestigate in the right way the ques tion

to why the W estern i m age of the h uman

bei n g is a s pecter, we shall d iscover, after taking into account all the h istorical substrata, that the specter of the ancient Roman E m p i re l ies at the bottom of the i nsti ncts that h ave led to the i mage of the h u m an bei n g in the W estern parts ofthe world. They are the i nsti ncts that h ave now led, for ex ample, to the so-cal l ed W i lson program for the West, u pon which so much praise is being l avished. Everything that h as gradually d eveloped i n the

course of h istory that possesses a t h o ro ughl y out moded character, that is, a l uciferi c-ah ri manic

character, and is not su ita b l e for the i m medi ate present but is a specter fro m e a r l i e r ages, consti tutes the specter of Roman i s m . Of course, there is much in Western culture that d oes not b e l ong at all to Roman ism. In Engl ish-speak i n g regions you n aturally find much that h as n o s u c h connection. Even i n the truly Lati n cou n tr ies there is much that has no connection with Roman ism. That, how

ever, is not the important m atte r. The important fact is the image of the h u m a n bein g in sofar as he is supposed to enter into the social structu re. In all these regions this is w holly d etermined in stinc tively by what has taken for m w it h i n Roman cul ture. It conti nues to be a ltoge t h e r t h e p roduct of the Latin way of th i nking, belo n g i n g to the fourth

post-Atlantean culture. T h i s is noth i n g that really possesses life bu t is somet h i ng t h at h au n ts the present like a ghost of the d e ad . I t is t h i s specter that appears to the objective o cc u l t observer w hen he undertakes to for m an i m age o f what is i ntended to be made dominant over the world u n d e r the in

fluence of the West. It serves no usefu l pu rpose to make assertions regarding these things w ithout the necessary knowledge. That is no l onger i n kee p i ng w i t h the status of h uma n ity in the p rese n t epoch. What must be taken into a ccoun t is the necess i ty of ac

quiring a clear view of these things. The specter of �omanism is haunting the W est. W he n I recently

cal led your attention to the future destiny of var ious peoples of the West, espec ially the French, this is c l osely related to the fact that they have clung most fi rm ly of a l l to the Roman specter. Their whole insti nctive tem perament and fu nda mental character wou l d not permit them to get rid of this Roman specter. This, then , is one aspect of the matter, that pertaining to the West. The other aspect is that a certa i n image of the human bei ng, to the extent that he should take his place in the social structure, dom i nates also i n the East. This i m age is of such character that there tends to come about even n ow through the very necessity of things something I have always spoken of. The s ixth c u l tu ral epoch is in its preparatory ·

stages in E astern E u rope. If we view the matter, however, from the standpoint of the present age, what is sti l l a l i ve in Eastern E u rope, including i ts Asiatic hinterl and, is not yet the image of the hu man bei ng that w il l in future be developed in a natural w ay even though it is the duty of human i ty even today to develop it through knowledge. On the contrary, i t is an i m age that appears as a n i ght mare when we take i t and ap proach the Guard ian of the Threshol d in order there to observe i t. This i mage, in turn, appears as a nightmare be cause the i nsti ncts that are nourished in the East and become effective i n the determi nation of this image are nou rished by a force that is not yet per fect. This force w i l l not reach i ts highest level of development u n t i l the futu re, unti l the sixth post-

Atlantean cultural epoch. This force actually re quires an impulse to support it. Before the con sciousness awakes - and consciousness must, in deed, first awaken in the East- this force requires an instinctive basis. It is this instinctive basis, still living in the peoples of the East when they form their image of man, that works as a nightmare. Just as all the impulses left over from Romanism have their influence as ancient lingering impulses in the formation of man's image in the West, so does this instinctive foundation work as a night mare but one that is to give a support. the effect of which ought to be precisely that of bringing the people of the East to the point of freeing them selves from the nightmare. It has this effect in a strange manner, working just as a nightmare does when it has been overcome after we have awakened and have seen clearly what actually has happened. This force that must work there in the East is not something from the past, but rather something that is working in our own epoch for the first time. It is made up of the forces proceeding from the British Empire. Just as the image of the human being in the West has been made into a specter through the stimuli of Romanism, so is the image of the human being so stamped upon the soul in the East that what will continue for a long time into the future as the undertakings of the British Em pire becomes a nightmare. These two things produce the result that what was conscious in the Roman Empire continues to 18

live unconsciously i n a ghostly way in the West. The British-A merican i mpulse toward world em� pire that is in process of preparation and is active in the presen t epoch, manifests itself as a night mare, as the counter force of a n ightmare in order that the peoples of the East may awaken to a con scious and adeq uate i mage of man. I t is not p leasant to state these thi ngs at the present t i m e, to listen to them is equally u npl eas ant. The simple truth is, however, that we have ar rived at an epoch i n the evolution of world h istory when nothing can be ach ieved u nless people take cogn izance of the thi ngs in the world on the bas i s of thei r knowledge, the i r fu l l consciousness, and really acq u a i n t themselves objectively with what exists in the world. No progress can be made i n any other w ay . W hat has been happen ing in our time is of such a natu re as to compel men in a cer tai n sense to reverse the direction of these events. Things must not continue longer in such a way that, just as men have permitted themselves for a long time to be com pelled to th i nk i n a certai n way , they shall agai n permit themselves to b e compelled to thi n k entirely different thoughts for the simple reason that everyth ing has been turned u pside down i n a certain region of the earth. I t is possible to make the acquaintance today of people who, within a few weeks have suddenly evolved from gall an t royalists i n to extreme republicans and all other i m agi nable sorts of things. Noth ing helpful

to h u m an ity could previously be acco m pl ished by 19

those who were royalists out of compulsion, and nothing helpful can come now from those who are today socialists as a matter of compulsion, or who have even become bolshevists after having been true royalists. There are even such individuals as this. What is necessary is neither the one nor the other of these things. What is necessary is that we shall come to see that only what proceeds from the free decision of the free human soul can be bene ficial, that is, what the human being decides for himself through the use of his powers of re flection, through the use of his heart and most of �II his insight. That is what really matters. Other wise. we shall observe repeatedly that things will be viewed in one way or another under the force of circumstances. A person who considered Lu dendorff a great field marshall six weeks ago and who calls him a criminal today, for instance, if he has no reason for either of these judgments and cannot form them through the free decisiQn of a free heart, is of just as little use in the evolu tion of humanity in the one case as in· the other. It is not sufficient that a statement is abstractly true, though generally one statement is as false as the other, but that we shall develop the capacity for forming real judgments. In this matter spiritual science may constitute a really excellent guidance for you. I am constantly being made aware that st.ate ments I make here or elsewhere in the field of spiritual science are considered difficult to un20

derstand. T h i s is due s i m ply to the fact that people do not rea l ly have the will to apply their sound com mon sense in ful l m easure to these th ings. They are considered d i fficu l t to u nderstand beÂ cause people do not fi n d it sufficiently comfortÂ able to Jay hold of them. In the course of these reflections I have made various state ments i n regard to this so-called war catastrophe of recen t years and its origin. I hope that w h at has happened i n the last few weeks w i l l be seen to be a com plete con firmation of what I h ave said for many years to you and to others in regard to these matters. N oth ing has come about that fails to har monize with what has here been asserted. I ndeed, you can see the map I d rew on the blackboard here years ago com i ng to real ity during these very days. What is sai d here, however, must not be taken in the sense of a Su nday afternoon sermon, but i n the sense i n tended; that is, as som eth i n g asserted on the basis of the actual i mpell i ng forces that either have been realized or are driving toward realization. For this reason I shal l not hesitate to cal l your attention repeatedly to certa i n matters of method, even if th is involves repetition. T hese questions of method are most i m portant of all in the field o f spiritual-scientific k nowledge, which is so necessary for our age. What this science of the spi r i t makes of ou r souls is far more imporÂ tant than the acqu isition of a mere ly abstract acquaintance with one truth or another. We can observe repeatedly that the sort of 21

soul structure that comes about through spiritual science is serviceable precisely in the com prehen sion of the immediate events of the tim es. How often have I emphasized in the cou rse of these years the fact that it is really te rrible for people to repeat c<;>ntinually, as they have done, the easy

q u estions, "Who is to blame for the world cata strophe of this war? Is it the Central Powers or the Entente? O r is it heaven knows who?" These q u estions as to who is to blame s i mp ly can not be answered in any fundamental sense. What is really i m portant is the correct and definite state ment of the question. O nly thus can we arrive at a sufficient, fundamental, actual i nsight, b u t i t is utterly useless i n the case of many persons of the present time to appeal to this i ns ight. For ex ample, much of what is now being reported from Paris rem i nds me of other thi ngs bear i n g u pon this unhappy situation, thi ngs that happened earl ier in Berlin or elsewhere. I t is not a m atter of any consequence to form one's judgme n t in ac cordance w ith what is perm i tted or not per m i tted - especially a judgment about q uestions of fact - but what matters is that this j udgme n t should be formed on the basis of a free consideration , formed by the free mind itsel f. That is what really matters. I f you will recal l various things I have �aid here i n recent weeks, you will see that the events meanwhile have confi rmed many of my state ments. For instance, I expl ained to you that i t is 22

utterly w rong to d i scuss these things in such a way, so satisfying to many persons, as to discover on the side of the Central Powers what is called ljguilt" in connection w ith the World War. But I have said to you that the governments of the Central Powers h ave contributed to the World War in an essential w ay t_Drough their i diotic methods. W h at I ex plained to you even in the most recent lectures h as during this week been com足 pletely confirmed by the disclosures made by the government of B av aria. They, that is, the publi足 cation of the letters exchanged between the government of B avaria and the B avarian E nvoy in Berlin, Count Lerchenfeld-Koefering, are in complete agreement with my explanations. Through such events the p icture I have given you for years, w h i ch I had to give in such a way that I was conti nually tracing things back to the right form of questions regarding them, will be足 come clearer. I t is a certain service - and even such things as these may now be openly men足 tioned - that has been u ndertaken by this K urt Eisner i n the publication of these things, a service by one who h as come i n a strange way out of prison to the post of premier. At a time when so muc h is said i n regard to persons who have made themselves unworthy of their official position s, it is certainly permissible to speak also about such a person as the present Premier of B avaria, though we need not lavish praise u pon h im for this reason. 23

Naturally, in accordan ce w ith the karma of each person and the manner in which he is stationed in the world by h i s katma, he will be able to pass one judgment or another in one place or another in the world, ot ought to pass such a judgment. If we desire to achieve a social under standing, as I have said in various connections, the most im portant thing of all is that we shall acqu i re an understanding of the hu man be ing, in terest in human beings, a d ifferentiated interest in persons, that we should desire to know hu man be ings. It is this that must constitute the task, the most important task o f the future. But we m ust acquire a certain instinct, i f you w i l l permit me to use this expression , _for form ing j udgments on the basis of symptoms. It is for this reason that I de l i vered the lecture on history a s sym ptomatology. Such a person as this P re m i e r o f Bavaria, K u rt E isner, is v i v idly present before o u r minds, for in stance, when we consider the fol lowing facts. I say this to you now not for the pu rpose of br inging to your attention something actual, but to i l l u strate a �it of psychology, a b i t of the science of the hu man soul. Before there had been any decl aration of war, either from the left or from the right, in the last days of July 1914, Kurt E isner said in M u n i ch, " I f a world war really comes about, n o t on ly w i l l the nations tear each other to p i eces, but every throne in Central Europe w i l l fal l T h is w i l l be the i nevi .

table consequence!" He

remained true to his

convictions. Throughout these years he continued to assemble a little group of men in M unich, al ways pursued by the police, and to speak to them. When a strike occurred at a particularly serious moment in the developments of recent years i n Germany, h e was sentenced t o prison, and h e has now ascended from prison to the premiership of Bavaria. H e is a human being molded in a single piece. I do not mean to praise him because con ditions are now such that even such a person may make blunder after blunder. But I wish to des cribe an example of what must really be con sidered. What is needed is that we shall rightly estimate as symptoms the occurrences confront ing us in the world, that from the symptoms we shall reach conclusions regarding w hat lies be hind them - if we do not possess the capacity of seeing through the symptoms the spirit at work behind them. We must at least strive to reach through the symptoms a vision of the spiritual that lies behind them. Especially in the future will it be necessary that mutual understanding shall come about between humah beings. The social question is not to be solved by cliches; programs or Lenin isms, but by an understanding between man and man- such an understanding, however, as can be acquired only when we are able to recognize the human being as an external. manifestation of the eternal. I f you consider what I have said, that in the West the human being produces the effect ofa specter in 25

the presence of the Guardian of the Threshold and i n the East that of a nightmare you will receive in a certain way the necessary stimulus for o btaining a true view of the conditions of the present time. I n the West an image of the human bei ng that is o n a descending path and appears, therefore, as a specter; in the East an image that is ascending, but that must not be accepted in its present form since it is still merely an imagination of an oppressive n ightmare and will appear in its true form only after this nightmare has been overcome. The conditions are such, therefore, that we must gain a deeper insight if we wish to participate at all in discussions of the social problem. T he matters into which we must acquire a deeper insight are such as pertain to the character of our thinking, and the manner in which this thinking streams forth from the whole human being, differentiated in the case of individual personalities over the whole earth. The reason why this ghost of Romanism could acquire so profound an influence is that the thinking characteristic of the Old Testament world view has not yet been surmounted in the essential nature of human thought. C hristianity is really only at its begin ning. C hristianity has not yet progressed sufficiently to have really perÂ meated human hearts and minds. What was necessary to prevent this has been brought a bout by the Roman Church, which in its theology is ' s:.om pletely under the influence of the specter of ancient Romanism. As I have often indicated, the 26

Roma n C h u rc h

has contri buted more toward

hindering the introduction of the i mage of C h rist into h uman h earts and minds than it has helped because the conceptions that h ave been appl ied within the Roman C hu rc h for the purpose of comprehending the C h rist are a l l ta ken from the socia l and pol itica l structure of the ancient Roman Empire. E ven though h u ma n beings do not know th is, it works with i n their instincts. Now, the conceptions that were dominant in the Old Testament, that must be designated primarily as conceptions of Old Testa ment J udaism, and that took their worldly for m in Romanism, which is in the worldly sphere the same thing as J udaism was in the spiritu a l sphere even though it is in oppoÂ sition to J u daism, h ave come over into our own epoch by way of Roma nism; they haunt ou r age in spectral forms. T h i s Old Testament thinking, unpermea ted by the C h rist m ust be fou nd in its true origin within the human being. We must ask ourselves the q uestion, " Upon w hat forces does such thinking as that of the Old Testament depend?" This thinking depends u pon w hat can be inherÂ ited with the b lood from generation to generation. The capacity to think i n the manner characteristic of the O ld Testa ment is inherited w ith the blood in the succession of h u m a n beings. What we in herit as capacities from our fathers through the simple fact that w e are born as h u m a n beings, that we were e m b ryonic h um a n beings before our birth -

what we inherit as the power of thi n king, what lives in our blood , is Old Testament thinking. Our thinking is made up of two members, two parts. O ne part of our thinking consists in what we possess by reason of our development up to our bi rth, what we inherit from our forefathers or from our mater n al ancestors. We are able to think i n the Old Test ament way because we have been emb 1·yos. This was the essential characteristic also of the ancient J ewish people that, in the world in which we live between birth and death, they did n ot wish to learn anything in addition to what the human bein g bri ngs with h i m as a capacity because o f the fact that he was an embryo up to the time of his birth. The only way that you can conceive of Old Testa ment think i ng with real understand i n g is to say to yourself. "This is the k i nd of think i ng that we pos sess by reason of the fact that we have been. em bryos." The. kind of thinking that is added to this is what we have to acquire for ourselves in the course of our development beyond the embryonic period. For the purposes of certain external n eeds man acquires a variety of experiences, but he does not carry this process all the way to the tra nsforma tion of his thinking. Thus, e ven today Old Testa ment thinking continues to exert its influen ce far more than is generally supposed. People do n ot permeate the experiences th rough which they pass here with the thinking that is actually the consequences of these experiences. This is done 28

only in the most l i m i ted measu re and for the most part instinctively. At l east the experiences through which people pass are not pu rsued by them to the stage of the bi rth of a s pecial k i n d of thinking. This is done only by the true occultist whose de velopment has been i n accordance w ith the pres ent age. I n h is case the l ife l ived is so ordered that

he awakes aga i n , j u s t as a c h i l d awakes after it is born. One who cond u cts h i s l i fe in accordance

with my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its A ttainment, goes th rough th i s process a second time. H e relates h i msel f to h i s normal nature as the o r d inary m an relates h imself to the em bryo. I n ord i n a ry l i fe people conduct them

selves i n such a w ay th at, although they are com pelled to go through e x pe riences, they apply only the kind of th i n k i n g to them that they have ac quired by reason o f the fact that they have been em bryos. It i s thus that people go about h aving

their experi ences b u t are not w i l l i n g to proceed fu rther. T h ey a p p ly to these ex periences

thinking conte n t, espec i a l ly as the character of their thinking, the fo rm of the i r th i n k i ng, what the embryon i c l i fe h as given them. I n other words, they apply what i s i n herited in the b lood from gen eration to generatio n . O n e fact i s of fu ndamental i m portance. The Mystery of Golgotha can never be grasped in its special natu re by means of the k i nd of th i n k i ng

.that we possess because of our e m b ryon ic devel opment. For that reason I have exp lai ned to you 29

also in the lectures given during my present stay here that the Mystery of Golgotha is something that cannot be comprehended by means of ordi nary-physical thinking. This is someth i ng that will always be denied by honest individuals so long as they· remain at the state of physical thinking. The Mystery of Golgotha and everything permeated by the Christ, must be grasped, not by means of what is derived from the moon but by what is derived from the sun; that is, from the stand poi nt that one attains after birth during the present life. This is the great distinction between what is permeated by the C hrist and what is not so permeated. What ever is not permeated by the C hrist is m astered by a kind of thinking inherited in the blood stream. A comprehension of the world that is permeated by the Christ spirit is mastered by the kind of think ing that must be acquired by the individual human being as a personality in this world, through the experiences of life, by spiritualizing these experi ences in the manner explained in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its A ttainment.

This is the essential fact. The kind of thinking we possess because of our embryonic development leads to the recognition of the Godhead only as the Father. The kind of thinking that is acquired in this world through the personal life after the embryonic stage leads to the recognition of the Godhead also as the Son. Now, the influence of this tendency to make use only of the kind of thinking that belonged to J eho30

vah pers isted even i nto the nineteenth centu ry. But th i s t h i n k i n g i s suited to grasp o n ly that ele ment in the h u man b e i ng that belongs within the order of natu re. T h i s cond i tion came about through the fact that the J ehovab d i v i n i ty, w ho, as you know, w as one of the S even E l ohim, gained the mastery of human consciousness and suppressed the other E loh i m at an early period. The other E lo him were in th i s way th rust i nto the sphete of so called i l l usion and were su pposed to be fantastic beings. B ut th i s came about because the Jehovah d ivin ity tempo rari ly supplanted these spirits and permeated hu man consciousness with w hat alone can be developed as a power from the pre-embry on ic time. _This conti n u ed i nto the n i neteenth century. Human natu re came u nder the i n fl uence of lowe r elemental s p i ritual e nti ties who were work ing agai nst the endeavors of the E lohim, through the ·ract th at the J ehovah d i v i n ity deth roned the other E loh im i n a certain sense. T hey, however, made themselves effective o n ly through the personal ity of C h rist, a n d they w i l l continue to make them selves effective one after another i n the most varied w ays. Thus, the evo l u tion of consciousness was such because the J ehovah d iv i n ity had placed h imself as sole ruler and h ad dethroned the others. Through the fact that the others h ad been dethroned , hu man nature came u nder the i nfl uence of bei ngs lower than the E loh i m . Thus, not o n ly does Jeho31

vah conti n ue h is i n fl uence eve n i n to the n i n eteenth centu ry. but so also do god s of a lower cha racter i nstead of the E loh i m . I have a l ways to l d you that C h risti a n i ty is real ly st i l l i n i ts begi n n i ng but even after i t had become w i dely d i sse m i na ted hu man i ty d i d n ot yet u nderstan d i t for the reason that men d i d not i mmediately accept the i n fluence of the E lo h i m . T hey conti nued to be attac hed to the J ehovah t h i n k i ng, to the k i n d of th i n k i n g awak

ened by the e m b ryon i c force , and also b ecause they rem ai ned u nder the i n fl u e n c e of the opponents of the E lo h i m . Duri ng the n i neteenth cen t u ry - i n deed , pre cisely d u r i n g the fi fth decad e of that century , w h i c h I have often designated as an i m portant tu rn i ng poi n t - the s i tu ation became such that J ehovah h i mse l f was grad ually overpowered in h is i n fluence upon human con sc iousness through the domi nance of those lower s p i r i ts he h ad evoked. T he resu lt was that, s i n ce o n l y the e l e m e n t in the human bei ng that is bou n d to the natu ral order of t h i n gs, to the b lood , can be comprehended by means of the forces of Jehova h , m an 's earl i er

seeking for the o n e God i n nature was tran s m u ted, because of the i n fl uence of the o p posi n g e l e m e n ts , i n to m ere atheistic natural scien ce; that is, to mere atheistic scientific th i n k i ng and to m erely uti l i tarian th i n k ing i n the field of p racti cal l i fe . T h is mu st b e grasped firm ly as regards t h e fi fth decade, the period mentioned . T h e fact th at J eho vah cou l d not free h i msel f from the s p i r i ts he h ad 32

evoked

led to the transition o f Old Testament

think ing i n to the athei stic science of the modern age. Th is in the fiel d of soc ial thi n k i ng has become marx ism or somethi n g s i m i l ar. Thus, a thi n k i ng under the i n fluen ce of natural science holds sway in the fie ld of the soc i al l i fe. This is connected w i th much that is happen i ng in the i m med i ate presen t. Old Testament thi n k ing i n human bei n gs today is transformed i n to natural ism. Against th is k i n d of thi nking neither what comes from the West as the i mage of man, nor what comes from the East, can provide an adequate defense because this th i n k i ng prevents m an from acq u i r i n g actual and true insight. It is perfectly obvi ou s at present that people are opposed to the acquisition of i nsight. This some ti mes takes on a pathologi ca l form. The so-cal led war history of the last two years, as I have recent ly said , w i ll be a psych iatric account, socially psychiatr ic. The course of events, as these have occurred, i s such that, when put together i n the proper order, they provide for those who are familiar w ith them the best symptomatology for the soc i al psychiatry of recen t years and of the yea1·s to fol low. Only i t i s necessary, of course, to deal with psychi atry also w ith more delicate hands and in a manner somewhat d i fferent from that of material istic med i c i ne. Otherw ise we shall never bring to l i ght in the right way the psychiatry to be studied, for example, i n the person of Ludendorff. But it is pr·ecisely a considerable portion of the 33

most recent h istory o f o u r t i mes t h a t must be viewed i n this l i ght. You w i l l be able to reca l l that. from the b egin n i ng of the catastrophe, I have repeated ly and em phatica l ly decl ared on the occasion o f one o r an other i rresponsible assertion that t h i s pa1·ticu lar war catastrophe w i l l render i t i m possi b l e to w r i te h istory on the basis of mere docu m e n ts a n d the results o f arc h ival research. The m a n n e r in w h i c h t h i s catastrophe became poss i b le w i ll be u n der stood only by one w ho comes to realize c learly that the most decis ive occu r rence that too k p lace at the end of J u ly and the begi n n i ng of A ugust, 191 4 oc curred because of a d i m med cond i ti o n i n h u man consc iousness. Men over the whole earth were i n a state of d i m med consc iousness, a n d occu r rences were brought about t h rough the i n fl uence of a h r i manic powers i n these d i m med consc i o usnesses. I n other words, th i ngs w i l l have to be u nvei led th rough a k nowledge of spiritual-sc ienti fic facts. T h i s i s something that m ust s i m ply be perceived. T h e time is past when events can be r i ghtly e x p l a i n ed on the basis of mere doc u m e nts, i n the m a n ne r i n wh ich Rancke w rote h istory, o r someo ne e l se i n some other field - B u c k l e , o r o th e rs . T h i s i s i m portant.

Mere

sym path i es

and

anti path ies

determ i ne noth i n g when the r i g h t guid ance for one's judgment is needed . J ud g m e n ts , h owever. have been formed in recent years, and a r e still bei ng formed primar i ly accord i n g to sym pa t h i es and antipathies. Certa i n ly, correc t j u d g m e n ts at·e

formed even u n d e r the influence of sympathy and antipathy, but these do not signi fy much as re gards a person's grasp by means of his judgmentof the factu a l w o r l d . The m anner in which one sort of opinion or another becomes epidemic can be sub jected to special stud ies if we trace the develop ment of o pinions among people during recent years. What have m i l l ions of persons bel ieved in Central E u ro pe, and w hat w i l l t hey bel ieve? What is bel ieved in the rest of the world? T h is continued in Central E u rope as long as possible; outside of Central E u ro pe it w i l l continue even longer. But what is real l y needed is that the habit shall be formed at l ast of learning from the events them selves. Events shall be observed for the purpose of forming judgments on the basis of these events. It is to be desired that the weight of events shall have some determining, decisive influence upon people, and especially the way in w h ich events have taken the i r course in the present period. T h is way is qu ite new; earl ier events came about

d i ffere ntly Today, things d iametrically opposed .

to one another come together.

I called your attention last time to the fact that the transpl antation of bolshevism into Russia was an i m pulse derived essentially from Luden

dorff. T hese th ings, w hich it was n atu r a l l y not necessary to mention outside the region of the Central Powers, have been stated there often enough. People woul d not l isten. I repeatedly had the fol low ing experience.

It is h ighly significant

and I once referred to it here, but I desire that it shall not be forgotten, for I shall gradually narrate all these things so that the world shall learn what has really been happening. The writing I have prepared consisted of two parts. The second part con tained what I have sketched for you as the so cial relationships but arranged in a form suited for that time. The first part con tained what I con sidered it necessary that I should discuss and dis semi nate in the manner indicated. I have met per sons who have read what I wrote and who an swered me by saying, "Yes, indeed, but to carry out the first point you make would lead inevitably to the abdication of the German Kaiser." Of course, I could only reply, ''If it leads to that, it will simply be necessary that it s hou ld lead to that." World history has confirmed this. This abdication had to come. It should not have come, however, in the way in which it actually occurred, but ought to have come from a free i nner decision. M ost assuredly th is would have resulted from my very fi rst point. Naturally, the first poi n t did n ot read, "The Ger man Kaiser must abdicate," but it made a definite demand. If this had been carried out, the abdica tion would have occu rred lon g ago under e ntirely different ci rcumstances from those that actually took place. I could never bring people to understand that what had there been written down was an utter ance derived from reality. Regarding that one poi nt also no further progress was made. As I was 36

stati ng the matter to a m i n ister of foreign affai rs, I said to him also, "Well , you have the choice e ither to be reasonable and employ reason in bringing things to pass, or to ex perience revolutions, which must occur in the course of the next decades, and w i l l begin soon." J ust as tru ly as this was necessary, wh ich d i rects atten tion to a somewhat greater perspective, so was it true that the German Kaiser had to be in足 duced to abd icate. and that a proposal was made look i ng in this d i rection. B ut, w hen this statement was made, w h ic h was based u pon a more l i m ited perspective than the other, it was simply some足 thi ng regarding w h ich it was not permiss ible even to speak, and of which not even a serious discussion was al lowed. Thus it d i d not requ i re these last events to render obvious the u nsou nd m i nd of Ludendorff, but this cou l d have been k nown long before. I was abl e long ago to poi n t this out. But, as you know, in regard to s p i ritual science the s ituation is such that people s h r i n k in terror from it, be足 cause they are afraid of it. Fear i n heart and m i n d. is someth ing that p l ays a great and tremendous role i n the m i nds o f people at the present ti me. It appears u nder the most varied masks. I ndeed, anxiety of sou l , u n w ill i ngness to come into contact w ith a thi ng, w hatever it m ay be, is w hat plays a spec ial role at the present time. It i s w ith this ob足 jective i n m i nd that we must view events and we then recognize them as symptoms for thi ngs that 37

l i e m uch d eeper. J ust consider· an eve nt of the l ast few d ays. T hat t h i ngs wou ld turn out as they have tu rned o u t now coul d have been k nown long ago by any t houghtful observer of cond i tions i n Germ any and of the Ger man army. O n ly it was Lu dendorff who came to realize for the fi rst t i m e on A ug u st 8th , 1 9 1 8 , that he cou ld not w i n the victory . He was the " p ractical person." Bear i n m i nd a l l that I h ave said to you from time to ti m e about " p ractical persons," about the i m p racticality of p ractical persons! He was a practical person , who proved to be w rong u nder a l l c i rcu mstances, w h o came to realize at the very last, o n A ugust 8th, th at he could not w i n the vi ctory w i th the army avai lable to him. Men of i nsigh t h ad k no w n th is s i n ce September 1 6, 1 9 1 4 ; i t was i m possi b l e to w i n the victory with th is army. Now, w h at d i d Lud e n dorff do? He su mmoned B al l i n to h i m i n o rder that Ball in shou ld go at l ast to the Kaiser a n d s hou ld tel l h i m what the situ ation was, si n c e- B a l l i n w as o n terms o f close friends h i p w i t h h i m . Y o u w i l l ask whether there was no i m perial chancellor at th at time. Yes, there was an i m pe r i a l c h�ncell or, but has name was H ertl i ng. Was there n o m i n i ster of foreign affai rs? T he re was one, but he was H err von H i ntze, who had come o u t of Lhe m ost stu pe fyi n g atmosphere of the cou rt. There was also a Reichstag, and other th i ngs l i kewise-

of suc h

append ices of the l i fe of the nation i t is scarcely worthwhile i n our ti me to speak. So Lu d e nd o r ff 38

summoned Bal l i n to h i m and proposed to him that he ex pla i n the s i tu ation to the Su preme War Lord. Bal l i n set o u t for the K aiser's residence-of course, al ways at a d istance from the actual events, except when Ludendorff hi mself found it opportune to announce that this or that action had been u nder taken in the presence of H is Majesty, the Supreme War Lord. A nyone. who u nderstood the situation knew what s ign i ficance to attach to the word "presence." So Bal l i n , who had long been a wel l known and clever m a n , set o u t toward W i l helms hohe, in order to enl ighten the Kaiser. This would natu rally have been possible only if he had been able to speak to the Kaiser alone, wh ich he could have done at any time i f the Kaiser had not once struck h i m on his cheek with a lady's fan, or some th ing of the kind, when Bal l i n at an earlier time, at the begin n ing of the war, had wished to explain someth i ng to h i m . But he consented to go, i n spite of the affectionate slap given h i m with the lady's fan. He consented to go because of the critical situation, in order to explain the s ituation to his old friend. But the latter su m moned Herr von Berg to be present, and he knew how to change the subject of a conversation-as the K aiser obviously w ished, for he d i d not wish to hear the truth. So the conversation never touched u pon what shou ld have been d iscussed.

I relate th i s only as a matter of psychology. You

h ave here a person who stands in the m idst of the most critical events and who is afraid of the truth� 39

brought to h i m by another perso n , and w i l l not per m i t i t to reach h i m. H ere you see the si tuation in a c l ear l ight. The same p h e nome non i s common at the p resent ti me. So Bal l i n w as not able to con足 v i nce the S u p reme War Lord because h e s i m ply cou l d not present the matter to h i m . Ludendorff s u m moned H err von H i n tze, and reached an agree足 ment w i th h i m that an arm i stice should be asked of the E n tente . This was i m med iately after August 8, 1 9 1 8. Herr von H i ntze p ro m i sed to appeal to W i lson. But noth i ng happened u n t i l toward Octo足 ber 1 9 1 8 , i n sp i te of the fact that i t was c l ea r that the very th i ng was a matter of necessity that actu足 ally occ urred u nder the most u n fo rtu n ate m i n istry of Pri nce Max von Baden m a ny weeks l ater. Pri nce M ax von B aden w i s hed to go to B e rl i n and >

do someth i n g entirely d i fferent, b u t Ludendorff explai ned that an arm i stice m u s t be p roposed within twenty-fou r hou rs to avo i d the greatest d isaster. Pri nce M ax von Baden d i d th i s agai nst his earl ier decision. After five days, Ludendorff declared t h a t he had really b l u n dered, and that i t wou l d n o t have been necessary! This is an example of the way i n w h i ch p ract ical persons, h ighly respected p racti cal person s

whom, however, there i s not the least gro u n d for show i ng respect - i ntervene i n w o r l d even ts but from what poi n ts of v i ew and w i t h w h at forces of thought! T h i s i s also an oppo rtu n i ty for stud y i n g how opi n ions beco me e p i de m ic. The o p i n i o n that 40

H i ndenburg and Lude n dorff are " great men" has spread every w here w i th ep idemic violence, whereas they were in so sense real ly great men, not even from the stand poi n t of the i r l i m i ted pro fession. These catastrophi� occu rrences are es pec ial ly c h aracteristic i n showi ng how false judg ments are formed. W i tticisms alone have often hit the mark. If you go to Berl i n now - most of you have probably not bee n i n B erl i n in recent years you will see i n the v i c i n ity of the V ictory Col u m n , near that great cuspidor ( i ndeed, the Reichstag bu i l d i ng rea l ly looks l i ke a huge cuspidor), i n that vicinity you w i l l see a remarkable structure. There stands " H i ndenburg," a great, gigantic, most horri b l e statue of wood . E very " patriot" has

? riven

a n a i l i n to th is statue so that it has gradu

ally had n ai ls h a m m e red into i t everywhere. O n ly the wit of Berl i n has correctly eval uated this. The saying is th at, w h e n h e was fi nally enti rely nailed up (Ganz vernagelt=absolutely stupid) h e would be placed in the M i n istry o f Fore i gn A ffairs. A l l these thi ngs ough t to be considered espec ial ly from the vi ewpoi n t of which I have o�ten spoken -from the stand poi n t o f the symptomatology of h istory as wel l as the symptomatology of events that have any relation s h i p to h u man bei ngs. The external world gives only sym ptoms, and we ar rive at the truth o n ly when we l earn to recogn ize these symptoms in their n ature as such.

T H E P R E SE N T F ROM T H E V I E W P O I NT OF T H E P R E S E N T

hen you consi der the fundamental basis

of our anthroposophical ly oriented sc ience of the spirit i n compari son w ith other so-cal led world views - and there are many now appearing you w i l l note especially one characteristic. This is the fact that spi ritual science as a v iew of the world and of l i fe endeavors actually to apply to the whole of human l i fe, to everyth ing that the human being encounters in l i fe, w hat i t seeks to establish through research in the s p i r i tual worlds. Whoever has a feel ing for w hat is essential in the urgent problems and impelling forces of our present ti me w i l l probably be able to ach ieve for himself an understanding of the fact that the tre足 mendous need of the present and of the im med iate future is to be fou nd just here, that is, i n connect足 ing di rectly w ith life i tse l f the com preh ensive ideas constituti ng world conceptions. Among the causes that have brought about the present catas足 trophic situation of human ity, not the least s i gn i fi足 cant i s the fact that the world v iews held by h u man

bei ngs, whether rooted i n rel igion, science, or aesthetics, h ave a l l gradual l y lost their connection

with l i fe in t he cou rse of time. There has existed a tendency - we m ight c a l l it a p erverse te n dency to separate the so-cal led daily p ractical l i fe, i n the most comprehensive sense of the word, from what men seek i n the i r effort to sati sfy the i r needs i n the real m of re l i gi o n and world conceptions. Just re fl ect how l i fe d u r i n g the last centuries h as gradu ally taken on such for m that peopl e have carried on their external activ ities, were practical men as the saying goes, and conducted thei r l ives ac cord i ng to practical princi ples, and then appl ied half an hour each day more or less, or no time at al l , or S u n d ay, to the satisfaction of those needs

of the heart and sou l that i m pel them to seek for a c o n n ec tion w ith the divine spi ritual elemen t

permeating the worl d . A l l th is w i l l b e utterly changed i f an anthro posoph ically oriented sc i e nce of th e spi r i t can take possession of the m inds and hearts of men . T h i s w i l l take on such a character that thoughts w i l l stream for th from this world view that w i l l b e applicable to l i fe i tself i n a l l its aspects, thus enabl i ng us to j udge life w ith true i nsight. The pri nciple of the Sunday vesper sermon shall by no means be that of our anthroposophically d i rected world conception, but the whole of life shal l be permeated on all days of the week and on Sunday forenoon as well with w hat can be given to human ity by the anthroposoph ical com-

prehension

the

worl d .

Because

such

has

not been the case u p to the presen t t i m e, the world h as gradua l l y dri fted i n to c h aos. People h ave n egl ected to d i rect their atten tion to what h as really bee n happen i ng in t h e i tÂˇ i m med iate v i c i n i ty and they are now surp rised because the resu l ts of th is oversight are c l early m a n i fest. T h ey w i l l be sti l l m ore surprised i n the future as these resu l ts become more c l ea r ly m a n i fest. U nder no c i rc u mstances shou l d we fai l to pay attention tod ay to w hat is s pread i ng among people over the entire earth. W i th the powers of j udgment that enable us to see i n to the great i m pu lses at work in world events, we m ust e n d eavor to find our way i nto w hat confro n ts h u man hearts and m i n ds today, in part in such an e n i gmatic way; that is, into what is th reate n i ng to transform the social structure i nto a chaos. It w i l l not do to conti nue further i n such a way that we decide sim ply to Jet come what m ay w i th o u t e n d eavoring to penetrate i n to thi ngs w i th a sou n d power of judgment. It is necessary to abandon the b asic m ax i m that says,"Th is is an everyday m atter. t h i s is secu lar. it belo ngs to the external I i fe ; we t u rn our backs on

this and d i rect our atte n tion toward the s p i ritual and d iv i ne." This m ust come to an e n d . T h e t i me must begi n i n which even the most triv i al everyÂ day matter must be b rought i nto con n ec tion w i th

the spiritual and d i v i ne: that is. the t i m e i n w h ich what is derived from the spi ritual l i fe shall no

longer be v iewed only from the most extremely abstt·act poi n t of view. I n the cou rse of these reflections, I have stated that a favorable change in the social movement cannot come about in any other way than through an i ncrease in the i n te rest that a person feels i n an_other hu man be i ng. A social structure i s some th ing men create in company w ith one another. I ts i l ls can not be healed u n less the person knows that he is really w it h i n th i s order, u n l ess he is w i th i n the social structure i n his attitud e of m i n d . The u n sound element i n the present epoch, w h i ch has brought about this catastrophe, l ies in the n eglect of people to acquire any sort of attitude of m ind toward the way in which a person belongs to a soc ial com m u n i ty. The i n terest that b i nds us as human bei ngs to other human beings has come to an end i n spite of the bel ief frequently manifested by people that they do have such an interest. M ost certai n ly the pat theosophical maxim, "I love all hu man beings ; I have an i n terest in all human bei ngs , " i s not effective; i t is abstract; it does not lay hold u pon real l i fe and l ay i ng hold u pon real life is w hat real ly matters. This must be under stood in a deeper sense. A l ack of u nderstand ing of real l i fe h as been the characteristic of recent cen turies. Now, these recent centuries have brought about the present situation w i thout a realization of this process on the part of huma n ity, and they will cause future situations. In the h i storic l ife of human ity, cond i tions cannot be w hat they should

be u nless people accom pany w hat i s happeni ng, what occurs among them i n the soc ial life, w ith the i r th i n k i ng. But the eve n ts that have occu r red over a rel atively long time can not be accom pa n ied thus u n less we acq u i re a sou n d sense for certa i n phenomena. To an objective observer it has been all too obvious that administrations a n d gover nments have been cond ucted and are b e i n g conducted accord i ng to fu ndamental p r i n c i ples th at were really out of date centu r ies ago, w h e reas- life h as natu ral ly moved forward d u r i n g recent cen

turies. An essential elemen t that has entered into the evolu tion of h u m an i ty i s _ modern i ndus trial i s m, w h i c h h as c reated the w h o l e m odern proletariat. But this genes is o f the modern p role tariat has not been acco m pan i ed by th i n k i n g. The lead ing c lasses have conti n ued to l ive in the old manner, ad m i n iste r i ng thei r positions of l eader ship as they have been accustomed to do for cen tu ries. Without thei r doing anyth i ng about it, withou t

the i r

hav i n g even

acc o m p a n i e d

the

process of world h i story w i th the i r t h i n k i ng, the modern proletariat has evolved out of the ex i st i ng facts, actual occurrences, and the rise of mod ern i ndustrial ism. This began essentially with th e invention of the mechanical loom and spinn ing_ mach i ne i n the e ighteenth centu ry. Th u s the destiny of world history for the present and the im med iate future depends u po':l w ha t is goi n g o n

in the world i n the heads o f the m o d e r n prole-

tari at - what hau nts them, you may say, l ike a specter. T h is p roletariat is str iv i ng for power through majori ty control and it is to be con side red in its actions just as we consider the resu l ts of natu ral events and elemental occu r rences. It s hould not be looked upon as some th i ng to be criti c ized that may please or d is pl ease us. The p roletariat m ust be judged in its actions somew hat as we judge an earthquake or a tidal wave of the sea, or anyth ing else of the kind. We are now seeing the prel i m i nary stages of what takes i ts rise from the modern p roletariat - or, better expressed, from the tendenc ies and feel i ngs of the modern proletari at. Like the action of an adance guard we observe w hat is known to us i n a certain aspect i n Russian bolshevism. Th is Russian bolshevism as I have often declared, is not in harmony w i th the origi nal d isposi tion of the Russian people. It has been i ntroduced from w ithout. But th i s is not a matter of any consequence if we w i s h to face the facts since it actually exists with i n the regions that formerly constituted the E m p i re of the Czar. I t has taken root there, and it must be observed l i ke a phenomenon of nature that has the te nde ncy to spread. In obse rving such a th ing as Russian bolshevism i t i s most im portant of all to d isregard secondary phe nomena. We m ust pay attention to the matter of main im portance. The fac t that bolshevism had its begi n ni ng i n 19 1 7, and that it was accom-

pan i ed

by certai n

external

phenomena,

may

have been determ i ned by certa i n o b v ious cau ses. I h ave said to you that eve n the i n com petence of Luden dorff and also various other th i n gs have n ot been free of responsi b i l i ty for the actual out足 break of bolshevism. But a l l t h i s m us t be e l i m i n足 ated i f we w i s h to v iew th i n gs i n a fru i tfu l way, and we m ust pay atte n ti o n to the active forces that are al ive i n this Russian bolshevism. We m ust s i m p ly ask ou rselves as a m e re matter of fact w hat the objective of Russian bolshevism is and how i t is related to the whole evo l u tion of

hu man i ty . Beyon d questio n , it is not som eth i n g ephemeral and transi tory . Rather. i t is a phe足 nomenon of far-reach i n g consequences i n world history. It is exceed i n gly i m portan t that we should exam ine the b as i c s tructure as v isual i zed by Russian bols hev i s m i n order to be able to reflect upon it i n a certa i n w ay as i t emerges from deeper i m pel l i ng forces o f the world. I f we consider the fu n d a m en ta l ch aracterist ics of Russian bolshev i s m , we must cone! ude that i ts fi rst e ndeavor ai ms at the d estr;uction of w hat we have characterized i n the m arx i a n sense as the bou rgeoisie. It is a fu n d a m e n tal m ax i m , so to

speak, to destroy, root and b r a n c h ,

someth i ng

harmfu l i n the evolution of h u man i ty ac co rd i n g to their poi n t of view , everyth i n g that has taken

its rise in the evo l u t i o n of h i story as the bour足 geois

class.

Bol shevism

arrive at th i s

obj ective i n various ways. F i rst, i t a i m s at the

removal of all class d istinctions. Bolshevism does not d i rect i ts efforts toward such factual removal of the disti nctions i nto classes and ranks as I have presented them to you. Bolshevism itself th inks in a wholly bou rgeois manner, and what I have introduced to you is not conceived in a bourÂ geois but a h u man m an ner. Bolshev i sm i n tends to overcome the d i fferentiation among classes and ran ks in its own way . I t says to itself that the contemporary states are con structed on the basis of the bou rgeois conception of l i fe, so the forms of the contemporary states must d isappear. EveryÂ th ing that i s a subord inate outgrowth of the bourgeois social class in the contem porary states such as the police syste m, the m i l i tary system, the system of just ice m ust d isappear. I n other words, what has been created by the bou rgeo isie for its secu rity and its adm i n istration of j ustice must d isappear w ith the bourgeois class. The whole a d m i n i stration and organization of the _social structure m ust pass into the hands of the proletariat. T h rough th i s process the state, as i t has ex isted u n t i l now, w ill d i e away and the proletariat w i l l

administer the whole human

structu re, the whole comm unity l ife of society. This cannot be ach ieved by means of the old system o f arrangements that the bourgeois class had created for i tself. I t cannot be achieved by the election of a Reichstag or any other sort of body of representatives of the people, chosen on the basis of any sort of suffrage, as this has been

done under the conception o f l i fe character istic of the bourgeois class. If such representative bodies conti nued to be elected, only the bourgeois c l ass would perpetuate itself i n these bodies. I n other words, such repre sentative

bodies,

under

w hatever

system

su ffrage chosen, wou ld not render poss i b le the attai nment of the goals that are there striven for. Therefore, the matter of importance is that such measu res shal l now really be applied as h ave thei r origin in the proletar iat i tsel f, such as can not come to birth i n any middle c l ass head, s in ce a mi ddle class head i nevi tab ly conceives only such regu lations as must be abol ished. N ot h i n g whatever can be ex pected, therefore, from anY kind of national or state assem b ly, b u t someth ing is to b e ex pected solely from a d ictators h i p of the proletariat. This means that the enti re soc ial structure must be handed over to a d i ctators h i p o f the proletariat. Only t h e p ro letar iat w i l l h av e the incl ination actually t o e l i m i nate t h e bou r geois

class

from

the

world

because,

should

persons of the bourgeois c l ass be mem bers o f representative bodies, they wou ld h ave n o i nc l i nation to eliminate themsel ves from the world. That is what is really necessary, that th e w ho l e bourgeois class shall be deprived o f its r ig hts. Thus, the on ly persons who can exerc ise an i n fluence upon the social structu re m us t b e t hose who belong to the proletariat in the true sense, that is, only those who perform l a bor, who are usefu l to the comm unity. 50

Consequently,

according to this

p ro l etariat

world conception, a person who causes others to perform any sort of service for him, and re munerates them for this, cannot have the r ight to vote. Tha� is, w hoever employs persons, engages persons to serve h im and remunerates them for thei r servi ce, has no right to participate in any way in the social structure, and has no right, therefore, to a vote. N either does anyone possess the ri ght to vote w h o l ives on i ncome from his property o r w h o profits from i ncome. Nor does a person w ho is e ngaged i n trade have the right to vote or one w h o is a d istri buto r and does not per form any practical labor. I n other words, all who l ive by means o f i ncome, who employ other persons and remu nerate them, w ho are engaged i n trade or are m i ddle men, are excluded from being repre sentatives of the government when the dictator ship of the p roletariat takes control. D u ri ng the continuance of this d ictatorship of the p roletariat, there is no gen eral freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no freedom to organize, but only those who are e ngaged i n actual labor can hold meetings or form organizations. A ll others are deprived of freedom of speech, th e r ight to assembly, and the right to organize societies or u nions. L i kewise, only those e njoy the freedom of the press who per form practical l abor. The p ress of the bou rgeois class is suppressed, and not tolerated. These are, i n a general w ay, the gu i d i ng p rin ciples, we may say, du r i ng the transitional stage. After these pri nci ples have been dom inant for a 51

certai n length of time the proletar i at world con ception expects from their o peration that o n ly men engaged in practical labor will ex ist. O n ly the pro letariat w i l l conti nue to exist. T h e bou rgeo is class w i l l have been exterm i nated . To these things, which have pri m a ry i m por tance for the transitional period, w i l l then be added those that have permanent sign i ficance. To these belongs, for exam p l e, the u n iversal obl i gation to work. E very person is u nder o b l igation to produce by l abor someth i n g usefu l to the com munity. A decisive principle of a permanent c h a racter is the termi nation of the right to p r i v ate o wn e r ship of real estate. Larger estates are h a nded A ccord i ng to

over to agricu l tu ra l com m u n es.

this proletariat world view, t h e re w i l l ex i st i n future no pr ivate owners h i p of l an d . I nd ustrial establishments, estab l is h m e n ts of e ntrepreneurs are confiscated and passed u n d e r the c o n trol o f society, bei ng ad m i n istered b y the centra l i ze d adm i n istration of t h e workers, a t the h ead of which is the Su preme Soviet for the n at i o n a l economy. This is s i mp ly bolshev ism i n Russi a. Ranks are taken over by the state. A u n i versal system of bookkeep ing is i n st i tuted , e m b rac i n g the entire community an d com pr is i ng a l l p ro d u c tion. A l l foreign trade of t h is s i ngle com m u n a l entity i s made communal, that is, t h e esta b l is h ments are taken over by the state. These are, in a general way, the fu n d a m e n ta l

p r i nc i ples constituting the id eal of Trotsky and Len in, and you w i l l see clearly in them the car d i nal points of what is willed by the modern pro letariat. It does not suffice, of course, to be i n formed each day by the newspapers that a certa i n nu m ber o f bloody deeds h a_ve been done by bolshevism. I f we compare the b loody d eeds done by bolshevism with the im mense nu m ber o f those done by reason of this war, the deeds of bolshevism obviously be come an insign i fi cant affa i r. T he really i m portant th ing is to see what has been h itherto overlooked and neglected in order that the evolution of hu man ity may i n the future be fol l owed w ith our th i n k i ng. It is real ly necessary that we fix our at tention, first in our hearts and then with our m inds, upon these t h i ngs that are so inti mately connected with the progressive evolution of humanity. It is precisely the m ission of the science of the spirit to fix our attention upon these thi ngs w ith ou r m i n ds and hearts. The ti me m ust come to an end i n w h ich lazy pastors and priests preach to the people from the pul pit every Sunday theoretical stuff hav i ng no connectio n w i th l i fe for the so-called warm i ng of their sou l s. O n the contrary, a cond ition must begi n in wh ich everyone who d esires to partici pate in spiritual l i fe shall be i n duty bound to look i nto l i fe, to establ ish an i mmed i ate connection with l i fe. No small share i n the responsibi l ity for the misfortune of the present time rests upon the fact that those who have been custodians of the reli-

gious feelings of human ity fo r a long t i me past have preached to people from the i r pul p i ts s u ch thi ngs as actually have no r ela tio ns h i p w h atever with l i fe. T hey have d i rected d i scou rses for the sole purpose of prov iding the people w i th i ns i p i d stuff for their hearts a n d souls that affected t h em i n a pleasant way but n ever grasped l i fe. I t i s for this reason that life has remai ned w ithout s p i r it and has fi nally fallen into chaos. You may seek for much of the responsibil i ty, for w h i c h recom p e n se is required at present, prec isely i n t h e stu p i d d iscourses o f those who have been the custod i a ns of the rel igious feeli ngs of people and w h o h av e h ad no relationship with l i fe. W hat h ave they ach i eved of all that must take place in the epoch d u ring which a whole new humanity i n the form o f the proletariat has evolved? W hat have these peopl e achieved who have proclai med useless stu ff from thei r pulpits, such stuff that it has been desi red by people only because they w ished to delude t h e mÂ selves with all sorts of i J lusion s regar d i n g t h e realities o f life? This is a serious t i m e a n d t h i n gs must be vi ewed i n a serious l ight. What has been said rega rd i ng the necess i ty for individuals to acquire an i nterest i n o n e a n other must not be regarded only i n a manner h a rmoÂ

nizing with the m ood presented in the SundaY vesper sermon. I t must be considered accord i n g to the profou nd ind ication it gives i n regard to the soc ial structure of the present age. Consider a concrete example. How m any peopl e 54

there are today who have an abstract and confused conception of the i r own personal l ives! If they ask themselves, for example, "What do I l ive on?" for the most part, they do not do this, but i f they did it once, they wou ld say to themselves, "Why, on my money." A mong those who say to themselves, "I live on my money," there are m any who have inherited th is money from their parents. They suppose they l ive on the i r money, i n herited from thei r fathers, but we cannot live on money. M oney is not someth i ng on w h i c h we can l ive. H ere i t is necessary at l ast to begin to reflect. This question is intimately conn ected w ith the real interest that one individual has i n another. Anyone w ho thi n ks he l ives on the money he has i nherited , for exÂ ample, or has acq u i red in any w ay whatever except by receiving money for work. as is the cusrom today - w hoever l ives i n this way and supposes that he can live on money has no interest in h is fel low men because no one can l i ve on money. We m ust eat, and w hat we eat has been produced by a human being. We must have clothi ng. What we wear must be made through the l abor of people. I n order that

I may put on a coat or a pair of trousers, human beings must expend their strength i n labor for hours. They work for me. I t is on this labor that I l ive.. not on my money. My money has no value other than that of giving me the power to make use of the l abor of others. U nder the social conditions of the present ti me, we do not begi n to have an interest i n our fellow men until we answer that

q uestion i n the proper way, u n t i l we hold the pictu re in our m i nds of a c e r ta i n n u m ber of persons work i ng for a certa i n n u m b e r o f hou rs i n order that I may l ive w i t h i n the soc ial stru ctu re. I t i s o f no i m portance to give ou rselves a comfortab le fee1 i ng by sayi ng, " I love people." N o one loves people if he supposes that he is l i v i ng o n h i s money and does not i n the l east con c e i ve h ow people work for h i m in order to produ c e even th e m i n i m u m necessary for h is l i fe . But t h e thought that a certai n n u m be r of per sons labor i n order that we m ay possess the m i n i mum necessi ties of l ife is i nseparab l e from an other. It is the thought that we m ust recom pense soci ety, not with money but w i th work i n exchange for the work that has been d o n e for us. We feel an i 'l�rest_i_n o u r fellow m e n o n l y w h en we are led to feel obl i gated to recompense i n som e for m of labor the amount of labor that has been performed for us. To give o u r mon ey to ou r fel low m e n only sign i fi es that we are able to hold our fel low men on

leash as bou nd s l aves a n d that we can compel

them to labor for us. Permit me to ask whether you can not answer out of you r ex perience the q u estion h ow many men real ize that money is only a c l a i m u pon h u man strength employed in l abor, that money is o.n ly a means for gai n i ng power. H ow m any persons

rea l ly see clearly that they cou l d not even exist in this physi cal world but for the l abor of other persons u pon w h ich they d epend for w h at they

demand for their li ves? The fee l i ng of obl igation to the society in wh i ch we l i ve is the beginn ing of the interest that is req u i red for a sound social order.

I t is necessary to reflect about these th i ngs, otherwise we ascend in an unwholesome way into spi ritual abstractions and do not rise in a w holeÂ some way from physical real ity to spi ritual real ity. The lack o f interest i n the soc ial structure h as characterized p recisely these last centuries. DurÂ ing recent centu ries, men have gradual ly formed the habit of developing a real interest in the matter of social i m pu lses only with regard to thei r own respected persons. I n greater or lesser degree everythi ng has borne in a roundabout way on ly upon one's personal ity. A w holesome social l ife is possible only when interest in one's own respected personality is b roadened into a genu ine social i nterest. In th i s con nection the bourgeoisie may well ask themselves what they have neglected. J u st consider the fol lowi ng fact. There is such a thing as a spiritu al cultu re. There are cultu ral objects. To select one example, there are works of art. N ow, ask yourselves to how many people these works of art are accessible. Or, rather ask yourselves to how many persons these works of art are utterly i n accessi ble. For how many persons do these works of art actually not ex ist. But just calÂ culate how many persons m ust labor i n order that these works of art may ex ist. O ne or another work of art is in Rome. O n e or another bourgeois can travel to Rome. J ust add up the total of how m uch

labor m ust be performed by c reative workers, etc . , etc., - these et ceteras w i l l never come to a n e n d i n order that this bourgeois, when h e travels to Rome, may see something that is there for h i m because he is a bourgeois, but is not there for a l l

give ex pression to their p roletariat conception of I ife. T h i s those persons who a r e n o w begi n n i ng t o

very hab i t has taken form among the bou rgeois o f looki ng u p on enjoyment a s someth i ng self-evid ent. But enjoyment shou ld real ly never be accepted

whole of of any e l e m e n t i n the

without repaying its equivalent to the society. I t is not because

natural or spi ritual order that some part of soc iety should be deprived. T i me and space a re o nl y arti ficial hindrances. The fact that the Sisti n e Madonna remains forever i n D resde n , and can be see n o n ly by those persons who are able to go to D resden , i s only a by-product o f the b o u rgeois world concep tion . The S isti ne M adonna is movable, a n d can taken

all parts of the world . T h i s i s o n ly one

exam ple, but the necessary steps can be tak e n to make su re that w h atever is enjoyed by

one may

also be enjoyed by others. Although I hav� given only o n e exam ple, I always choose them

to exe m p l i fy and c l a r i fy

everyth ing else. We need o n ly to strike s u c h a note, as you see, i n order to tou c h upon m any

peo p le have really not though t of at al l , but have si mply taken as some th i n g s e l f evident. Even within o u r own c i rcle, where this could so easi ly be u nderstood , people do not matters that

always reflect that everyth ing we receive obli gates us to retu r n an equival en t to society and not si m ply enjoy . N o w . from a l l that I have p resented to you as ex am ples, w h ich cou ld be m u l tipl ied not only a hundredfo l d but a thousand fold, this q uestion w i l l b e obvious to you. " H ow can the s i tuation b e other w ise if money is really only a means for acqu i r i ng power?" T h i s i s al ready answered i n that fu nda mental soc ial principle I i n troduced last week because that is a pec u l iarity of w hat I introduced

to you as a sort of social science taken from the spiritual world. It is just as certa i n as mathe m atics. In connection w ith the th i ngs I have pre sented to you, there is no question of anyone's look i-ng i n to practical life and sayi ng, "Now then. we must fi rst in vestigate whether th ings real ly are so . " No; what I introd uced to you as a soc ial science derived from spiritual science is much l i ke the theorem of Pythagoras. I f you consider Pytha goras's theorem , if you k now that the square of the hypotenuse is equ al to the sum of the squares of the other two sides of a right angle triangle. it is i m possible that anyth i ng should exist w ithin the world of experience to contradict th is. On the con trary, you must apply th is fundamental principle everywhere. So it i s w ith the fundamental princi ple I in trad uced to you as underlying social science and soc ial l i fe. Everyth ing that a person acq u i res in such a way that it is rece ived in exchange for his work w it h i n the social system has an u nwholesome 59

effect. A w holesome co nd ition resu l ts w i th i n t h e social system only w hen the h u man being h as to su pport h is l i fe. not by h is own wod< , but from

other sou rces w i t h i n soci ety. T h i s see m i ngly conÂ tradicts what I have j u st sa i d . but o n l y see m i ngly. W hat w i l l render work val u a b l e w i l l be the fact that i t w i l l no longer be rem u ne rated. T he goal toward w h ich w e m u st work - o f

course, i n a rational and n ot a bolshevistic w ay -

m ust be that of separati ng work from the

provi sion of the means of e x i s tence. I h ave reÂ cently explai ned th i s. W hen no o n e is any longe r recom pensed for h i s work, then m oney w i l l lose its value as a means for acq u i ri n g powe r over work. T here i s n o other m eans for ove rco m i ng the m i suse that has bee n perpetu ate d w i th

m e re

money than by for m i n g the soc i a l structu re i n suc h

a way that no one be recom pensed fo r h i s work, and that the prov i sion of the means o f ex i ste nce shal l be ac h ieved from an e n ti rely d i fferent source. I t w i l l then natu ral ly b e i m possi b l e to use money for the pu rpose of compel l i ng anyo n e to work. M ost of the q u estio n s that now arise appear i n such a form that they are confused ly u n derstood. If they are to be l i fted i nto a clear l i gh t, t h i s can happen

only

means

s p i ritual

science.

M oney m ust never in fu tu re be the equ i va l e n t for human labor, but o n ly for i n an i mate com m o d i t ies. On ly inan i mate co mmodities w i l l be acq u i red i n future by mean s o f mo ney , not h u man l abor. This is of the u tmost i m portance. N o w , j u st 60

consider the fact that i n the proletariat world

conception the idea that l abor is a com mod i ty stares us in the face i n a l l sorts of forms. I ndeed, the fact that labor i n modern i ndustrial ism has become in the most cons picuous way a commod ity

one

of the fundamental

princi ples of

marx ism, one of those fundamenta l princ i p les by means of which M arx was most successful i n w i n n ing fol lowers among the prol etariat. Here you see that a demand appears from an enti rely different q uarter and in a confused and chaotic fashion, that must, neverthel ess, be fu lfil led, but from an entirely different d i rection. This is characteristic of social dem ands of the p resent, that, to the extent that they appear i nsti nctively, they are due to e ntirely justified and sound i n stincts. They arise, however, from a chaotic social structure. For this reason they are i n a confused form that necessar i ly leads to confusion. So it is i n many fields. I t i s necessary for this reason really to lay hold upon a spiritual-scientific view of the world because o n ly this can resu l t in true social heal i ng. Now , you w i l l ask whether this w il l bring about a change. For exam ple, if a person i nherits his money, he w i l l sti ll continue to pu rchase commod ities w i th the money he i nherited, and the labor of other persons is surely conceal ed i n these com modities. So noth i n g is changed, you w i l l say. Cer tai n ly, if you thi n k abstractly, nothing is changed. B u t, if you w i l l loQk i nto the whole effect that comes about when the provision of the means of ex istence is separated from l abor, you w i ll form a

d i fferent opi nion. I n the sphere of rea l i ty, the situ ation is not such that we simply d raw a bs tract con clusions, but there th ings prod uce the i 1· actu al r e

sults. If i t actually comes about that the p ro v i s i o n of the means o f existence i s separated from t h e performance o f labor. i n he r i tances w i l l n o l o n ger ex ist. T h is w i l l produce suc h a mod i fi c a t i o n of the soc ial structure th at p eopl e w i l l not come i nto pos session of money in any other w ay than for th e ac qu isition of commodi ties. When someth i ng i s con

ceived as a reality, it has all sorts of effec ts. A mong other th i n gs t h i s separation of the p rovi s i on of the

m ean s of e x i s te nce from l abor h as o n e q u i te pecul iar effect. I nd eed , when we speak of real i ties we cannot s o express ourselves as t o say , .

"But I do not see why this shou l d be so. " Y ou might just

well say, " B u t I d o n o t s e e w hy

morph i ne sho u ld cause s l eep." T h i s a l so does n ot come to you as a con c l u s i o n out of a mere i n ter relationsh i p of concepts. I t becomes m a n ifest only when you actu al ly trace t h e effec t

There is so m et h i ng extremely u n natu ral today_ i n the social o rder. T h is consi sts i n the fac t that money increases when a pers o n s i m ply possesses it. It is put in a bank and i n te rest is pa i d on i t. This is the most unnatu ral t h i n g that coul d possi b ly ex ist.

It is really u tterly nonsens i c a l .

The p e r

son d o es noth ing whatever. H e s i m p l y banks t h e

money, which h e may n ot even h av e acq u i red by labor but may have i n herited, a n d he receives i n

terest on i t. This is u tter nonsense. B u t i t w il l be-

come a matter of necessity when the prov ision of the means of existence is separated from labor that money shal l be used when it exists, when it is pro duced as the equ ivalent of commod i ties that exist. It must be used. It must be put i n to c i rculation and the actual effect w i l l be that money does not in crease but that it d i m i n ishes . If at the present time a person possesses a certa i n sum of money, he w i l l have approximately tw ice that amount i n fourteen years under a normal rate of i nterest, and he w ill have done nothi ng except merely to wait. I f you th ink thus of the transformation of the social order, as this must occu r u nder the i nfl uence of this one fu n damental principle that I h ave pre sented to you, then money w i l l not i ncrease but w ill d i m i n ish. A fter a certai n number of years, the bank notes I acqu i red before the begi n n i ng of those years w i l l no longer have any value. They w i l l have matured and become valueless. I n this way the trend w il l become n atural i n the social structure toward · bringing about such cond itions that mere money, w h ich is nothing more than a note, an indication that a person possesses a certain

power over the l abor of

huma n beings, w i l l lose its value afte r a certain length of time if it has not been put into c i rcu lation. In other words, i t w i l l not i nc rease, but w i l l progressively d i m i n i sh and, after fourteen years or perhaps a somewhat longer time, w i l l reach the zero poi n t. If you are m i l lionaires today, you w i l l not be double m ill ionaires after 63

fou rteen years b u t you w i l l be bmke u n less you have earned someth i n g add i tional i n the mean ti me. Of cou rse, I a m aware that peop l e w r i ggle as if they had been b i tten by fleas w hen t h i s is men tioned at the presen t t i m e - if you w i l l permit such a com parison. I k now t h i s . and I would not

have em ployed this compa riso n b u t for the ex tra ordi nary movements I obse rved i n the aud ience! Si nce, however, the s i tuation is such that th is matter causes people to feel a s i f fleas h ad bitten them. we h ave bolshev ism. J ust search for the true causes and there they a re. You w i l l never be able to free the world of what i s com i n g to the su rface un less you dete r m i n e rea l ly to penetrate i nto the truth. The fact that the truth is u n pl easa n t makes no d i fference. An essential part o f the education of h u m a n i ty today and in the i m medi ate futu re w i l l consist i n putti ng a n e n d t o t h e bel ief that truths can be con tro l l ed accor d i ng to su bjective esti mates, subjective sym path ies a n d a n ti path ies. But spi ritual science, i f i t is grasped w i th a sou n d hu man i n tell igence, can sol ve th i s p roblem of money because it can also be con s i d e red s pi r i tually. Noth i ng is acco m p l i sh ed by that v ague way of tal k i ng I h ave h eard even among anth roposo ph ists who hold money i n the i r hands and say, "This is A h r i m an . " A t p resent money s ig n i fi es an equival ent for commodi ties and labor. I t con stitutes a cla i m u pon someth i n g that actual ly oc-

cu rs. I f we pass over from mere abstractions to real ities, i f we reflect, then, when a person has ten one h u n d red mark notes and pays these to some足 one, he causes the l abor of a certai n n u mber of persons to pass as an equ ivale n t from hand to hand. Because these notes possess the power to cause a certa i n nu mber of persons to work , he the n actually stands w i th i n l i fe w i t h al l its branches and i m pu l ses. He w i l l no longer continue to be sat足 isfied w ith the mere abstrac tion, the unth i n k i n g abstraction , o f the payment of money, but he w i l l ask h i mself, "W hat is the sign i ficance o f the fact that I cause ten one h u n d red mark notes to pass from h an d to hand, thu s bri nging it about that a certain num ber of persons endowed w i th head , heart and m i nd m u st perform l abor? W h at is the s ign i ficance of that?" The answer to such a q uestion can be afforded, in the last analysis, only by a spiritu a l observa足 tion of the matter. Let us take the most extreme exam ple. S uppose someone who has never put forth an effort in beh alf of h u m an i ty h as money. There are such cases. I w i l l consider th i s ex足 treme i nstance.

S om eone who h as never put

forth an effort in behalf of h u m an i ty has money. H e buys somethi ng for h i mself w i th th is money. I n deed , he is e n ab l ed to fashion for h im se lf an altogether p leasant l ife by reason of the fact that he possesses this money, w h ich is a claim u pon h u man labor. F i ne! T h is person i s not necesarily a bad h u m an bei ng. H e m ay even be a good man: 65

indeed. he m ay be an i n d ustrious person. People frequently s i m p ly fai l to see i n to the soc ial struc ture. T hey do not possess an i n terest in the i r fe l low m e n , that is, i n the real soc ial structure. People s u p pose that they Jove h u man bei ngs when they b uy somet h i ng for themselves w i th the i r i n herited money, for e x a m p l e, or w hen they even give i t away . W he n it is given away, t h e o n ly resu l t i s that w e c au se a certai n n u mber of persons to work for those to w ho m the money is given. I t is si m ply a means for �cq u i ri n g powe�. The fact that it is a c l a i m u p o n l abor m akes it the means for acq u i ring power. But t h i s s ituation has s i m p ly come i nto ex ist ence and developed to. this stage. T h i s is a reflec tion of someth i ng else. It is a reflection of what I mentioned i n the preced i n g l ectu re. I there cal led your attention to the fact that the J ehovah d i v i n i ty h as contro l led the world for a certa i n length of t i m e through the fact that he won a com plete vic tory over the other E l o h i m , and that he can no l onger save h i m self from the s p i r i ts thus aroused . H e d ro ve his compan ions, the other six E loh i m , from t h e fie l d . B ecause of this, w hat t h e hu man bei ng ex per i e n ces even in the e m b ryo has ac q u i red com p lete dom i nance in h um a n conscious ness. The six other forces, w h ich are not experi enced by man in the e m b ryo, h ave thereby been rendered i nactive. They have thereby come u nder the i n fluence of �ower s p i ritual enti ties. In the fifth decade of the last cen tury, as I h ave said, Jehovah 66

cou ld no longer save h i mself. S i nce the Jehovah w isdom acq u i red in the e m b ryonic state renders it

possible to grasp the conception ofprovidenct! only in external n atu re, crass atheistic natural science h as i nvaded the wor l d . The reflection of this, the fact that money s i mply passes from one person to another w ithout any transfer of commod i ties. con足 s i sts i n the c i rc u l ation of money apart from the cir足 c u l ation o f commod ities. No m atter w ith what energy a person may exert h i mself i n any fi eld, t he ahri manic power l ives in what seems to be p rod uced by money as money . You can not i n herit w ithout hav i n g a certa i n a moun t of ahrimanic power transferred w ith the money. There is no other possibility of possessi ng money w ithin the soc ial stru ctu re in a w holesome w ay than by possessing it in a Chris足 tian way; that is, by acqu i r ing money only by m eans of w hat one develops between b irth and death. I n other words, the w ay i n w h ich a person comes i nto possession of m oney m ust not be a reflection of what is related to J ehovah even though the fact that we are born , that we pass from the e m b ryo i nto the ex ternal l i fe, is some足 t h i n g that perta i ns to h i m . The reflection of this, I say, is the fact that we i nherit money. Those character i st i cs that we inherit w ith the blood are i n h erited through the laws of nature. Money that we i n heri t a n d do not earn woul d be a reflection of this. The fact that C h r istian consciousness has not

yet taken its place i n the worl d . that t h e soci a l structu re is sti l l brough t a b o u t b y m e a n s o f t h e ancien t Jehovah w isdom or i ts s pecte r, the Ro m a n conception o f the state, h as b rought abou t every thing that has led to one aspect o f the presen t u n fortunate situation.

I said that the m atter m u s t not be considered so abstractly when money p rod u ces money, b u t w e m u st v i e w it i n its rea l i ty . W henever money produ ces money it is someth i ng that occurs o n ly on the p hysical plane, whereas w h at constitutes the human bei n g is alway s c o nn ected w i th the spi ritual world. What are you doi ng, then, w he n you perfo r m n o labor but y o u have money that peo p l e m u st work to get? The h u man being then has to bring what constitutes his heavenly share

to market

and you give him o n ly w hat is earthly. You p ay h i m w ith the merely earth ly, the p u rely a h r i manic. Y o u see, th i s is the sp i r i t u a l aspect of the matter. Wherever A h ri m a n

i s at work, o n ly

destruction can come about. This, again, is an u n p l easant truth. B u t it does not help at all w he n a person says to h i mse l f, "Now, real ly, I am otherw ise a respectable i n d i vidual and I am doing noth i n g w ro ng, therefore, when I use my i ncome to pay for th i s o 1· that.'' The actual fact is that you g i ve A h r i man in ex change for God . O f course, w e are fre qu ently com pel l ed to do this within the present social struc ture, but we shou ld not play the ostric h gam e and

conceal this fact from ourselves. Rather should we face the truth because what th e future is to

bring depends upon our doing so. Much of what has broken in u pon human i ty with such calamiÂ tous results has occ u rred for the reason that people close their eyes and the eyes of their souls in the presence of the truth. They have fabricated for themselves abstract concepts of right and wron g, and have been unwilling to deal with the real and the concrete. In regard to this we shall speak fu rther tomorrow, when we sha l l l i ft ou r discussion into spiri tual heights.

III

THE M E C H AN I S T I C , E U G E N I C A N D H Y G I E N I C A S P E C TS O F T H E FU T U R E

hat I have had i n m i nd i n the cou rse of these reflections has been to cast l ight u po n the form that soc ial th i n k i n g shou l d take today. I should l i ke now to add something to w h at we have al ready d iscussed that may make i t poss i b l e for you to l i ft these t h ings to a h i gher leve l. T h i s i s real ly necessary just because o f the s pecial demands of the spirit of our e poch. E veryth i n g that I have presented to you a n d w i ll sti l l p reÂ sent, I hope you w i l l consider, if I m ay repeat this request, not as a criticism of the e x i sting conditions of the times, b u t si m p l y to prov i d e material su itable for givi n g d i rection

to o u r

judgment that may provide the fou n d ation for a general survey of cond itions characteri zed b y t h e necessary insight. T h e spir itual-scientific poi n t o f view cannot b e that of provid i n g a soc i a l c r i Â tique but solely that o f ca11 i ng attention t o these thi ngs without pessi mism or opti m i sm. Yet t h i s fact com pels us, naturally, to use word s that w i l l be understood by some Âˇpersons to b e i n te nd e d a s criticism of one o r another o f the soc i a l classes.

Such is not the case. W hen we speak here of the bourgeoisie, it is as if we were speaking of an inevita ble h istorical phenomenon, and not for the pu rpose of raising any objection to what has simply been unavoidable accord ing to certain spiritual-scientific poi nts of view. I beg you to understand in the same way also what I shall present to you today. Let us take as our point of d eparture the com prehensive motive force that underlies in power ful form the present social demands of the prole tariat, just as it underl ies all or many human movements. This force is more or less clearly ex pressed, but i t is also i nstinctive, unconscious, confused, and unclear· though nonetheless funda mental in these movements. This consists in the fact that a certai n ideal exists for bri nging about a social order that w i l l be satisfying in all i ts aspects. If we wish to describe i n a radical way what is thus basic i n these thi ngs, there is reason to say that an endeavor is made to think out and to realize a social order that w i l l b ring about a paradise on earth , or at least that happy state worthy of the human being that is looked upon by the proletariat population at the present time as something to be desired. This i s called the "solution of the social problem." W hat I have j ust said is i nherent in the i nsti nct behind w hat is called the solution of the social problem. Now, in considering the expression "solution of the social proble m ," it is necessary that the spi rit71

ual scientist, who should not surrend er h i msel f to i llusions i n any field but should fix hi s atten tion upon real ities. sha l l i n this case a l so i ndu l ge i n no il lusions. The essential fac t i n th i s field i s that those who are striv i n g for these t h i n gs do not pro ceed from a s tandpoint free of i l lusions, b u t from a point of view confronted by a great n u m ber of such i llusions, especiall y the fu ndame ntal i l l usion that it is possible to sol ve the social problem. The fact that i n our epoch there i s n o con sciousness of the d ifference betwee n the physical plane and the spiritual world, but the p hysical plane is looked u pon in a certa i n i nsti n cti ve way as the only world , is connected w ith the other fact that it longs to create a parad ise on thi s physical plane. Because of this conceptio n our epoch is com pelled to be l i eve that the h u man bei ng is con dem ned ei ther never to achieve j ustice, the har monizing of h is i m pu lses and needs, or e l se to fi n d these th i ngs withi n the physical earthy exi ste nce. The physical plane. however, man ifests i tself to one who observes the world imagi natively, and thus takes cognizance of actual reality , i n such a way that he must decl are there is n o perfection in th is world but o n ly i m pe rfec tio n . T h us . it i s im possible to speak a t all of a n abso l u te ly com plete solution of the social pro b lem. You may endeavor in any way you p lease, on the basis of all the profoundest knowledge, to solve the social problem, yet i t w i l l never be solved in the sense in which many persons expect the solution in our 72

d ay. But th is need not lead anyone to say that i f the soc ial problem i s s i m ply n o t t o be solved , we should perm i t the old nonsense to continue on j ts course. The truth is that the course of thi ngs resembles the action of a pendu l u m: the force for the upward swing is gai ned i n the downward swi ng. In other words, just as the opposi te force is accum u l ated by the downward swing and i s then used i n the upward swi ng, such is the case also in the rhyth m ical succession c haracte r i z i ng the historic l i fe of humanity. What you m ay consider for a certa i n epoch as the most perfect soc ial order, or even as .any soc ial orde r at a l l , wears o u t when you have once brought i t to realization , and leads afte r a certa i n t ime once more to d isorder. The evol utionary l i fe is not such that it stead ily ascends, but i ts course con足 sists i n ebb and flow; it progresses wi th a wave movement. T he best that you m ay be able to establish, when once real ized on the physical plane, gives rise to cond itions that lead to its own destruction after the necessary length of time. The state of humanity woul d be entirely d i f足 fe rent if th i s i rrevocable l aw i n the h i storic course of events were adequately recognized . It woul d

not then

be supposed possible i n the

absolute sense of the word to establish a paradise on earth , but people wou l d be compelled to give attention to the cyc .l ic law of human ity's evolu足 tion . . As we exclude from consideration an abso足 lute answer to the question ,"What should be the 73

form of soc ial l i fe?" we shall d o the right th i n g by asking oursel ves w h a t m u s t be d o n e for o u r epoch? What a r e t h e exact d e ma n d s

of t h e

motive forces of o u r fifth post-Atlantean e poch? What actual l y demands to be m a d e a real i ty? With the consc iousness th at w h at is b rough t to real ization w i l l inevitably be destroyed i n tu r n i n the course of the cyc l i c reversa l s, w e are com pel led to see c learly that w e can t h i n k soc i ally also only in th i s relative way when w e recogn i ze the i m pell ing evolutionary forces of a defi n i te epoc h. It is i m perati vely n ecessary to work i n harmony w ith real ity. We are w o rk i ng aga i n st rea l i ty when we suppose that w e shal l be able to accom plish anyth i ng by m ea n s of abstract a n d absolute i deals. For the spi r i tu a l sci entist, therefore, w h o de s i res to fix his attention upon rea l i ty and not i l lusion, the q uestion takes t h e l i m i ted for m of w h at bears the i m pulse w i th i n i t to be b rought to real ization within the actual s i tuation of the i m med i ate present? Our explanations of yesterday also were i ntend ed to be considered from t h i s poi n t o f view. Y o u interpret me q u i te wrongly i f you s u ppose t h at I

m ea n an absolute paradise w i l l be b rough t a b ou t through the fact, l e t u s say, that w ha t i s p rod u ce d by labor w i l l be separated from labor. O n t h e con trary, I consider th is, on the basis of the p ro f9 u nd laws of the evo lution o f h u m a n i ty, only as some thing that must necessarily occu r at the p resent 74

time. What is anchored in all the insti ncts of man, toward which the proletariat conception of life especially is striving, even i f they sometimes push things to the extreme of such demands as those I enumerated to you yesterday as the demands of bolshevism - behind w hat people have in their consc iousness there lies, of course, what they inÂ stinctively will to b ring to realization. Anyone who d i rects his effort toward reality does not pay attention to programs proposed to h i m , not even that of the Russian Soviet Republic, but he e ndeavÂ ors to see what is sti l l in i nstinctive form today behind these th ings that people express outwardly with stammering tongues. This is what really matters. O therwise, if we do not v iew the matter thus, we shall never d eal with these things in the right way. What men are insti nctively strivi ng for is absolutely i nherent in the fundamental character of our fifth post-Atlantean epoch, which is essentially different from the fourth epoch, the Greco-Lati n , and li kewise from the preceding third, the Egypto-Chaldean. Men of today, in their social relationshi ps - not as ind ividuals, but i n soci a l group relationships - must w i l l something absolutely definite. I nsti nctively they do actually will this. T hey w ill today w hat could not have been w il led i n the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, or even up to the fifteenth century of ou r Christian era. They will today an existence worthy of the human bei ng, that is, the fulfi ll ment as a reflec tion in the social

order of what they vaguely sen se i n this epoch as the ideal for h u man i ty. M e n w i l l today i nstinc tively that w ha t the h u ma n bei ng i s in h i mself shal l be reflec ted in the soc ial structu re. Du r i ng the t h i rd post- A tlantean epoch , the Egypto-C haldean, t h i s was d i fferent, and d i ffer ent l i ke w i se sti l l e ar l i e r d u r i n g the second epoch. I n the second epo c h . the a n c i e n t Persian, the human being was sti l l e n ti rely in h is i n ner nature; man w as then still a b e i n g of wholly i n ner n ature. H e d id not the n d emand i nsti nc tively to fi nd d u p l i cated i n the e x ternal world what he possessed i nw a r d l y as h i s n eeds. H e did not need a soc i a l structure that wou l d enable him to recog n i ze in exte r n a l th i n gs what he pos sessed i n wardly as i m p u l se, i nsti ncts and needs. Then came the th i rd post- A t l a n tean e poch , the Egypto-C haldean,

and the h u m a n bei ng de manded that the part of h i s b e i n g that was con

nected w i th h i s h ead shou l d a ppear to h i m i n the mi rror of external soc ial rea l i ty. So we observe that, from the th i rd post-Atlantean epoch on.

from the E gypto-Chal d ea n epoc h , the en deavor was made to ach i eve a theocrat i c social arrange

ment in w h i ch everyth i n g perta i n i ng to theo cratic social i n stitutions was i n some way per meated

rel igion.

The

rest

re mai ned

sti l l

i nsti nctive. W h at was con nected w i th t h e second m a n . the b reast a n d b reath i n g m a n . and what

was con nected

with

the

m etabol i c

man,

mai ned i n sti nctive. T h e h u man bei ng d i d not yet 76

thi n k at a l l

of see i n g these reflected

i n the

m i rror of the external order. In the ancient Persian epoch there was also only an i nstinc tive rel igion, gu ided by those i n i tiated in Zarathus trian ism. B u t everyth ing that the h uman being developed was sti l l i n ward and i nsti nctive. He did not yet feel any need to seek th i n gs in exter nal reflection i n the soc ial structu re . He began during

the

period

that ended

approxi mately

with the fou nd i ng of the a n c i e n t .Roman k i ngdom, the actual year was 747 B. C . , to demand that w hat could l i ve as though in h i s h ead shou l d b e found aga i n in the social order. T hen came t h e e poc h that began in the e ighth century, 747 B . C . , a n d e n ded in the fifteenth cen tury A.D., the G reco-Lat i n epoch. M a n then de manded that two m e m bers of h i s bei ng, the head man and the rhyth m ic, b reath i ng, b reast man

shou l d be reflected e x te r n ally i n the social struc ture.

W hat consti tuted

the anc ient theocratic

order. b u t now o n ly i n an echo. h ad to be reflected .

· As a matter o f fact. the real theocratic i nsti tutions bear a c lose rese m b l a nce to the th i rd post-Atlan_tean epoch and t h is i nc l udes even the institu t ions

of the Catho l i c C h u rc h . T h i s conti nued, and some thing new was added to i t that was derived espe cial l y from the G reco- Lati n e poch. T he external insti tution s of the

res

publ'i ca. those i n stitu tions

that have to do w i t h the ad m i n istration of the ex ternal l i fe so far as j ustice and i njustice and such th i ngs come i n to considera tion were added . Man 77

now demanded as regat·ds

two

me m be rs of h i s

be ing that h e shou l d n o t o n l y bear these w i th i n h i mse l f b u t shou ld see them reflected e x te rn a l ly as in a m i n·or. For i nstance. you do not u n de rstand G reek culture i f you do not k now that the si tuati o n was such

that the merely metab o l i c l i fe , w h i c h

ex pressed extern a l ly i n the econ o m i c structure, sti l l remai ned i nsti nctive, i n n e r and w ithout t h e need o f external

refl ection.

The tendency

demand an external reflection for th i s appeared first in the fifteen th century of the Ch ristia n e ra.

I f you study h istory in its real i ty , not in the form of legends fabricated with i n o u r so-called sci ence of h i story, you will find con firmed even exter nally w hat I have told you on the basis of occu l t k nowl e dge

about

the

G reek

s l ave

c l as s

and

slavery, without w hose e x i ste nce the G reek c u l ture we so greatly ad m i re wou l d be u n th i n k a b l e . This can b e conceived a s ex isti n g i n t h e soc i a l structu re only when w e k now that th i s w h o l e fo u rth p os t Atl a n tean e poch was do m i nate d by -

the striving for an external system

of i n s ti t u t i o n s

in the fie ld of law and rel igion, b u t not yet fo r any other than an i nstinctive eco n o m i c o r d e r . I t i s o u r own epoch, the ti m e that beg i n s i n the fifteen th century of th e C h r i stian e ra, i n which

the demand was first made to see the whole three-membered human being as a p icture also in his external social stru ctu re We must, therefore, study the three- m e m b ered .

human being today si nce, for the fi rst ti me, he develops a threefold i nsti nc t to have i n the external structure, in the comm u nity structure, what I have mentioned to you, that is, f irstly, a spi ritual sphere , w h ic h has its own adm i n istra� tion and its own structure, secondly, a s phere of ad m i n i stration, of security and order - a pol i ti cal sphere - that i s l i kewise self-suffi ci ng, and , third ly, an economic sphere, because o u r epoch demands. for the first time this economic sphere in exte rnal organization. The demand to see the human b e i ng b rought to realization and p ictured in the social structure arises as an i nstinct in our epoch. This i s the deeper reason w hy it i s no longer a mere econom i c insti nct that i s at work. T he econom i c c lass that has j ust been c reated, the proletariat, strives toward the goal of setting up the economic structure exter nally just as consciously as th e fou rth post-Atlantean epoj!h set up the adm in istrative structure_ of the system of laws, and the th ird post-Atlantean epoc h , the E gypto�C haldean, the theocratic structu re.

T h i s i s the i n ner reason. O nly by givi n g atten tion to this i n ner reason can you judge righ tly the cond itions of the present time, and you w i l l then u nderstand w hy I h ad t o present t o you thi s threefold soc i a l order a week ago. I t has certain ly not been i nvented as programs are invented today by i n n umerable soci eties, but it is asserted on the basis of those forces that can be observed if we e n te r i nto the real i ty of evolu tion . We must 79

come to the poi n t. for t i m e is pt·essi n g i n that d i rection. when the i m pel l i n g evol u tionary forces with i n the development of h u m a n ity sha l l really be understood concretely and o bj ectively. Time i s

pressi n g in that d i recti o n . People sti l l struggle agai nst th is. It i s rea l l y a�to n i s h i n g even if we observe those w h o m a k e the fu rthest advance. A short time ago a book w as p u b l i shed entitled Letters of a Lady to Wa lth e r Ra.then au Conce?'1t ing the Transcendence of Coming Events. All sorts of t h i ngs are, of cou rse, d iscussed in this

book. For exam pl e: It

the

i n tention

this

pamph let to

publish the essential i n tu i ti o n a l contents of epistolary w r it i n gs. Pe tsonal com m u n ications have been excluded si nce t h ey have no i m medi ate relationsh i p to this. T h e res u l t is the eli m ination of the fragmentary letter form, and thus also the constant repetition of the custom ary salutations and concl usions. A l ady endow· ed as a seeress com m u n i cates here to the au thor of the book.

Of Th ings To Come,

her u n usual ex

perience and k nowledge in regard to the new soul of the time and the new b i rth of the worl d . T he powers of t h e futu re strugg l i n g today for a higher form of l i fe man i fest themse l ves here i n a n i nd iv idual h u m a n d esti ny as t h e experi enced real i ty of the n ew sou l powers.

I t is strange that many thi ngs are h ere spoken of. but one observes

so m e t h i n g

cur ious. The l ady

d i scovers that man can develop h igher spi ritual faculti es and that genu i ne real ities can be per� cei ved only by means of these. The book real ly comes to an end with this. I ts l ast chapter is entitled,

World

Cosmic

Conclm-ions

Regarding

the

Soul and the Human Soul. B ut the book

proceeds no further than to the i nsight that a person can possess h i gher facul ties and not to the po int of tell ing wh at he actually perceives by means of these higher facu lties. It is as if one shou ld say to a person, "You have eyes," but then not br i ng h i m to the poi n t of seei ng anyth i ng of reality w ith them . A strange atti tude is taken by certa i n

persons

w ith

reference

spiritu al

science. They actually shrink back in terror even if we merely begi n to s peak of what can be seen. O ne shou l d l i ke to say to an author such as thi s lady, " You ad m i t that h i gher fac u lties m ay evolve in the h u m an bei ng. Spi ritual science exists i n order t o report what one sees precisely i n conn ec tion w i th i m portant matters if these h igher facul ties a re evolved." But people s h rink back from th is and do not want to l isten. You see how u rge ntly th e time i m pels u s to reach the poi n t w here spi ritual science w i l l s to ar rive, and how mean w h i l e there are j u m bled to gether i n people those thi ngs of w h i c h I spoke i n the latest issue o f the magazi ne, " Das Reich," ed it ed by Alexander von Bern u s, i n my article entitled Luciferic and Ahrimanic Elements In Ou·r Con temporary History, in the Life of Man. T h i s is a l l

in such a tangled mass in the human soul that even those who ad m i t that it is possible to see a spiritual real ity as a gen u i ne real ity that can be behel d regard as a fantastic person a nyone who s peaks concretely of such a s p i ri tual real ity. I have referred to th is lady sim ply because she is not a u n i que phenomenon. What appears in her appears i n many in d ivid uals. I t is actually a charÂ acteristic of the time that even though people feel impelled to look beyond the o rd i n ary external reali ty, they sti l l wi thd raw a n d refrai n from doing so. I n th is book for exam ple, atte ntion is called to a certain relationsh i p between human bei ngs and cosmic forces. B ut one shoul d not try, let us say, to explain to these people the content of my book, An Outline of Occult Science, i n which these relationsh ips are ex pounded. They then shrink back. But we do not gain an i ns i gh t into social matters, which must be considered as I have 4>W you, if we sim ply admit that it is possib l e to see and do not consider w hat can be seen . It i s of enormous i mportance to realize th is. Otherwise, we shall always make the mistake al ready pointed out in the first sentences I uttered today of making an abÂ solute principle out of someth i ng that i s val id conÂ cretely for the ind ividual single case - so that the question is asked , for example, i n regard to the social problem, " How m ust human insti tutions be set up throughout the world?" But th is question is rea l ly not presented to us. H u man beings in various parts of the earth d i ffer from one another, 82

and in the future this d iffe rentiation w i l l i n crease. U tterly un real thoughts are expressed by one, therefore, who su pposes that i t is possible to proceed social ly

the same way i n Russia,

China, South A me r i ca, Germany or F rance. Such a one expresses absolute thoughts where individual and rel ative thoughts alone corres pond with rea l i ty. It is extremely i mportant that this fact be clearly see n . During recen t years, w h e n i t was so i mportant that these things shoul d be u nd erstood in the ap propriate places, it h as been a source of great distress to me that they have s i mply been m is understood . You w i l l reca l l that I d rew a map here two years ago that is now becom ing a reality, and I d i d not show thi s map only to you. I presented the map at that t i m e to explain how the i m pell ing forces are moving from a certain side, since i t is a l aw that, if we know these im pel l i ng forces, if we take cogni zance of them, if we grasp them in our consciousness, they may be corrected i n a certai n w ay and given a d i fferent direction . It is i m portant that this shoul d be com prehe nded . But no one i n a responsi b l e posi tion has taken cognizance of these th i ngs, or taken them earn estly in the real sense of the word . P resent events certainly show that they should have been taken earnestly. Now the fact that m ust be taken i nto consider ation i n connection with these things is that, in

regard to certa i n fundamental

l a w s of world

evol ution, noth i n g is actual ly known in a com prehensive way brought

i nto

except w i th i n

such

tha t

external certa i n

this k now ledge is

a ppl i cation

anywh e re

secret societies

of the

E ngl ish-speaking peoples. T h i s is some th i ng that it is i mportan t to o bserve. Secret soc ieties among other peoples are fu ndamenta l ly only a matter of em pty

p hrases.

Sec ret

soc ieties

among

the

E ng l i sh-speaking peoples, on the contrat·y. are sources from w h i c h truths are ac q u i red i n cer tai n ways by means of w h ich

th ings can be

guided pol i ti ca l ly. I may s peak of them some ti me, but it wou l d take us too far afield today. Thus we may say that those forces flowing from these secret societies i n to the pol i tics of the West move actua11y in accordance w i th h istory. They reckon with the laws of h i stor i c evol ution. I t is not necessary that i n external matters everyth ing shal1 be correct even to the d otti n g of the l ast " i". What matters is w hether the person proceeds in accordance w i th h istoric evol ution i n an objec tive sense, or wheth e r he proceeds as a d i l ettante fol lowing h is arbi trary notions. The pol itics of Central E u rope, for example, were

predom inantly

ama te u r

pol itics,

u tterly

w i thout relation to any h i storical law. T h e politics that were not amateurish, that fol lowed the facts - or, i f

I may use the c rass ex pression, profes

sional pol i tics - were those of the E nglish-speak ing peoples, the B r i tish E m p i re a n d its a n nex, America. T h i s is the great d i ffe rence, and th is is 84

the significant point that must be clearly seen. Its importance lies in the fact that what was known in those circles is actually flowing into the world of reali ty. It also flows i nto the instincts behind those persons who occupy positions as pol itical representatives, even if they act only out of pol i ti cal instincts. Behind these are the forces to which I am now referring. You need not inquire, there fore, whether Northcliff or even Lloyd George is initiated to one degree or another into these forces. This is not w hat counts. The decisive ques tion is whether or not! there is a possibility that they may conduct themselves in accordance with these forces. T hey need to take up in their in sti ncts alone what runs parallel w ith these forces. But there is such a possi bility; this does happen, and these forces act in the general d irection of world h istory. This is the essential poin t, and it is possible to act successfully within the interrela· tionships of world h istory only when one really takes u p into one's knowledge what is goi ng on i n this manner in the world. O therwise, the other person, who is actin g know ingly i n accordance w ith world h istory, or causing such action, always h as the power, while the one w ho knows nothing of it is powerless. It is i n _this w�y that power may master powerlessness. This is an external occur rence. But the victory of power over powerless ness in these things depends, in the l ast analysis, upon the d i fference between know ing and not k nowing. It is this that must be clearly grasped. It is i m portant also to see that the chaos now in 85

its i n iti al stages in the E ast and i n Cen tral E u rope

demonstrates how terrible everyth ing was that pretended to bring pol itical order into th i s c haos b ut has now been swept away. B u t w hat is happening now i n Central and Eastern Europe demonstrates that noth i ng but d i lettantism perÂ meates public l i fe in thi s region . In the West, among the E nglish-speak i ng popu lation of the

world, there is dominant everywhere by no means d ilettantism, b ut if I may be perm i tted to use the crass expression - an expert consideration of -

these th ings. This is what will determine the form of the h istory of the coming d ecades. No m atter what lofty ideals may be set up in Central and E astern Europe, no matter how much good w i l l may be man i fested in one or anoth e r set of p rograms, noth i ng wil l be acco m p l ished i n th i s way i f people are not able to take the i r d eparture from the motive forces that are d erived i n the same or even in a better way from the other side of the th reshold of consciousness, j ust as the motive forces of the West, of the E ngl ish-speaki ng peoples, are taken in the last analysis from the oth e r side of th e th resÂ hold of consciousness. Those friends who have heard these th i ngs d iscussed that I have p resented to you for years precisely as I am doing today, have always made a mistake in this con nection and it is ge nerally difÂ ficult to persuade even our best fri e n d s to abandon it. This is the m istake of thinki ng, "But what good 86

does it do to say to people that on.e thing or another has its origin in certa i n secret centers of the West? S u rely it is necessary to convince them fi rst that there are such secret societies.". It has often been thought that the m ost i mportant thing woul d be to awaken the conviction that such secret societies exist, but th i s is not what shou ld receive prim ary consid eration. You w i ll meet w ith l ittle response if you undertake to convi nce statesmen of the cali b re of a Kuhl mann, let us say, that there are secret societies in possession of such i m pel l i n g forces, but that is by no means the i mportant point. I n deed, it i s a blunder when this is cons idered fundamental. The fact that this is considered fundamental is d ue to the affectation of mystery b rought over from the bad hab its of the old Theosoph ical S oc iety and sti l l to be found even among anthroposophists. If anyone utters the word secret or occult and is able to refer to anythi ng whatsoever that is secret or occult, what an altogether special d istinction he thus confers u pon h i m self! But th i s is not something that can produce favorable results w hen we are deal ing w ith external realities. What matters is that we shall show how th i ngs occu r and simply point out what anyone can u nderstand with h is sound com mon sense. W ! th i n those societies deal ing with such occult truths

have a bearing u pon reality,

the princi ple was observed, for example, that after the E m p i re of the Russian Czar had been overÂ _thrown for the benefit of the Russian people, a po87

li tical course wou ld have to be pu r·s u ed that wou ld provide an opportu n i ty to u ndertake soc ial istic ex periments in Russ ia. People w i l l not u nd ertake them i n Western cou ntries because i n those re gions they are not considered advantageous or d esirable. So long as I sim ply assert that th i s has been stated i n secret societies, i t m ay be dou bted. B ut, if it is poi nted out that the whole d i rection of pol itics is such that this p ri n c i p l e evide ntly underlies i t, people are then with i n rea l i ty w i th their ordi nary sound common sense. The i m portant matter is that a fee l i ng for real i ty should be awakened. What has been developed in Russia i s, fu nda mentally, only a real ization of w hat has been pur posed in the West. The fact that up to the p resent time only unsk i l l ful social istic ex peri ments are carried out by non-Engl ish men, that thi ngs come to real ization by all sorts of roundabout paths, is so well known by these societies that they su ffer no serious headaches because of them. T hey know that the important thing is to bring these coun tries to the point where socialistic experi m e n ts become un avoidable. I f these are then conducted in con nec tion with ignorance of the n atu re of a soc ial order. one then actually forms the soc ial order related to these lands and makes onesel f the d i rector of the social istic experi men t. You see, the holdi ng b ack of a certa i n k i nd of occult know ledge that i s carefu lly p racticed i n these centers gives rise t o e normous power. The 88

opposite side cannot save itself i n any way from this power except by acquiring this knowledge and confronting this power with it. I n th is field there can be no d iscussion of guilt or i n nocence. Here we must speak si mply of the inevitab le, of th i ngs that must come to pass beÂ cause they already exist under the surface, beÂ cause they are at work i n the realm of forces that are not yet phenomena. They are already forces, however, and w i l l become phenomena. Surely I need scarcely e mphasize that I hold fast to what I have always asserted . The real bei ng of the German people can not perish. This real being of the German people must search for its path but it is i mportant that it shall be able to find its path, that it shall not follow false roads in its search , and shall not search in ways where there is no knowledge. Do not i nterpret, thereÂ fore, w hat I shall now sa:y in such a sense as to make i t i n the least contradictory of what I have asserted over a period of years. Things always have two sides and what I have indicated to you is, i n large measu re, a matter of the will. It is possible for th is to be paralyzed if forces are brought into play also from the opposite side but these forces must rest upon k nowledge, not upon an amateu rish lack of it. You see the essence of the thi ng is that i f no resistance is raised from the E ast, and by the East I m ean the whole region lyi ng from the Rhine eastward even into Asia, B ritish world 89

d om i n ation will d evelop after the destruction of the .Roman-Lati n F re n c h element in

the way

intended by those forces that I have i n d i cated once

more today,

have

frequently done

already, as lying b e h i nd the i n stincts. For this reason it is i m portant that, in d ea l i ng w ith what Wood row

W i lson

says,

shall

not employ

merely that k i n d of th i nk i n g generally developed i n people today. Rather, what appears only in the i nsti n cts even

i n suc h a person as Woodrow

W i lson shou l d be grasped by m eans of a deeper knowl edge. W hen for m u l ated i n to all k i nds of m ax i ms,

this

i n fatuates people, and when i t

comes from W i lson's m i nd , i n fatuates for the sole _reason that h i s m i nd is possessed i n a certain way by subconscious forces. The real ly i m portant fact is that in groups in the West who keep the i r know ledge secret the greatest pai n s are taken to see that t h i ngs shall develop in such a way as to i nsure u nder all ci rcu mstances the mastery of the W est over the E ast. W hatever people may say tod ay on the basis of their consciousness, the goal striven for is to establ ish a caste of m asters i n the W est and a caste of economic slaves i n the E ast, begi n n ing with the R h i ne and exten d i ng eastward a l l the way i nto Asia. T h i s does not m ean a caste of slaves i n the ancient G reek sense, but a caste of econom ic slaves organized i n a soc i a l i stic way to take up all sorts of i mpossi b i l i ties i n the social structure that then shall not be applied among 90

the Engl i sh-speaking peoples. The essence of the matter is to make the E ngl ish-speaking peoples into a population of m asters of the world. Now th is i s rightly thought out from that side in the most comprehensive sense. I now reach the proper place for the explanation of something that I beg you really to receive i n ful l awareness of the fact that if such assertions are made today, they are m ade under the pressure and u rgency of contemporary events and must really not be received except in an earnest sense. W hat I am here asserti ng is m ost carefu l ly kept secret by the centers i n the W est to which I have often reÂ ferred . It is considered obvious i n the West that the people of the E ast shall not be pern)itted to k now anyth ing of these matters that these WestÂ ern persons possess i n the form of know ledge, as I have al ready said , through methods I may later d iscuss. They possess these th ings as k nowledge in such a way that, si nce the others are not to know of them , world m astery shal1 be established through the i r help. T h i s is the only possible method for attaining their ends. Begi n n i ng w ith this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, defin i te forces will become promi nent i n the evolution o f human ity. H uman evolution is, of course, moving forward. W i th i n the l imits of the brief span of time that comes u nder the survey of anth ropology or h i story in the field of external materialistic sci ence, it is never possible to form a judgment regarding the forces

man i fest i n the evolution of h u m an ity. L i ttle i n the external process o f d evelop ment has underÂ gone any c hange w i t h i n t h is l i m i ted span of time. O n the b asis of this knowledge no one k nows, for exam ple, how utterly d i fferen t thi ngs looked , even i n t h e seco n d e poch. not to mention

the first or others sti l l farther back. T h is can be k nown only through s p i ritual science. O n ly through s p i r i tual science, l i kew ise, is i t possible to i nd i cate the forces th at w i l l d evelop i n future in a wholly e lemental manner out of the nature of man. The fact that such forces, w h i c h w i l l transform l i fe on earth, w i l l d evelop o u t o f the h u man being is known in those secret cen ters. It is this that is concealed from the E ast by people i n the West w h o i n tend t o reta i n i t t hemsel ves. I t i s know n . moreover, that these c apacities, possessed by man tod ay o n ly i n thei r very fi rst begi n n i ng, w i l l be th reefold in their n atu re. T h ey w i l l evolve

ou t of the nature of man in the same way in w h i ch other capacities have come i n to ex iste n ce i n the course of h u man i ty's evolution . T h is th reefold capacity , of w h i c h every k nowing person w i th i n these secret c i rc l es speaks - these three capacities that w i l l evolve i n h u m a n nature,

I must make i ntel l igi b l e to you in the fol lowing way. F i rst, there are the capac i ties having to do with so-called material occultism. By means of this capacity - and this is precisely the ideal of B ritish ďż˝ecret soc ieties - certa i n social forms at p resent basic w ithin the i n d ustrial system shal l be set u p 92

on an entirely d i fferent foundation. Every know ing member of these secret circles is aware that, solely by means of certain capacities that are still latent but evolving in man, and with the help of the Jaw of harmonious oscillations, machines and me chanical constructions and other things can be set in motion . A smal l i nd ication is to be fou nd in what I con nected w i th the person of S trader in my Mystery Dramas. These thi ngs are at presen t in process of devel opment. They are guarded as secrets within those secret circles in the field of material occultism. Motors can be set in motion, into activity, by an i nsignificant human influence through a knowl edge of the correspon ding curve of oscillation . By means of this principle it w i l l be possible to substi tute merely mechanical forces for human forces in many things. The number of human beings on the earth today in actua.l fact is 1 ,400,000,000. Labor is performed however, not only by these 1 ,400,000,000 persons - as I once explai ned here - but so much labor is performed in a merely mechanical way that we say the earth is really inhabited by 2 ,000 ,000,000 persons. The others are simply machi nes. That is, if the work that is done by machines had to be done by people with out m achines, it would be necessary to have 600,000 ,000 more persons on the earth. If what I am now d iscussing with you under the name of mechanistic occultism enters into the field of practical action , w h ich is the ideal of those secret

centers, i t will be possi b l e to accom pl ish the work not only of 500,000 ,000 or 600 ,000,000 but of 1 ,080,000 ,000 persons. T h e poss i b i l i ty will thus come about of re n d e r i n g u n n e cessary nine tenths of the work of i n d ividuals within the re gions of the E ngl ish-spea k i n g peoples. M echanis tic occultism w i l l not o n ly r e n d e r it possi ble to do without n i ne-tenths of the l ab o r sti l l performed at present by human hands, but w i l l give the possib il ity also of paralyz i n g every u p r ising attempted by the then dissatisfied masses of hu man ity. The capacity to set motors i n m otion according

to the l aws of rec i procal osc i l l ations w ill develop on a great scal e among the E ng l ish-speaki ng peoples. This is known i n thei r secret ci rcles, and is counted upon as the means w hereby the m astery ove r the rest o f t h e population of the earth shall be ach i eved even i n the cou rse of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch.

Someth ing else is

known also in those c i rc l es. It is known that there are two other capacities that w i l l l i kew i se develop. One, which I shall ven ture to cal l the eugenic capacity, will evolve p r i m ar i ly among peopl e of the East, of Russia and the Asiatic h i n terland. It is also known in those secret c i rcles of the West that this euge n ic occu l tism w i l l not evolve out of the inborn potential ities of the E ngl ish-speaking peopl es, but only of the i n born potential ities be longing precisely to the Asi atic and the Russian populations. These facts are known in the secret ci rcles of the West. They are taken into account 94

and are looked upon as constituting certain motive forces that m ust become active i n future evolution. By the eugenic capacity I mean the removal of the reproduction of human beings from the sphere of mere arbitrary impulse and accident. Among the peoples of the East there will gradually devel op a bri l liantly clear knowledge as to how the laws of population, the laws of peopling the earth, must run parallel with certain cosmic phenomena. From this information they will know that, if conception is brought about in accord with certain constella tions of the stars, opportunities will thus be given for souls that are either good or evil in their na tures to obtain access for earthly i ncarnation. This capacity will be acquired only by those individuals who constitute the continuation as races, the con tinuation in the blood stream , of the Asiatic popu lation. They w ill be able si mply to see in detail how what works today chaotically and arbitrarily in conception and b irth can be brought into harmony with the great laws of the cosmos in i ndividual . concrete cases. H ere abstract laws are of no avail. What will be acquired is a concrete single capacity in which it will be known i n i nd ividual cases w hether or not a conception should occur at a par ticular time. This know ledge, which wil l make it possible to bring down from the heavens the i m pelling forces for the moralizing or demoral i zing of the earth through the nature of man himself, this spec.ial

capacity evolves as a conti nuation of the blood capacity i n the races of the East. What evolves as a capacity there I call eugenic occu ltism. This is the second capac i ty - the capac i ty that wi i l prevent the evolution of human ity as regards .conception and b i rth from taking i ts course according to arbitrary i m pulses, and more or less accidentally. I beg you to consider the enormous social conse quences, the enormous social moti ve forces that enter here! These capacities are latent. It is well known in those secret circles of the Engl ish-speak ing peoples that these capaci ti es w i l l evolve among the peoples of the East. They know that they them selves w i l l not possess these capacities within their own potential ities bestowed u pon them through birth. They know that the earth could not reach its goal, could not pass over from earth to Jupiter indeed , they k now that the earth would withi n a relatively short time d i verge from the path leading to its goal i f only the forces belongi ng to the West shou ld be em ployed . It would gradually come about that only a sou l less popu lation could evolve in the West, a popul ation that wou l d be as soulless as possi ble. T h is i s know n . For this reason these people endeavor to develop within their own ci rcles, th rough the i r capacities, mech an istic occultism. The endeavor is also made to establ ish a mastery over those peoples who will develop eugenic occu ltism. E very instructed per son in the c i rc les of the West says, for exam ple, "It is necessary that we rule over I nd ia for the 96

reason that only through the continuation of what comes out of I nd ian bod ies - when this un ites with what tends i n the West in a wholly d i fferent d i rection, in th e d i rection of mechan isti c occulÂ tism - can bod ies co me i nto existence in wh ich souls w i l l be able to incarn ate in future who w i l l carry the earth ove r to its future evolu tionary stages." The E ngli sh-speaking occultists know that they can not depend u pon the bodies that come out of the fu ndamental character of their own people, and so they strive to possess the mastery over a people who w i l l provide bod ies wi th the hel p of which the evolution of the earth may be carried forward in the future. The American occu ltists know that they can never carry over i nto the future what they w i l l to carry over u nless they nurture what w il l develop in the form of bodies for the futu re w i th i n the Russian popul ation through its eugenic occult potential i ties, u nless they gai n the mastery of this, so that a social u n ion can gradually come into existence between the i r own decadent race characteristics and the germinating psychic race characteristics of E uropean Russia. I must speak to you also regarding a third capacity, which is latent today but w h ic h will evolve. This is what I venture to call the hygienic occu l t capacity.

N ow we have all three:

the

material istic occult capac ity, the eugenic occult capacity, and the hygienic occu l t capacity. This hygienic occult capaci ty is well on its way and

will not be long, relatively speak ing, i n arriving. This capacity w i l l come to maturity simply through the i nsight that human l i fe, i n i ts course from b irth to death , progresses i n a man ner i denti足 cal w i th the process of a n i l l ness. Processes of i l l足 nesses are, i n other words, o n ly s pecial an d rad ical transmutations of the q u i te ord i nary, normal life process taki ng its course between b i rth and death, except that we bear withi n ourselves not only the forces that create i l l ness but also those that heal. These healing forces, as every occultist knows, are precisely the same as those that are appl ied when a person acquires occul t capaci ti es, i n w h i ch case these forces are transmuted i nto the forces of k nowledge. The heal ing power i nnate i n the hu足 man organ ism, when transmuted into knowledge, gives occult forms of knowled ge. N ow , every know i n g person i n the Western circles is aware that m aterial istic med i c i ne w ill have no basis i n the future. As soon as the hygienic occult capacities evolve, a person will need no external material med i ci ne, but the possibility w i l l exist of treating prophylactically i n a psychic way to prevent those illnesses that do not arise through karm i c causes because karmic i llnesses cannot be i n fluenced. Every足 th ing in this respect will change. T h i s seems at present like a mere fantasy, but it is actually something that will soon come about. Now, the situation is such that these three faculties will

not come i nto existence equally among all the 98

peoples of the earth. I ndeed, you have already seen the differentiation. This differentiation has to do, naturally, only with the bodies and not with the souls, which al ways pass, of course, from race to race, from people to people. But with the bod ies this differentiation has much to do. From the bod ies of the E n gl ish-speaki ng peoples the possibility of developing eugen ic occu lt capacities i n the future through bi rth can never arise . It is precisely in the West that these will be applied, but the man ner i n w h ich they will be applied will be that a mastery w i l l be established over the Eastern lands, and marÂ riages will be brought about between people of the West and people of the East. Thus use will be made of what can be lear,ned only from the people of the East. The potentiality of hygienic occu l t capacities is present in special measure among the - people of the Cen tral countries. E nglish-speaking people cannot acquire the hygienic occult capacities through their i nborn potential i ties, but they can acquire these capacities in their development i n the course of time between b irth and death. These can become acquired characteristics durÂ ing that time. In the case of the population occupying the area approximately eastďż˝ard from the Rhine and all the way i nto Asia, these capacities will be present on the basis of bi rth. The population of the Central countries cannot acqu ire the eugenic occult potentialities through 99

b i rth, but may acq u i re them i n the course of their l ives i f they become apprenti ces of the people of the E ast. I t is i n this way that these capac ities w i l l be d i stributed. The peopl e of the East w i l l have not the l east capac i ty for material occultism; they w i l l be able to receive th i s only when i t is given to them , when it i s not kept secret from them . It w i l l al ways be possi ble to

keep it secret, especially when the others are so stupid as not to bel ieve in thi ngs that are asserted by a person who is i n a position to see i n to them. In other words the people of the E ast and those of the Central countries w il l h ave to receive material occultism from the West. They wi ll receive its benefits, its products. Hygie n i c occu l tism w i l l develop pri marily i n the Central countries, and eugenic occu ltism i n the E astern lands. It w i l l be n ecessary, however, for i n ter com munication to ex ist between people. T h i s i s someth ing that m ust be taken up i n to the i m pe l l ing forces o f the soci al order o f the future. I t m a ke s it i mperative for people to see that they w i l l be a b l e to l ive in future throughout t h e world o n l y as total human beings. If an American shou ld w is h to l ive only

an American, a lthough he wou ld be able to

achieve the loftiest material resu lts, he would con demn himself to the fate of never p rogressi n g be yond earth ly evolution . If he shou l d not seek social relationsh i ps w i th the E ast, he woul d conde m n h i mself to bei ng bound w i th i n the earthly sphere after a certai n i n carnation, hau n ti ng the s phere of 100

the earth l i ke a ghost. The earth would be d rawn away from its cosmic connections, and al l these souls would have to be l ike ghosts. Correspond

i ngly, if the peop le of the Eas t should not take up the materialism of the West with thei r eugenic

occul t capacities that pull down the earth , the E astern man would lose the earth. He would be drawn i n to some sort of mere psych ic-spiritual �volution, and he wou ld lose the earth ly evolution. The earth would sin k away under h i m as it were, and he wou ld not be able to possess the fruit of the earthly evolution. Mutual confi dence among men in a profound i n ner sense is w hat m ust come about. This i s mani fest through thei r remarkable future evolution. With i n the i n tell igent m inds of those centers of the West, a pur pose exists to foster things only in the way i n which they can foster them. I t is not the busi ness of Westerners to pay particular attention to w hat is evolving in the E ast from the v iewpoint of the E astern person; w hat evolves among others must s i m ply be l eft to those others. This is someth ing that must be inscri bed deeply u pon our souls, that we arrive at a point here where gu i l t or i nnocence or s i m i lar concepts lose the i r sign i ficance, w here the fact to bear in m ind is that we m ust take these thi ngs in with the utmost earnestness, i n the profoundest sense of the word, for the reason that these th ings embody a knowl edge that alone is capable of passing over i nto the gu idance of hu manity i n the future. 101

These thi ngs are of great i m portance, and i t i s important that we should view them i n a certa i n way. Just consider that I have tol d you that three k i nds of occul t capaciti es w i l l evolve and w i l l intertwine over the e ntire earth , d i fferentiated accord i ng to d i fferent peoples, i n harmony w i th those of the West, of the C entral countries, a n d of the East. I have sai d , indeed, that they w i l l so intertw ine that the people of the West w i l l possess the potential ities of material occu ltism from b i rth, but will be able to acq u i re hygie nic occultism; that those of the M iddle cou ntries w i l l possess through bi rth primarily the pote ntial i ty for hygie n i c oc cultism, but will be able to acq u i re for themselves - if it i s given to them - a material occul t i sm from the West and a eugen i c from the E ast; that those of the E ast w i l l possess from b i rth the po tentiality for eugenic occu ltism , b ut w il l be able to acqu i re for themselves from the M id d l e cou n tries hygi en ic occultism. These capac i ties appear d i fferen tiated, d istri buted among the humanity of the worl d , b u t a t t he same time i n such a way that they i ntertw i n�. Th rough this intertw i n i ng w i l l the fu ture soc i a l bond o f community l i fe be deter m i ned throughout

the world. But there are h i n d ra nces agai nst t h e development of these capaci ti es. These h i n d ra n ces are man ifold i n character, and the i r actio n is really comp l icated . For example, in the case of the people of t h e Central countries a n d the Eastern lands i t i s a n 102

i m portant hindrance to the evolution of these capacities, especially the i r evolution in a know i ng way, when strong antipathies against the people of the Western countries are active w i th i n them. Then these thi ngs cannot be viewed objectively. This is a hindrance in the evolution of these capacities. But the potential ity of develop i ng another occult ¢apacity is also even strengthened in a certain way if it is developed out of a certain i nstinct of hatred. This is a strange phenomenon . We often ask ourselves, and we are deali ng here with someth i ng that must be considered quite objectively, why such senseless abuse h as been practiced in the Western countries. This also comes out of the i nsti nct ten d i ng toward these capacities. For what �onstitutes the profoundest i m pel l i ng forces i n Western -occultism i s fostered b y nothi ng more powerfu l ly than by the development of feelings that are untrue but are sensed as i n some way holy, �_nd that can represent the people of the East and espec ially those of the Central countries as bar barians. The potentialities of material occultism, for example, are fostered by the attitude of m i nd constituti ng the so-called crusad i ng temperament in A merica. This consists in the feel ing that A mer ica is called to spread over the whole earth free dom and justice and I know not what other beauti ful thi ngs. Of course, the peop le there believe that. What I am saying here has nothing to do with fault finding. The p eo p le bel ieve that they are engaged 103

in a crusade, but th is bel ief i n somet h i n g false con stitutes a su pport working in a certa i n d i rection. If a person shoul d consciously make an u n true state m ent, he wou ld not have th is support. For this reason, w hat i s now happeni ng is tre m e ndously helpfu l on the one side and a h i n d rance on the other i n the development of those capac ities that we m ust assert to be still late n t at the p resent time i n the case of most i ndividuals who b ear w i t h i n themselves the w i l l toward evolution i n the future and are destined to i n fluence p rofo u n d ly t h e social structure of h uman ity. Just th i n k how everyth i ng that is happen i ng at the present time is rendered l u m i nous and trans parent with understand i ng a n d i ns i gh t w he n you fix your attention u pon those backgroun d s, and real ize clearly that the subconscious i nstincts dealt with i n our reflections l ie back o f everyth i ng that is constantly uttered today i n a consc ious way. The most i mportant fact i n th i s con n ection, how ever, is that it is precisely the E ngli sh -speak i ng peoples who, by reason of q u i te spec i al evolution ary processes, possess occu l t c e n ters w h e re these th i ngs are known. It is also known what capaci ties they w i l l possess in future as members of the E ngl ish-speaki ng population, and what capaci ties they w i l 1 lack. They know how they m ust arrange the social structure in order that they m ay be a b l e to subject to thei r pu rposes what is defi c i e n t i n them. It is the i nsti ncts that work in the d i rection of such things, and these instinc ts h ave al ready ex104

erted the ir i n fl uence. They have exerted an enor mous i n fluence, a h igh ly sign i ficant i n fluence. One especially usefu I means that can be set i n motion by Western occ u l tism when things are to be d i rected into the wrong chan nels consists in so i nfluencing the E ast that it shall continue to hold fast in future to its ancient inclination toward the development of rel i gion alone w ithout sci ence. The leaders of Western secret c i rcles w i l l take pains to see that noth ing shall e x ist i n their own regions consti tuting mere religion or mere science, b ut that there shall be a synthesis of both, the recipro cal i nfluen ce of k nowledge and faith. They will also take pai ns to see that this scie nce shall work only in secret, that it shall permeate, for example, only the more i m po rtan t affairs of humanity and the pol i ti cal guidance of the world through the achievement of world dom i n ion by the British. Contrari w ise, if the E ast refrains as completely as possible from permeating religious conceptions with science, this w i l l be enormously helpfu l in the spread of this world domi n ion. N ow j ust consider how everything Russian fa vors precisely this Western effort. The aspi ration to be p ious still conti nues in Russia, bu t not an

aspi ration to permeate the content of this p iety w i th a scie nce of the spi rit. The aspiration re mains i n a certain way within an unclear mysti cism, w h i c h would constitute an excellent means for supporti ng the domin ion over the. East that is w i l led by the West. F rom another po i n t of view, what is u ndertaken 105

is to render science, wh ich belongs to the earth, as theistic as possib le. Just here the futu re of the English-speaking peoples h as been most fru i tful in recent times. They have ach ieved someth ing tremendous by spread i ng th roughout t he world , i n

a fundamental sense, th eir sc i e n ti fi c tre n d , that is, science void of religion , atheistic science. T h i s h as b_ecome th e ruling power over the w hole earth. Goetheanism, which is the opposite of this, quite co nsc i ou s ly its opposite, could not develop even i n the cou nt ry o f Goethe hi msel f. I t i s an almost unknown affair in Goethe's own land! The domin ating intellect in science today is kept com pletely harmonious with what i s i n te n d ed to become pub licly m an i fes t as the external ex pression of th at science practiced by those ci rcles in secret. They are, however, practiced· there as a synthesis be tween science and rel igion . Thus there i s atheistic science for the external worl d , but for the i nner

circles that are to gui d e the course of wor l d eve n ts there is a science that also constitutes religion,

a!'ld a rel igion co n st i tu ti n g sc i e n c e

The East can be kept i n hand best of a l l i f a re l i gion without science can b e m a i n ta i n ed th e re.

The Central countries can be kept i n h a n d best i f

th e re can be grafted· upon them a sc i e n c e voi d o f rel igion, si nce religion can not b e grafted u po n them. These thi ngs are ai ded i n fu l l consciou sness by t hose who constitute the knowing ones w i t h i n the c i r c l es we have mentioned, and i n s tinct i v e ly by the others. S i n ce the ru l i n g powers o f t h e 106

Central countries, surviving from ancient times, have been swept away, there is nothing at present in the Central countries that can be put i n thei r place. This makes i t extraord i narily d i ffi cult, too , to form a correct judgment of the whole state of ��ings at present i n i ts world-historical setting. The whole world has been occupied with the question of gui lt and of causes i n connection with th is war catastrophe. But all th i ngs will be ill u mi nated only w he n we consider them against the background of the effective forces that do n�t come to man i festation in the external phenomena. Precisely for the reasons that have been set forth today, i t is not possibl e to form opinions i n regard to these thi ngs accat·d i ng to the categories, the thought categories, w i th i n which judgments are general ly formed w h en the question of gui l t or innocence is raised . I am ful ly aware that at the present time, when Wilson has actually been called the Pope of the twentieth centu ry, not i n a d isparaging but in an approving sense o n the ground that he is jus tifiably the lay Pope of the twentieth century I am well aware that even i n the Central countries a con fused j udgment will gradually develop in regard to the cour�e of this "war," as it is called, for the reason that the correct statements of the questions are overlooked. E very document will confirm what I a m saying, but they must be viewed i n the l ight of what underlies them. It is most of al l necessary to be able to form a judgment, -

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wh ich cannot be reached in this case by anyone except the person who can throw some l ight u po n these thi ngs from beyond the th reshold . I fear that the events now occurring day by day, we m ight say, will cause i ncreasingly false methods o f j u d g ment to become p revalent, that an i nc re as i ngly small num ber of persons w i ll be inclined to d eal with the questions in such a way as to p roduce fruitful results. I suppose that peopl e w i l l h ave curious ideas when they are i n formed now, for ex amp le, by the p ress - this m ight or m ight not be true - that the abdicated German Kaiser says, "I was really not even present w hen the war b eg an ; I was really not present at al l . This was done by Bethman and Jagow! They d id this." (You h ave probably read this i n the most recent pape rs . ) It i s , naturally, u nheard o f that s u c h a state me n t has been made b y this mouth, obviously u n heard ofl But secretly influenced j udgments , w h i ch are pushed into false ways by such th in gs, are prese n t everywhere. You see, what i t· is necessary to bear in mind in this connection is that we m ust really give thorough consideration to the facts i n order to be able to state the righ t questions. I f w e real ize this, we shal l then see that w e shou l d not view so su perficial ly as is generally done the p rofo u n d , tragic necessity lyi ng at the bottom of th is c atas trophe. Even the superficial events m u s t n ot be viewed superficial ly. I will cal l your attention to an i nstance a n d y o u will see immed iately why I select s u c h a n i n d i v id ual detail. Some ti me ago I u ndertook to m ake it 108

clear to you that many sequences of events, se q ue nc es of facts, took p lace in Germany that be yond dou bt might really have led to th e war but

were then broken off and did not lead to the war, whereas what actually led to the war did not have any real con nection with these other th ings. I will not repeat today what I have already said to you in this connection. I should like, however, to have you consider one thi ng in order that you may see how in the course of world history, things that serve as external symptoms coincide, we might say, whereas the great affairs of · which I have spoken to you today are behind these. The question m ight be raised whether the whole war catastrophe, as it has come about since July or August 1914 , might under certain c ircu mstances have ta k e n a different course. I shal l not enter at present into the question whether or not this catastrophe as such could have been avoided - we shall have to turn to another page for that - but I will raise the question whether this catastrophe might have taken a d i fferent cou rse .

N ow, it m i gh t have taken a d ifferen t course. This is entirely conceivable although there is noth ing more than a methodological value in such statements after the event. It is entirely conceiv able, both on the basis of the events and also on the basis of the occult backgrounds, that the whole catastrophe might have taken a different course. We h ave to form judgments according to a series of strata. What I am saying is val id only as regards a certa i n stratu m of the facts. With in this

109

stratum of the fac ts, someth i ng l ike the followÂ ing migh t be arrived at in our j udgment. We m ight say that it is conceivab l e that the war m ight h ave begu n i n 1 9 1 4 in such a w ay that the German army would have m arched toward the East and

there

woul d

h ave

been

a time of

waiting to see whether a beg i n n i n g of war i n the East would have led likewise to war in the West. It is conceivable that the mai n body of the German army m ight h ave been led against Russia and a mere defensive pos i ti on taken up in the West, and that the Germans wou l d then have waited to see w hether or not the French, who

were not bound in such a case by any treaty, would have attacked. The French would have had no obligation imposed u pon them by a treaty at that moment if there h ad been no declaration of war in the East but the Germans had simply waited for the Russian armies actually to attack. They would certainly have attacked; there can be no doubt that they wou ld have attacked. I do not deny that a different hypothesis might h ave been

valid five years earli er, pointing in a different direction, but this was no longer possible in 1914. Within this stratu m of t h e facts i t i s possible to conceive that the war might h ave taken its main direction toward the East. This might h ave been possible. Yet, as things were, it was i m p ossible. I n spite of everything, it w as still actually im possible for the reason that there was no plan of campaign

110

with reference to the E ast. The idea had never been conceived that the event, the casus belli, could take place in any other way than that Germany woul d be provoked into an attack against Russia, and that the condition attach ing to the treaty between Russia and France would thus apply to F ra nce, so that Germany would have to wage a war on two fronts. Under the influence of the axiom that had taken form i n the German system of strategy from the begi nning of the twentieth century, every consideration began with the idea that this war on two fronts could not be conducted i n any other way than offensively. The only plan of cam paign existing was to force France i nto a separate peace by means of a sudden invasion toward the V>fest through BelÂ giu m - th is was certainly an illusion, but such i l lusions existed - and then to hurl the masses of the army toward the E ast. Now , I beg you to consider the nature of such a plan of strategy. Every detail for every day is calculated. There i s an exact calculation as to how long it is permissible to wait from the day when the Russian general mobi lization occurs u ntil the first com mand is given for German mobilization , which cannot then be delayed but must continue furth er, because the Russian general m ob i l i za t i o n con s t i t u tes t h e first impetus. O n the day thereafter, the second day thereafter, and the third day thereafter, th is must take place. If there is a delay for a single day 111

after the Russian general mob i l ization . the entire plan is thrown into confusi on a n d can n o longer be carried out. It is thi s that I beg you to consider. Such a thing as this therewi th took its course, which was actually decisive at a moment when there was absolutely no Central E u ro pean policy. This is naturally the essential p o i n t: there was no Central European poli cy. For von B ethman still continues today to talk n on sen se. People were in despair when Bethman u ttered h i s m ost u nbeliev able and impossible statements i n the German Reichstag, and he cont i nues stil l to u tter them. There was absolutely no poli cy , b u t o n ly strategy, b� a strategy developed on the basis of one per fectly definite continge n t even t . H ere it was not possible to change anythi ng. Here n oth i n g could be changed even with respect to the hour. In other words, I beg you to reflect that it was not necessary according to the e x te r n al causative circumstances for anyone i n Germany to w ish for a war; it had to occur i n any case. I t was not at all necessary to wish for i t. I beg you to give attention to th is fact. I� had to beg i n for the s i m p l e reason that, the moment Russia i ssued the order for ge n eral mobi l i zation, the thought arose i n the mind of the German Commander- i n-Ch ief, q u ite auto matically and i nevitably, " N ow I m ust mobilize." F rom that point on , everythi n g p roceeded auto matically. This by no means occurred for the reason that it had been w i l led. I t occu rred for the reason that it had been prepared years before.

112

The attack through Belgi u m against France was to fol low q u i te automatically upon the Russian

general mob il ization becau se this was considered the only rational thi ng to do. The Kaiser could not be told this for the reason , as I have already re lated to you , that people knew he was so indiscreet that, if this were said to h i m today, the whole world would know i t tomorrow. The fact that the attack was to be t hrough Belgium he learned first at the actual time of mobil i zation. Such things as this have happened many t im es. I beg you to give consideration to these thi ngs, and you will then say to yourselves that it was certainly not at all necessary for a nyone i n si d e Germany to will it. The war had to occur. I say this, however, on the cond ition that we shall remain w i th i n th is stratum �f facts. You m ay n aturally pass over to a d ifferent �tratum of the facts, bu t there you become i nvolved in complicated q uestions. The facts are suc h that something great that becomes a catastrop h e for h u m an ity, reminds us of the story of the good Rector Kaltenbrunner that I related to you in con nection with Hamer l ing. Recall how I related this to you . I said to you that, i f we let our m i nd s rest u po n the poetic per sonali ty of Robert Hamerl i n g and understand h i m , we shall say to ourselves that what is effec tive i n this personality is . d u e i n great measure to the fact that he went to Trieste at a certain defi nite ti me as a teacher in a German secondary school and that he was able to go from there on 1 13

vacations to Ven i ce. I n other words, that h e came

to the shore of the A d riati c. The whole in ner structure of soul of this Hamerl i ng is due to the fact that he was able to l ive i n Trieste on the Adri atic, as a teac her in a second ary schoo l . T h is was the only th i ng he could do accord i n g to the pre ceding cou rse of h i s development. How d i d he happen to go there? I told you that w h il e he was a substitute teacher i n G raz, he wrote an appl ica tion for a position that had become vacant i n Bud apest. Now, just consider th i s. H e sent a n appl ica tion there. If the official had received th is and ap proved it, Ham.erl i ng wou ld have spent the whole ten years in Budapest. His en ti re poetic personal ity would have been e l i m i n ated ; it wou l d not h ave ex isted. Anyone who knows this personal i ty knows that th is is true. How did it come about that he d i d not go to Budapest, but to Trieste? The good Rector Kalte n b ru n ne r to whom the a p p l ica tion had first to be d e l i vered forgot a l l about the matter and left the appl ication i n h is d esk d rawer so long that the posi tion i n B u dapest was fi l led . After the position was

fi lled and Hamerl ing said ,

"Good Heavens! I should have been s o happy to get that position i n Budapest!" the good Recto r Kalten brun ner blushed and sai d , "Bless my sou l ! I completely forgot you r app l i c ation . It i s sti l l lyi ng i n m y desk d rawer." S o H amerl i n g was saved from going to Budapest. The next time that Hamerl i ng appl ied for a pos i tion in T rieste, the good Rector Kal ten brun ner, i n the l i ght of the p re1 14

ced i ng occurrence, d id not forget to pass on the appl ication. Hamerl i ng carne to Trieste and there by became the H arnerl ing. Now I ask you whether the good Rector Kaltenbrunner gave Hamerling his p lace in the world ·as a poet. Yet there is no other primary cause among the external phe nomena to exp l ain thi s except that H amerling became the real Hamerl i n g through the fact that the good K al tenbrun n er, Rector in Graz in Steier mark, blundered. The simple fact is that it is pos sible to get under the surface of things only when we practice sy mptomatology. This guides us to the correct estimate of the external phenomena and to seeing w hat stands behind the symptoms. Th is is the really i mportant point. This is what I should l ike to arrive at more and more. When we survey the catastrophe of the present time, it is by no m eans a simple m atter to find <>ur way out of all the confusion. Just consider the great difficulty we face . Su ppose that Lord Grey should u ndertake to prove, on the basis of the ex ternal documents alone, that he was entirely free of blame in connection with the outbreak of the war. Of cou rse, th is is the easiest thing in the world to prove. On the basis of the external docu ments it is possible to present the most convincing evidence that the British Govern ment was not in any way to blame for the outbreak of this war. But what matters i n all cases is the question as to how much weigh t attaches to this evidence. You can get u nder the surface of these things only if 1 15

you state the question as I have stated i t h ere before you for a number of years. "Wou l d it hav e been possible, for example, for the B r i tish Gov ernment to prevent the i nvasion of Belgiu m?" Then you must say, "Yes, it would have been able to do so." That is just what I demanded in my Memorandum, that unadorned facts shou l d be presented to the world. These would n aturally have brought it about that the gentleman who has now deserted and gone to Holland wou l d even then have been obliged in some way to vani sh . Perhaps this has something to d o w i th t h e fact that my Memorandum has rece i ved so l ittle fa vorable response even in the case of those who could have formed a judgment of i t. B ut I d e manded that the events should be n arrated from minute to minute - unadorned, w i thout a n y coloring - the events that occurred at the same time in Berli n and in London between 4 :30 Satur day afternoon - Saturday afternoon, you k n ow, mobilization was ordered in Berli n at about 4:30 , between 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and 10:30 that night. These decisive events, i nto wh i c h nothing enters of a l l those thi ngs about w h i ch t h e world h as talked, afford the proof i f they are simply narrated , that it would h ave been possi ble for the British Government to prevent the i nvas ion of Belgium. It was not prevented . For t h at reason at 10:30 Saturday n ight, the o n ly com mand to which H is Majesty had aroused h i ms elf, contrary to the will of German strategy, thi s only '

116

command, that the army should be halted , that it should not be m ad e to m arch toward the West but should be made to take a defensive posi ti on i n the West - this sole order was countermanded at about 10:30 Saturday n i gh t, and the old strategy was ad hered to. B u t the events must, then, be truly related from m i n ute to m inute, the facts merely narrated , w h i c h occurred between SaturÂ day afternoon at 4:30 and Saturday n ight at apÂ proxi mately 10:30. From this there w ill then naturally resul t an enti rely d ifferent p icture. Most im portant of all it w i l l lead to the correct formul ation of q uestions. I t i s to be feared that the public in all parts of the world w i l l permit itself to be i n fluenced by what is d iscovered i n the arch i ves, but the particÂ ular decisive facts that occurred between 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and 10:30 Saturday n i ght, w il l probably never find thei r way out of the archives to the world . They have apparently never even been w r i tten down; that is, they have actually been written down but in such a way that the writings w i l l never be foun d in the arch ives. You see it is disc retion i n forming j udgments that must also be attai ned . I f th is d i scretion in form ing judgments can be gai ned i t w i l l be a great help toward the development of those latent capacities of which I have spoken to you today, which must develop i n the future of humanity, differentiated in a threefold way in the various parts of the world . You w i l l then discover that

117

what I described to you a week ago

the o n ly

justifiable solution of the social pro b l e m so far

we can speak today i n the sense i n d i cated of such

solution, was by no means developed from mere intellectual ideas as an abstract program.

1 18

IV SOCIAL AN D ANTISOCIAL INSTINCTS

n my last lecture I expressly emphasized that

a condition constituting a paradise - if we may use the word again as

I employed it then

is im

possible on the physical plane. For this reason, all so-called solutions of the social problem, which purpose more or less consciously or unconsciously to bring about such a lasting paradisaical state upon the physical plane, rest necessarily upon il lusions. It is in the light of this assertion that I beg you to receive the explanations I give in regard to the characteristic phenomena of the present time because there certainly exists in the actual

ity of our time a definite demand for the social shaping of humanity's relationships. The thing

that matters is that this question shall not be made abstract, that the question sh�ll not be taken in an absolute sense, but - as, indeed, I said to you the last time - that we shall develop on the basis of spi ritual-scientific knowledge an insight into precisely what is necessary for our time. We shall now have someth ing to say in re gard to just what is necessary for today as consid-

119

ered in the l ight of the presuppositions of spirit ual science. W hen social problems or social dem ands are d iscussed today. what is generally most com pletely overlook.ed is the fact that the social pro blem cannot really be grasped at all i n a manner su ited to the requi rements of our times without a more inti �ate knowledge of the being of m an. No matter what social programs are thought out, no m atter what ideal social conditions w e may desire to bring about, if the point of departure i s not an understand ing of the h uman being as such, if the objective is not in accQrdance w i th the m ore inti mate knowledge of man, everything w i l l remain fruitless. I have pointed out to you that the social organization of w hich I h ave s poken , this three fol d social organ ization that I h ave been i mpelled to present as the i mportant deman d of our time, is val id for the present age for the reason that it cen ters attention upon the knowledge of the human being in every si ngle detail. T h is is a knowledge of man in his present nature i n this actual point of time within the fi fth p<;>st-Atlantean epoch. It i s from this poi nt o f view that I b e g you to consider all the explanations that I shall p resent. The foremost consideration is the fact that such a social order as is demanded by contemporary conditions cannot be establ ished apart from a conscious knowledge of the requ i re m ent that man shall be aware of h i mself in h is relationshi p to what is social.

120

We may say that, of all forms of knowledge, the knowledge of the h u m an being h imsel f is decid edly the most d ifficult. Thus, in the ancient mys teries, "Know thyself' was set up as the loftiest goal for human endeavor. What is especially diffi cult for the hu man being today is the realization of all that works within h i m out of the cosmos, of how much i s at work w i th i n h i m . S ince man has become especially easy-going today precisely i n h i s thinki ng, in h i s conceptions, he l ikes best o f all to conceive of h i msel f in the simplest way possi ble. But the actual truth is that man is by no means a simple being. By means of mere arbi trary conceptions noth ing whatever can be ac compl ished conce r n ing this reality, and in social relationships, likew ise, man is by no means a sim ple bei ng. Precisely in social relationships_he is such a being, w e m ight even say, as he would ardently des i re not to b e; he woul d prefer with the utmost intensity to be d i fferent from what he is. It may be sai d that the h uman being is really extra ordinarily fond of h i m self. Th is cannot possibly be questioned. The h u man being is extraordinar i ly fond of h i mself and i t is th is self-love that causes man to transform self-knowledge into a source of i l lusions. For instance, a man prefers not to ad m i t that he is only a half-way social being and that to the extent of the other half he is anti social. Now, a matter-of-fact and positive admission that man is at the same time a social and an anti121

social being is a fu ndamental requirement for a social knowledge of human ity. A person may very wel l say, " I asp i re to become a soc ial bei ng." I n deed , he must say this, since, if he is not a social bei ng, he sim p ly can not l ive ·rightly w i th his fel low men. Yet it is characte ristic of human nature at the same time to struggle constantly in opposi tion to what is social, to rema i n conti n uously an antisocial bei ng. We have repeated ly, from the most varied poi nts of view, consid ered the human being in accord ance with the th reefold c haracter of h i s soul, ac cord i ng to th i n k i ng, or conce ivi ng, fee l i ng and willing. Today we may also thus cons ider him i n h is social relationships from th is poi nt o f view. Foremost of all, we m ust see c l early as regards conceiving, th inki ng, that in this i nner activ i ty there is a source of the antisocial i n the h u m an bei ng that is tremendously sign i ficant. � h ro ugh the fact that man is a th i n k i n g bei ng, he is a n ti social. In this matter only the science of the s p i r i t has any access to the truth of things because i t i s

only the science o f t h e spirit that c a n cast l ight upon the question as to how w e stand in general as human bei ngs related to other human beings. When is the righ t relationship established, then , between man and man for the o rd i nary everyday consciousness - or, better expressed . for the ord i nary everyday l ife? Wel l , when t h i s right relationship between m a n a n d man i s estab l ished, undoubtedly the soci a l orde r a l so i s the n

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existent. But it is a curiou s fact - we m ight say unfortu-n ately, but the one w h o knows says neces sari ly - that we develop a r ight relationshi p be tween man and man only in sleep. O n ly w hen we are asleep do w e establ ish a true and straight forward relationsh i p between man and man. T h e moment y o u t u r n your back on t h e ord inary day consciousness w h i le you are i n the state of d ream less sleep between fal l ing asleep and waki ng, you are then, with regard to your thinking - and I speak now solely w ith regard to conceiving and thin k i ng - a social bei ng. T he moment you awake, you begin to develop through your concep tual l i fe, th rough your think i ng, antisocial im pulses. I t is really necessary to real ize how com plicated h u man relationsh ips in society become through the fact that a person takes the r ight re lationsh i p toward other persons only i n sleep. I have i ndicated this in various ways from other points of view. I have pointed out, for example, that a person can be thoroughly chauvin istic while awake, but that, w hen he is asleep, he is placed actually in the m idst of those persons, is associated \Yith those persons, especial ly with their fol k spir it, w hom he hates most of al l w h i l e awake. Against

�his fact noth ing can be done. S leep is a social leveler. But, since modern science is unwilling to know anyth i ng whatever about sleep, i t w ill be a long time before sc i ence w i ll accept what I have just sa id.

We enter th rough ou r th i n k i ng into still an123

other antisocial stream in the w a k i n g state. Sup pose you stand face to face w i th a p e rson . I n truth we confront al l hu m an b e i n gs o n ly t h rough con fronting i ndividual person s . You are a thi nking h uman bei ng, n atu ral ly, s i n c e y o u wou l d not be human if you were not a t h i n k i n g b e i ng. I am speaking now only about th i n k i ng; we shall speak l ater about feeling an d w i l l i n g. F ro m t h e point of view of feeling and w i l l i n g some o bjection might be raised, but w hat I am n o w s ayi n g is correct as regards the stan d po i n t o f conce i v i n g . W hen you stand as a conceivi n g, t h i n k i ng h u m a n being in the presence of another perso n , it is a strange fact that the reciprocal rel at i o ns h i p that comes about_ between man and man b r i ngs i n to e x i s tence in you r subconsciousness the ten d e n cy to be put to sleep by the other person . Y o u are actually put to sleep i n you r subconsciousness b y the other per son. This is the normal rel atio n s h i p b etween man and man. When you come togethe r , the one strives - and, natu ral ly, the relation s h i p is reci procal to put to sleep the subconscious o f the other. What m 1.,1st you do, therefore. as a t h i n k i ng person? (Of course, everyth ing t h at I a m tel l i n g you takes place i n the subconscious. I t i s a fact even if it does not arise i n to ord i n ary consciou sness . ) Thus, when you come into the p resence of a person, he puts you to sleep; that is, h e p u ts you r th inking to �Je�p, not you r feel i ng and w i l l i n g. N ow, i f you wish to conti nue to be a th i n k i n g h u m an being, you must defend yourse l f i nwardly against th is.

124

You must activate your th i n king. You have to take defensive measures against being put to sleep. Confronting another person always means tha� we _must force ourselves to awake; we must wake u p; we must free ourselves from w hat this person wills

to do to us. Such thi ngs actually occur in l i fe, and we actu ally comprehend l ife only when we view it in a spi ritual-scientific w ay. I f you speak to a person, or even if you are merely in the company of a person, this means that you must continuously keep yourself awake against h i s endeavor to put you to sleep i n your th i n k i ng. Of course, th is does not come into the ordi nary consciousness, but it works within the h u man being. It works in h im as an antisocial i m pulse. I n a certain sense every person confronts us as an enemy of conceptual l i fe, as an enemy of our t h i n k i ng. We must de'fend our th i n k i ng agai nst the other person. This re quires that we are in great measure antisocial bei ngs as regards our conceptual life, our think ing, and can become social beings only by educa ting ourselves. If we were not compelled con stantly to p ractice this protection, to which we are compelled through the necessity with i n wh ich we live - if we d i d not have to practice constantly this protection agai nst the other person, we could be social hu man bei ngs in our th inking. But, since we must p ractice this, it i s of utmost importance for us to realize p erfectly clearly that it is possible for us to become social beings, to become such

125

th rough

self-d i sc i p l i ne,

but

that

th inki ng

human beings w e are not actually soc ial al ready. From th is fact it becomes clear that no asser tions whatever can be m ad e rega r d ing the social question without i nvestigating the l i fe of the soul and the fact that man i s a thi n k i ng b e i ng because the social question penetrates i nto extremely inti mate matters in h u m a n l i fe. W hoever does not take account of the fact that man s i m p ly develops antisocial impulses when h e th i n ks w ill arrive at no clarity i n regard to the social p roblem. Duri ng slee p th i n gs are easy for us. F i rst of all, we are simply sleeping. T here, in other words, bridges can be bu i lt con n ecting a l l men. I n the waking state the other person , as he confronts us, seeks to put us to sleep in order that a b r i dge may be bu ilt to h im, and w e do the sam.e to h i m. But we must protect ourselves aga i nst t h i s. O therwise we should simply be deprived of our thi n k i ng con

sciousne�s in our i ntercourse w ith h u m a n beings.

Thus it is not so easy to e n u n c i ate social de mands si nce most person s w ho set forth social de mands do not become at a l l consci ous of the depth to which the antisocial is rooted in h u man nature. People are least of-all i nclined to state such th i ngs to themselves as self-knowledge. I t m ight become easy for them if they wou l d s i m ply ad m it, not that they alone are antisocial b e i ngs, but that they pos sess this qual ity in common w ith all other per sons. Even when a person adm i ts that human bei ngs are in general antisoc i al beings as think126

ers, everyone, as regards h i mself, secretly cl ings to the reservatio n that he is an exception. Even if he does not state this fully to h i mself, yet there always shines d i m ly and secretly in his consciousness the thought that he is an exception and the others are antisocial beings as th i nkers. The truth is that it becomes exceedi n gly d ifficult for people to take seriously the fact that i t is not possible as a m an to be someth ing, but i t is sti l l always possible as a man to become someth i ng. This is a fact, however, that has a special and fundamental connection w i th those things that can be learned i n our time. I t is really possible to day, as one woul d not h ave been willing to do ·five or six years ago, to point out that certain i njuries and deficiencies i n h u m a n nature that have made themselves perfectly obvious exist in all parts of the world. Peopl e stri ve to delude themselves in regard to th is n ecessi ty of becoming somethi ng. Most of all they endeavor to call attention to what they are, not to what they w i l l to become. For in stance, you will fin d that a great number of per sons belonging w i th i n the E ntente and the A- mer icans think w i th i n the l i m its of what they are simply by reason o f the fact that they belong to the E ntente or to A merica. T hey do not need to become someth i n g. They need only to point out how d i fferent they are from the ev il human beings of the Central E u ropean countries, show ing how b lack they are, whereas they alone are white. This is somethi ng that has spread an i llu127

sion regard ing hu man bei ngs over v as t areas of the earth and it will i nevitably i n the c o u rse of time bring a terrible penalty. T h i s h a b i t of w i l l i ng to be something and not w i l l i n g to become some thing _i s an element kept i n t h e backgroun d

opposition to the science of the s p i r i t. The science of the spirit cannot do oth erw ise t h a n to ca11 the

atte n t ion of people to the fact that it is n ecessary constantly to become some t h i n g a n d that a person simply cannot be so m e sort of fi n ished thi ng. People deceive themselves i n a te r r i b l e way about themselves when they bel ieve t h ey can point to someth i ng absolute that d eterm i n es a sort of spe

cial perfection in th e i r case. I n m a n everyth ing not in the process of b ecom i n g e v i d e n ce s an i m-

perfection. What I have said to you regard ing the human being as th i n ker, a n d rega r d i ng t h e anti soc i al impulses begotten by h i m as s u c h , h as stil l another i m portant aspect. Man alternates i n a way b e tw een the social and the antisocial, j u st

he a l te r n ates b etween wak

ing and sleepi ng. We m ig h t even say that sleeping is social and wak i ng i s antisocial, a n d just as man must alternate between w a k i n g and sleeping i n order to l ive a w holeso m e l i fe , s o must he alter nate between the social and the antisoc i al. But it

is just th is fact that becomes conspi cuous when we reflect about h u man l i fe. For you see, a person may thus tend more or less tow a r d the one or the other, just as a person may tend more or less

toward sleeping or w a k i n g. T here are persons 128

who sleep beyond the normal amount. I n other words, they, in the cond ition of a swinging pendu lum in w h i ch the hu man being must be between sleeping and waki ng, sim ply tend toward one side of the scale. In the same way a person may culti vate w i th i n hi mself in greater measure either the social or the antisocial impulses. Men are in th is respect differentiated i n d ividually in that one cultivates more the social and another the anti social i m p u lses. If we possess a knowledge of human bei ngs i n any measure, we can d ifferenti ate persons in this w ay. Now, I said that there is another aspect of this matter. The antisocial in us is connected with the fact that we· p rotect ourselves in a certain way against being put to sleep. But something else is connected w ith this. I t m akes us i l l. Even if no ticeable d i seases d o not arise from this cause but even such noticeabl e d iseases do often arise yet the antisocial n ature of man belongs among the causes of i l l ness. Thus i t w i l l be easily intelli gi ble to you that the social nature of man at the same time possesses a heal ing qual i ty, something that gives l i fe. But you see from all th is how ex traord i n ary h u man n ature is. A person cannot heal h i mself by means of the social elements in his nature without i n a certain way putti ng hi mself to sleep. As h e tears h i mself away from this social element, he strengthens h is thinking conscious ness, but becomes antisoc ial. But in this way he also lames h i s heal i n g forces, which are in his 129

subconsciousness, i n his orga n i s m . T h u s the social and antisocial i mpulses present in the human being produce their effects even to the �x tent of determining a sound or an i l l constitution of life. One who develops a k n o w l ed ge of m a n i n this d irection will be able to trace a great n u m ber of more or less genuine i l ln esses back to h is anti social nature. The state of i l l n es s depends, much more than is supposed, u po n t h e a ntisoc ial nature of man , especially as regards those i l ln esses that are often genuine but that m a n ifest themselv.es outwardly in some such t h i n g as m o o d iness, in all sorts of sel f-torturi ng, tor tu r i ng of others, and in the struggle to get th rough someth i ng d isagree able. A l l such th ings are c o n ne cted w ith an un sound organ i c constitution, a n d they gradually develop when a person is strongly i nc l i n ed toward antisocial impulses. In any c ase, i t ought to be en ti rely clear that an i mportant mystery of hu man life i's here concealed. T h i s mystery of l i fe, im portant both for the teach e r and also for man's self -education if it is ·k n o w n i n a l iv i n g and not merely theoretic way, means that a person ac quires the inclination to take h i s o w n l i fe stren uously in hand, to think about m asteri ng the anti -social element i n order to reach the m astery of it. Many persons woul d cure themselves not only of their moodiness but a l so of al l k i n d s of ai l ments if they would thoroughly i nvestigate their own anti social impulses. But thi s m u st be done i n a serious way. This must be done w i thout self l ove because 130

it is someth i ng of the u tmost i mportance for our lives. This is what m ust be said i n regard to the social and the antisocial elements i n the human being in reference to h is conceptual l i fe, or his thi n k i ng. I n add i tion, man is a feel ing being, and there is someth i ng pecul i ar, i n turn, as regards his feel ings. In respect to feel ing man is also not so si m ple as he would l i ke to thin k. Fee l i ng between two human bei ngs, i n other words, shows a most para doxi cal pecu l i ar i ty. Feeli n g has the peculiar characteristic of being inclined to give us an u n true sentiment i n regard to the other person. The first i nclination i n the subconsciousness of a per son i n intercourse between human beings always consists i n the fact that an untrue senti ment arises i n h is subconsciousness regarding the other person. I n our li ves we m ust, first of al l , continu ally oppose th is u ntrue sentiment. O ne who knows life w i l l easily observe that those persons who are not i ncli ned to show an interest in other persons are really cri tical about almost all persons - at least after a certa i n t ime. This is really a peculi arity of a great m any persons. They l ove one per son or another for a certain length of time but, when this time h as passed, something is aroused in their nature and they begin in some way to he criti cal of the other, to hold somethi ng or other aga i nst h i m . O ften the person h i mself does not k now w hat he has against the other because these things take the i r course to a l arge extent i n sub-

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consciousness. This is due to the fact that the sub conscious simply has a tendency ac tually to falsify the picture that we form of the other person. We must learn to k now the other person m ore deeply, and we shall then see that we must e rase falsifi cation in the pictu re we h ave acq u i red of h i m . Paradoxical as i t may sou n d a good m a x i m to l ive by, even though there wou l d h ave to be excep tions, would be to endeavor a l w ays to correct in some way the image of the h u man b e i n g that be comes fixed in our subconscious, w h i c h h as the tendency to judge hu man b e in gs according to sympathies and anti path i es . E ve n l i fe i tsel f de mands this of us. Just as l i fe req u i res us to be thinking persons and we thu s beco m e antisocial , so does life - and what I am tell i ng you is based upon facts - demand that we judge accord ing to sympathies and antipath ies. B u t every ju dgment based upon sym path ies and anti pathies is falsi fied. There is no real judgment that is correct if it is formed accord ing to sym path ies and antipa th ies. S i nce the s u bconscious i n the feel i ngs is governed by sym p athy a n d anti pathy, it always sketches a false pi ctu re of the other person. We simply cannot form i n our su bconsc ious a true picture of h i m . To be sure, we often have a picture that is too favorable, but the p i c tu re is al ways formed accord ing to sy m path ies a n d antipath ies, and there is noth i n g we can do except si mply to ad m i t th i s fact and to ad m i t that, i n this regard also as human bei ngs, we s i m p ly cannot be some-

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thing but can o n ly become someth ing. E specially as regards ou r relationship in feeli ng w ith other individuals we m ust sim ply lead a " waiti ng" life. W e must not act i n accordan ce w ith the i mage of them that presses u pward out of the subconscious into consciousness. but we must endeavor to l ive with people, and we shall see that the social atti tude evolves out of the antisocial attitude that one really always has. For this reason it is of special i mportance to study the feel i ng l i fe of man to the extent that it is antisocial . Whereas the th i n king l i fe i s antisocial because he must protect h imself agai nst fall i ng asleep, the fee ling life i s antisocial because he governs his i n tercourse w ith other persons ac cord i ng to sympathy and antipathy, and from the begi n ning i njects false cu rrents of feeli n g i nto society. W hat comes from people through the i n fluence of sym pathies and antipathies is certain from the begi n n i ng to i nterj ect antisocial cur rents of l i fe i nto hu man society. Paradoxical as it m ay sou nd, we m ight say that a social com m u n i ty would be possible only if peo ple d id not l ive i n sympathies and antipath ies, but in that c ase they would not be human beings. You see clearly from this that man is at the same time a social and antisoci al being, and that w hat we call the "soci al" question requi res that we enter into intimate details of his nature. If we do not do so we shall never attain to a solution of the social ques tion for any period of time whatever. 133

As regards the w i l l acting between i nd i v i d u a l s it i s really stri king and paradox ical t o d i scove r w hat a com plicated being m an is. Y o u k no w , of course, that not only sy mpathies and anti path i e s play their roles i n the relations h i p between i n d i足 viduals as regards the w i l l

these d o a l s o to

the extent that we are feel i n g beings - but th at here i ncl inations and d isincli nations which pass

into action also play a role. T hat is, sym path ies and antipathies in action , i n the i r express i o n , i n

their manifestation, play a special role. O n e p er足 son is related to another person accord i ng to how he is influenced by h i s special sympathy tow a rd the person , the special d egree of love that h e b r i ngs to meet the other person. T here an unconscious i n 足

sp iration plays a strange role. F o r everyth i n g that envelops al l relationships i n w i l l between p eo p l e must b e viewed i n the l ight o f t h e i m pe l l i ng force that underl ies these volitional rel ationshi ps, that is, in the l ight of the love that p l ays its role i n greater or lesser degree. Indeed, i nd i v i d uals cause their will i mpu lses , wh ich are acti ve in th i s w ay from one to the other, to be susta i ned b y th i s love that is active between them . Regard i ng the feeling of love, people are subj ect i n preeminent degree to a great i l lusion, w h i c h re足 quires a greater measure of correction than t h e ordi nary sympath ies and antipathies i n the i r feelings. However strange i t m ay seem to t h e ordi nary consciousness, i t is e ntirely true t h a t the love man ifesti ng i tsel f between one perso n a n d 134

another, if it is not spiritualized - and love is ac tually seldom spi ritual ized i n ord inary life, even though I am not speaking merely of sexual love or love resting upon a sexual foundation, but in gen eral of the love of one person for another - is not really love as such, but an i mage the person makes of love. It is generally noth ing more than a terrible illusion, because the Jove one person bel ieves he feels toward another is for the most part nothing but self-love. A person supposes that he loves an other, but i n this love really is loving hi mself. You see here a source of an antisocial d isposition that must be the source also of a terrible self-deception. In other words, a person may suppose that he is giving himself up in an overwhel ming love for an other person, while he really does not love the other person at all. What he feels as a state of rapture in his own soul in association with the other person, what he experiences within h imself by reason of the fact that he is in the presence of the other per son, that he makes declarations of love, i f you please, to the other person - th is is what he really loves. In the whole thing the person loves h imself as he kindles this self-love in h is social relation ship with the other person. This is an important mystery in human l ife and it is of enormous i mportance. This love that a per son su pposes is real, but that is really only self love, self-seeking, ego ism, masked egoism - and in the great majority of cases the love that plays its role between people and is called love is only 135

masked egoism - i s the sou rce of th e greatest im aginable and the most w idespread antisocial im pu lses. Th rough th i s sel f-love masked as real love, a person becomes in preemi nent degree an anti social bei ng. He becomes an anti social being through the fact that he bu ries h i mself within, most of all when he is u naware of i t, or wishes to know nothing of it. Thus you see that the person w ho speaks about social demands, especially as regards contempo rary humanity, must consider ful ly such soul states. We must simply ask, ".How shall human beings arrive at any social structure in their com mon l i fe if they will not learn to u nderstand how much self-seeking is embod i ed in so-called love, in the love of one's neigh bor?" Thus love can actually become an enormously strong force worki ng in the d i rection of the anti social life. It may be asserted that a person, when he is not working upon h im se l f, w hen he does not undertake self-disci p l i ne, is i nvariably an anti social bei ng when he loves. Love as such , as it in heres in the nature of man, u n less the person is practicing self-disci pl ine, is predestined to be an tisocial, for it is exclusive. Once more, th i s is no criticism. Many of the req u i rements of l ife are connected with the fact that love must be exclu sive. In the very nature of th ings, a father w i l l love h i s own son more than a strange c h ild, but this is antisocial. If people assert, as the habit is nowadays, that man is soc ial, th is is nonsense; for 136

man is just as strongly antisoci al as he is social . Life itself makes h i m an tisoci al. For this reason , if you i magi ne such a state of parad ise estab l ished o n earth, which can never . exist but is striven for because people love the unreal always more than the real, i f we th ink of such a state of parad ise as hav i n g been estabÂ lished, or even suc h a s u per-parad ise as Len i n , Trotsky andÂˇ K u rt E isner wou l d have o n earth, innumerable i n d i v i d uals woul d within a short time be obl iged to oppose th is. It would not be possible for them to rema i n h u m an in it for the reason that o n ly the soci a l i m pulses would find satisfaction i n such a state, and the antisocial impulses wou ld i m m ed iately be aroused. This is just as i nevi table as it i s that a pendulum does not swing only toward one s i de. The moment we should estab l ish a state o f parad ise, the antisocial impulses would necessari ly be roused into action. If what Len i n , T rotsky and K u rt E isner desire should be real i zed , i t would be transformed i nto the opposite i n the bri efest possi b l e time th rough the action of the a n tisocial i m p u lses. T h is is si"mÂ ply the nature of l i fe . I t alternates between ebb and flow. If people do not u nde.rstand this, they s i m ply do not u n derstand a nyth i n g about the world. We frequently hear it said that the i deal of commu n i ty l i fe w i th i n a state is a democracy. Good! Let us assume that the i d eal of community life in a state is a d emocracy , b ut, should this be introduced anywhere, i n i ts last phase it would in-

1 37

evitably bring about its own destruction. The ten dency of democracy is inevitably such that, w hen the democrats are together, one is always endeav oring to overcome the other; the one al ways w ishes

to have h i s way against the other. T h i s goes w ith out saying. Transferred i nto the realm of real i ty, a democratic order leads

to the opposite side. T here

is no other possibil ity in l i fe. Democrac ies w i l l always, after a certain length of time, d i e as the result of their own democrati c natu re. These are things that are of enormous importance for an understanding of l i fe. Besides, there is the additional pec u l iarity that the most essentia l characteristics of man during the fifth post-Atl antean e poch are antisocial. The consciousness that is based u pon th i nk i ng must be developed during this period. For this reason this period will mani fest the antisoci a l impulses out wardly in max imum degree and th rough the very nature of man. T h rough these antisocial i m pulses, he will b ring about more or less d istressing con ditions. The reaction against the antisocial w i l l be mani fest, in turn, in the outcry in favor of social ism . It must be understood that ebb and flow al ways alternate. In the last analysis, suppose that you shou ld really socialize the com m u nity. T h is would b ring about such conditions in the relationsh i ps be tween individuals that we should a l l simply be forever asleep. Social i ntercourse would be a means for going to sleep. At present you can scarce-

1 38

ly imagine this because you w i l l not think out in a conc rete w ay how th i ngs would look in a so-cal led soc ial istic republic. B ut this soc ial istic republic wou ld actually be a great place of sleep for human conceptual capacities. We can understand that there are l ongi ngs for something of the kind, but longing for sleep is al ways present in many people. We must s i m p ly understand what the i n ner neces sities of l i fe a re, and m ust not content ourselves with w ishing for what s u i ts us or is pleasing to us because the th ing that a person does not possess i s generally pleas i n g to h i m . W hat h e has h e gener ally fa i l s to apprec i ate. From these considerations we see that, when we speak about the social p ro b lem, the most impor tant th ing of all is to i n vestigate the i nti mate ele ments in the n ature of man , and to learn thi s hu man nature in such a way that we learn how social and antisocial i m pu l ses often become entangled i n such knots a s t o c reate a c haos beyond c larifica tion. This is the reason w hy i t is so d ifficu l t to d is cuss the soc i al q u estion. This particular problem can scarcely be d iscussed in any way w hatever un less one has the i n c l i nation really to delve down in to the intimate characteristics of the human bei ng, for example, to go i n to the question of w hy the bour geoisie embody i n themsel ves an antisocial im pulse. The mere fact of belonging to the bourgeois class gives r ise to an tisocial i m pu lses, because being a member of the bourgeois class means es sentially that one c re ates a sphere in l i fe w here a

139

peaceful existence is possible. F ro m c lose i nvesti gation of th is aspiration of the bou rgeois, w e d is cover that, in accordance w i th p ec ul ia r i ties of ou r contemporary epoch, he w is he s to create for h i m self on an econom ic basis an i s l a n d of l i fe w h e re he can pass his time in sleep so far as s u rro u n d i n g conditions are concerned . w it h the s o l e exception of special l ife habits that h e ha s developed in ac cordance with his subjective a n t ip ath ies or sy mpa thies. Thus he does not crave the k i n d of sleep that is sought by the proletarian w h o is continually kept awake because hi s consci o u sness i s not put to sleep on the existing econom ic fou ndation and w ho therefore yearns for the sleep of t he social order. This is. i n truth, an i m portant p syc ho l ogical per ception. Ownership puts a person to sleep: the necessity of struggling in l i fe wakes o n e u p . Being put to sleep through ownershi p causes a person to develop antisocial i mpulses because h e does not crave social sleep. Continuous stim u lation by the necessities of earni ng an ex i s tence awakens the cravi ng to fal l asleep i n the social relationsh i ps. These th i ngs must be taken i n to thorough con sideration; otherwise we do not i n the l east u nder stand the present time. Now. i t may be said that, i n spite of everythi ng, our fifth post-Atlantean epoch does strive, i n a certain m an ner, tow ard soc ial iza tion in the form that I recently analyzed here . The thi ngs about which I h av e talked w i ll come i n to ex istence e i ther through human reason if people w i l l adjust themselves t o these thi ngs, or th rough cata-

140

clysms and revol utions if they will not. Man is striv ing toward th is threefold order of society in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch and it must come into existence. In short, ou r epoch is striving to ward a certain socialization. But this soc ialization is not possible, as is evi dent on the basis of all sorts of reflections we have presented here, un less somethi ng else accompa nies it. Soc ial ization can be related only to the external structure of society. But in th is partic u lar fifth post-Atlantean epoch such socialization can real ly consist only in the suppression of con sciousness, of the th inking consciousness, in the suppression of antisoc i al human i nstincts. In other words, the social structure must in a certain way bring a.b out the suppression of antisocial instincts in our conceptual l ife. There must be somethi ng to counterbalance th is. I n some way a balance must be brought abou t in the matter, but it can be es tablished only provided al l enslavement of thought, the mastery of the th ink i n g of one man by another that has come from earlier epochs in which it was justified, shall be eliminated from the world with the process of socialization . This requires that the freedom of the spi ritual l i fe shal l come about i n the futu re side b y side. w i t h the organizing o f eco nomic cond i tions. O n ly this freedom of the spir itual l ife renders it possible that we shall be so related as man to m an that we shall see in another person stand ing before us a particular human being, not human beings in general. The program 141

of a Woodrow W ilson speaks of h u m a n bei ngs i n general, b u t this general ized h u ma n bei ng, the abstract m an , does not exist. W hat exists is alway s the single, individual human being. We c a n be come interested in h i m , i n turn, only through o u r full human ity, not th rough mere th i n k i n g . W h e n we Wilson ize, sketc hing an abstract p i cture of a human bei ng, we exti ngu i sh what we should d e velop in the relationsh i p of m a n to m an. The th ing of essential i mportance for the future is that absolute freedom of thought m ust come about; social i z i ng withou t this i s i n conceivable. Therefore, the process of social i z i ng m u st be con nected with the el i m i n ation of all e nslavement of thought, whether th is enslavement is fostered by what certain societies of the E nglish-spea k i n g peoples practice. w h i c h I h ave suffi c ie n tly d es cribed to you , or through Roman Catho l i c ism. They are worthy of each other, and it i s exceed ingly i mportant that we shou l d see c learly the inner relationsh i p of the two. It is extremely im portant that no l ac k of clarity shall hold sway at the present time, especially i n reference to such th ings. You may tell a Jes u i t what I have said to you regard ing the peculiari ty of those secret so cieties of the E nglish-speak i ng peoples. He w i l l be del ighted to have a confirmation of the poi n t of view he represents. But you must u ndersta n d clearly that, i f you w i s h to stand u p o n t h e basis o f spiritual science, y o u can not identify you r objec tion to these secret societies w i th the objection

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man i fested by the J esu it. I t is a strange fact that, in th is field , people show all too l ittle power of d is criminati ng judgmen t. I have recently cal led attention even i n publ ic lectu res to the fact that what matters is not only what a person says but that we must always con sider what sort of spi rit permeates what is said . I used the example of the sentences from Woodrow W i lson and from H ermann Grimm sound ing so much a l i ke. I mention th is for the reason that you w il l come to real i ze i n ever i nc reas ing measure that a see ming opposi tion w i l l arise on that side against the Engl ish-A meri can secret societies just as we on our side must oppose them , bu t only by a seem i ng o pposition. W hat has come out i n the De cember nu mber of the Stirnmen der Ze'it makes a grotesquely com ical i m p ression upon a person who sees into the actual facts because i t is obv ious that what must be opposed in the English-Ameri can secret societies is prec i sely the same th i ng that must be opposed i n J esu i tism. They face one another as two powers. u nable to ex ist side by side, face each other, the one battling against the other. Ne ither the one nor the other possesses the least real, objective i nterest; the i n terest in both cases h as to do w i th the party, w ith the o rder. It i s espec ially i m portant that we should get rid altogether of the habit of th i nk i ng only of the con tent and not of the stan d point from which any th ing is introduced i n to the worl d . If something that i s val id for a certa i n epoch i s i ntroduced from 143

a certain point of view, it m ay be benefi c i a l , it

may possess heal ing power. I f i n trod uced by an other force, it m�y be someth ing either utterly laughable or even i njurious. T h i s i

a fact that

m ust be considered espec i a l ly at the p rese n t ti me.

It will become ever i n c reasi ngly c lear that when two persons make the same state m e n t, it is not the same thi ng, vary i ng accord i n g to the b ackground beh ind it. A fter all these testi ngs that l i fe has brought to us d u ri n g the l ast three or fou r years. it is imperative that we shall a t l ast really give at tention to such thi ngs a n d really d e l ve i n to them. There is not yet m uch evidence of any such delving. For example, people w i l l conti n ue to ask how one th ing or another is to be a r ranged , how it is to be done, in order that i t shall be right. The truth is that, if you set u p one th i ng or another here or there, but do not put persons in c harge who th ink i n accordance w i th t h e m ean i n g of our epoch, no matter w hether you m ake the best or the worst arrangement, the res u l t will be i njuri ous. The matter of real i m portance today is that man shall real ly grasp the truth that it is n eces sary for h i m to become. He cannot rest u pon any thing he al ready is. but m us t conti nue i n the p ro cess of beco ming. Moreove r, he m ust u nd e rstand how actual ly to see i n to real ity. To do th is people are extremely d i sinclined , as I h ave e m p h asized from the most varied po ints of view. In all sorts of thi ngs, and especially in regard to con d i tions of the ti mes, people are so strongly i nc l ined not actu-

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ally to touch rea l i ty but to take things accord i n g to w h a t su i ts t h e m . Forming a j udgment that i s real ly objective is, naturally, n o t s o easy a s form ing one that ai ms most d i rectly toward easy form ul ation. J udgments that are objective are not read ily reduced to formu l as, especi ally w hen they take hold of the soc ial, the h uman, or the political life, because i n these fi elds the opposite of what is as sumed is al most always true. O n ly w hen the effort is made not to for m any judgment regard ing such relatio nsh i ps, but to form pictures - i n other words, when we ascend to the i maginative life shall we take the path that is appro x i mately right.

In our epoch it is of special i m portance to make the

effort to form pictu res, not real ly abstract, i solated j udgments. I t must be pictures, too, that will open a path to soc ialization. Then w hat is req u i red be sides is that no socializi n g is possible u n less the person becomes s p i r i tually scientific - in other words, free on the one hand in th i n k i ng, and spiri t ually scientific on the other. The u nderlyi ng basis of t h i s I have pointed out even in public lectu res, for i n stance, the pub l i c lecture i n Basel. I s a i d that certa i n persons who th i nk i n a materi a l istic way, seeki ng to under stand everyth i ng o n the basis of evolution in the successive series of a n i mals, say, "Wel l , now , in the animals we have the begi n n i ngs of social i n stincts; these d eve l o p i n men i n to moral i ties." B u t t h e th i ngs that become social i nstincts i n animals are an tisocial if they are l i fted u p to the human 145

plane. Prec isely what is soc ial i n the a n i m al i s antisocial in preemi nent degree i n t h e h u man being! People simply do not w ish to i nvestigate the various l ines needed in the real p i cture o f th i n gs, but form their judgments rash ly. The 1·ight rela tionshi p between man and man comes a bou t w h e n we conceive man as a spi ritual b e i ng, not w h e n w e conceive h i m only with regard to h i s a n i mal nature; in th is he is. preemi nently a n tisoc i a l. But it is possi ble to conceive a m an as a spi r i tual b e i n g only when we grasp the whole world i n t h e l ight o f its spiritual fqundations. These three th i n gs , (social organization, freedom of thought, spi r i tual science) are sim ply i nseparable one from the othe�. They belong together. In our fifth post Atlantean epoch one of these cannot p os s i bly b e developed without the other. I t w il l be especi a l ly necessary that people shall accustom themselves not to view u nthinkingly such th i ngs as the fact that an antisocial nature is i nherent in every i n d i vidual. W e might say, i f w e chose to express o u r selves i n a trivial way, that the c u r i n g o f the i l ls of th is epoch depends l argely u po n w hethe r peop l e will cease to b e so i ntensely fond of themsel v es. Th is is the characteristic mark of the p resent-day

person, that he is so fond of h i m self. I f you d i ffer entiate again, he is fond of h is th i n k i ng, h is fee li n g, his willing, and when he has become attached to his thinki ng, he w i l l not give i t up. A person who can truly think knows somethi n g that is by n o means u n i m portant, that i s , that h e

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once thought w rongly i n regard to everything concern i ng which he now th inks rightly. The truth is that we actu ally k now correctly only what ·we have experienced the effect of in the soul l i fe when we th i n k w rongly regard i ng i t. But people do not will ingly investigate such i n ne r states of develop ment. l t is for th is reason that people have so little mutual u nderstan d i n g at the present time. I will give you an exa mple. The proletariat world view, of which I have often spoken to you, maintains that the way in w h i c h men form their concepts, the en tire idealogical superstructu re, depends upon eco nomi c con d i tions, so th at they form their political ideas accord ing to their econom ic situations. A nyone who can i nvestigate such conceptions will find that this idea is in great measure j usti fied, al most entirely justified as regards the de velopment of the epoch si nce the sixteenth cen tury. What people h ave been thi nking since the sixteenth century is al most enti rely the resu lt of econom ic cond itions. This is not true in an absolute sense but it is relatively justified i n large meas ure. But this fact s i m ply can not penetrate such a head as that of a professor of national economics. For i nstance, a national econom ist is teachi ng in a un iversity not far from here - his name is Mi chel - who says that th i s is false because it can be proven that political ideas are not formed on the basis of econom i c cond itions, but that econom ic conditions are mod i fied in special measure through political i deas. This P rofessor M ichel 147

then points to the co ntinental e m bargo of N apo

leon, by means of which certa i n b ranches of i ndus try, let us say, were absolutely u p rooted i n I taly or in England and others i ntroduced. T h us, says he, we have here a most striking exam p le of how eco nomic conditions were determ i ned by pol itical ideas, by the continental embargo. H e in troduces still other ex am p l es. I know that, if a hu ndred people read this book by Professor M ichel, th ey will be convinced that what h e says is true because it is developed with the most r igo rous logic. It

see m s to be absolutely true b u t it is ridiculously false for the reason that all the examples i n tro duced have to be t rea te d accord i ng to the same

scheme applying to the conti nenta l em bargo. Cer tai nly the continental embargo b rought it about that certain industries in I taly h ad to be c hanged , but this change i n i ndustries b rought about no modification w hatever in the econo mic relation ship between employer and worker. T h is is pre cisely the characteristi c factor. A l l of th i s falls out as if from a sieve or a barrel w i thout any bottom . In other words this econom i c th eory of Professor M ichel is a barrel w i thout a bottom. Everything that h e presents falls out of it as i f from a barre l w ithout a bottom, si nce t h e p ro leta r i at wo rl d view does not in the least mai ntai n , for example, that the si lk industry of F lorence was not devel oped because of such an idea as th e conti nental

em bargo, this i nd ustry having not p reviously

existed, and on the other hand that it d i d not de148

velop i n E n gla n d . But, i n spite of the fact that the continental e m b argo can d rive one industry to one place a n d another to another, noth ing what ever is mod ified i n the econom ic relationships be twe�n en trepreneur and worker. These are the decisive factors. Thus do such thi ngs fall out of the great cou rse of the econom i c events w ith their i dealogical superstructure, so that precisely the continental em bargo in its effect fails completely to prove what Professor M ichel w i shes to prove. Now , ask you rselves why such a person as Pro fessor M ichel takes u p h i s stand upon h i s theory as contrasted w i th the proletariat way of thinking. For the s i mple reason that he i s in love with his way of th i n k i ng and i s not in the least capable of delving i n to the thi n k i n g of the proletariat. In other words, he fal ls i m med iately asleep. Th is i s a latent fall i ng asleep. The moment he ought to re flect u pon p roletariat th i n k ing, he fal ls asleep. I n thi s situation he c a n mai ntain h i s upright position only as he d evelops the thoughts w ith which he is i n love. We must investi gate i n this way the psychic fac tors. Our age is s i m ply the epoch i n which it i s necessary and i mportant to i nvestigate psyc hic factors. Otherw ise, it is i m possible to u nderstand what is necessary in our ti mes and it w i l l never be possible to reach any sort of sou n d judgments regard ing these d i ffi cult tragic conditions. O n ly sound judgm ents can and w i l l really gu ide us out of the m isery of the present period . There i s no

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occasion for pessimis m i n a com p re hensive sense but there is every occasion for revers i n g o u r judg ments. Most of all is there occasion for every i nd i vidual person in greatest possi b l e meas u re to reverse his judgment. We must say that the man ner i n w h i c h persons utter their judgment today while sleepi ng, as it were, and how quickly they forget from one ti me to another even when the spaces of t i m e are ever so brief, is truly remarkable. We shal l certa i n ly ex perience in special degree how people w i l l forget all the phrases they have uttered i n regard to jus tice and the necessity to battle for justice agai nst injustice. We shal l _ ex·p erience that most people who have spoken in this w ay a short time ago about "justice" w i l l forget this and w i l l not in the least see that, i n the immed i ate future, by far the greatest number of those who have spoken about "j ustice" will be interested si m ply i n bri nging to dom i nance quite ord i nary power. Natu rally, we are not to think i l l of them on th i s account but we ought simply to see clearly that, when a person has spoken on the one hand about righ t, he should not overlook the fact that the greatest outcry h as to do, in the last analysis, with power and the i m p u lse to grasp power. This is not to be held aga in st these people,

I have said. Yet it w i l l be unpleasant to

see how those who only a short time ago were al ways tal k i ng about justice, w i l l make themselves dom i nant. We have no reason to be surprised at this. But those who have partici pated, and·co m e to

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agreement i n a l l th i s tal k i ng ought to be astonÂ ished w h e n t h ey d iscover how com pletely the picture ha

c h anged! They ought at least then to

b ecome aware how stron gly i n cl i n ed the hu man being i

to for m h i s j udgments accord i n g to illuÂ

sions and not accord i n g to rea l i ties.

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the midst of the c haotic, as well as i n what has been harmonized. Especially i s ou r fifth post-Atlantean epoch such a time as causes man to pass through much that is chaotic. B ut th is is connected with the entire charac teristic, the w hole nature, of thi s epoch . W e a r e li v i n g at a ti me in w h i c h man must pass through those i m pel l i n g foÂˇrces in the course of evolution that set h i m u pon his own feet and

permeate h i m w ith i nd i v id ual consciousness. We are l ivi n g in th e e poch of the consciousness soul

Now, after all that we h ave considered, in conÂ nection with w h i c h we have brought together a great variety of th ings that may be suited to make our age understandable to us, we must ask ourselves what is the most profound characteristic of the evolution of the consciousness soul in our epoch. The profou ndest c haracteristic of this epoch is that man m ust become acquainted in the most profound and the m ost intense way with all those forces that o ppose the harmonizi ng of humanity as a whole. For th i s reason a conscious knowledge of those ahrimanic and luciferic powÂ ers work i ng agai nst man m ust gradually spread. If he should not pass th rough these evolutionary impulses i n which the luciferic and ahrimanic forces are partici pat i ng, he wou ld not arrive at the complete use of h is consciousness, and thus at the development of h is consci ousness soul. This integration of the consciousness soul into human nature h as to be recognized as a strongly antisocial i mp ulse. Thus we have in our epoch the

1 53

peculiar fact that the manifestation of social ideals appears as a reaction against w hat is striving to emerge out of the innermost n ature of man, a reac tion against the evolution of i nd ividual conscious ness. What I mean to say is that the reason we have such an outcry about the need of social izing is that the i nnermost nature of ma n, precisely i n our age, is most violently opposed to th is socializing. For this reason · it is necessary that w e should obtain a view of everythi ng i n the cosmos, i n the universe, that sustai ns a certain relationsh i p to man, in o r der that we may become aware of the relationship existing between the antisocial i mpulses stream ing today out of the depths of h uman souls and the clamor for social harmoni z ing, working l i ke a re action to what streams forth from the i nner nature of the human soul. It is s i m pl y necessary that we should come to see clearly that man represents in his l i fe a state of balance between confl icti ng pow ers. E very conception characterized by the idea of mere duality - a good and an evil principle - will always fail to illumin ate l i fe. Life can be i l luminat ed only when we represent i t from the point of view of a trinity, in which one element represents a state of balance and the two others represent the oppo site poles, between which the state of balance tends to move continually l i ke a pendulum. This is the reason for the Trinity we u nderta ke to represent in our Group* ; the Representative of Man balanc*Three figures in heroic size carved in wood by Rudolph Steiner.

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ing Ahriman and Lucifer, which is to constitute the middle point of this building. This consciousness of a state of balance for which one strives, but that is always i n danger of swi nging toward the one or the other side, must become the essential element in the world concep tion of this fifth post-Atlantean epoch. As man passes through the stage of the consciousness soul , he develops toward t h e spirit self. This epoch of the evolution of the consciousness soul will con tinue for a long time. B ut w ithin reality th ings do not proceed in such a way that one always follows the other in a beautiful scheme. On the contrary, one is telescoped i n a w ay into the other. )Vhi le we are developing in ever stronger measure the con sc iousness sou l , there is always waiting i n the background the spirit self that w ill then develop during the sixth post-Atlantean epoc4 just as strongly as the consciousness soul during this fifth epoch. Just as strongly as the consciousness soul works antisocial ly in i ts development, will the spirit self work soc ially. Thus we may say that, during this epoch, man develops from the in nermost impell i ng forces of his soul w hat is anti social, but behind this somethi ng spiritually social exerts its influence. This spiritually social element that is exerting its i n fluence in the background will appear in its essential nature when the light of the spirit sel f shall dawn in the sixth post-Atlan tean epoch. It is not surprising therefore, that i n this fifth post-Atlantean epoch what can enter 155

Jivingly and

.i n a well -ordered

way i n to h u m an i ty

only during the sixth epoch appears i n a l l sorts of abstruse. extreme forms. Man is exposed during the fifth post- A tl a n tean epoch to the pre l i m inary d isturb i ng move m e n ts of

what is to come during the s i x th post-Atlantean epoch. E veryt h i ng will depend u pon the acq u i s i tion o f an u nderstand i n g of what we m u st pass through during this fifth post-Atlantean epoc h . The antisocial i nstincts w i ll p lay a treme ndous ro le and they can be restrai ned a n d i n tegrated ,

into a true social l i fe only in the way th at I recently explained. To assist him, man shal l e m ploy the social science that is to be derived from a gen e ral spi ritual science. Behind all the many struggles, t h erefore, of t h e present ti me, a n d also o f th e i m med i a te fu tu r e t h e ,

social question w i l l rema i n i n the backgro u n d be cause i ts time has not yet come . B u t we m u st re peat from aU possible p o i n ts of v iew the fac t that this social formation that is demanded cannot at tain to real l ife u n less it e nters i n to a u n i on w i t h two other thi ngs. I n the s i x th

post A tl a n te a n -

epoch, th is u n io n w i l l appear more or J ess s po n ta neously. During th is fifth epoch, soci a l l i fe m u st

regulated through the fostering of s p i r itu al

science. Every effort to regulate soc ial l i fe ou ts i d e the sphere o f spi ritual scie nce w i l l l ead o n l y to chaos and radica l i s m , bringing abou t u n h ap p i ness for humanity. As regards a soci al s h a p i n g o f life, this fifth post-Atlantean epoch i s dependent i n

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pree m i nent degree upon the science of the spirit. Just consi der what I referred to yesterday and also recently in a public lecture i n Basel. J ust consider that nian has mastered a n ature that is d istributed over the whole ani mal ki ngdom. He is the con queror of the ani mal nature; he bears the ani mal nature w i th in h i m . Naive Darwi n ism maintains that hu man moral ity is only the deve l op ment of the social i mpulse among ani mals. T he social im pu lses are i nborn i n the animal, and they become, just to the extent that they are social i m pulses in the an imal, antisocial impulses in man. He can awaken again to a social l ife only when he grows above what has developed as an antisoc ial i m pulse in h i m out of the animal nature. T h is is the truth . Thus, if we w ish to repre sent the human being schematically from th is poi nt of view, we may say that man overcomes and develops beyond ani mal ity. W hat is social in the animal becomes an tisocial in man. But he grows into spi ritual ity and within the spiritual he may again achieve the social for hi mself. At a h igher stage than the one that man has reached in the epoch of the consc iousness sou l , w here he has

grown out of ani m al i ty , he w ill gain the social ele ment. This shi nes amid the chaos of this m iddle stage where he now is. This m ust be supplemen ted by two other facts. When the sociali z i n g process becom es manifest as an elemental i m pu lse, as a demand with i n human ity, th is sociali z ing alone must always bring a

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curse. The social izing process can become a bless ing only if it is l i nked with two other thi ngs that must develop during the entire c o u rse of our post Atlantean age, up to the seventh post- A tlantean epoch. This may occu r oi) ly w h e n it is l i n ked with what may be cal led the free l i fe of thought and an insight i nto the spiritual natu re o f the world lying behind the sensible nature. Soc i a l i z ing w ithout a science of the spirit and w ithout freedom of thought is an i mposs i b i l ity. T h i s i s s i m ply an ob

j ective truth. But man m u st awaken to freedom of thought; he must m ake h i mself r i pe for freedom of thought precisely d u r i ng o u r epoch of the con sciousness sou l . W hy must he awake to freedom of thought? During the course of h u m a n evolution , man has come in a certain respect to a decisive poi nt in th is fifth post-Atlantean epoch. U p to t h i s fi fth epoch he possessed the possi b i l ity of having the prenatal time conti nue i ts i n fluence i n to the postnatal life. Let us grasp this q u i te clearly. Up to our epoch man has borne forces w i th i n h i m that are not ac quired by h i m d u r i n g the cou rse of l i fe but were possessed by h i m when, as the expression goes, he first beheld the l ight of the world, when he was born. These were i m p r i nted u pon h i m d u ri ng the embryonic time. T hese forces that were i m pressed upon man during the e m b ryon ic time and that then conti nue to work th roughout l i fe, were pos sessed by man u p to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. Only now do we face a great crisis i n the 1 58

evolution of humanity through the fact that these forces can no longer be determinative; they can no longer work in such an elemental manner as hitherto. In other words, during this fifth post Atlantean epoch man w ill be in much greater measure exposed to the i mpressions of l ife, be cause forces oppos i ng the i mpressions of life, which were acqui red in the embryonic period be fore birth, are losing their susta i n i ng power. This fa�t is something· of enormous i mportance. Only in one respect w as l ife even prior to this time su.c h that man could acquire something be tween birth and death, something that was not imprinted upon him d uring the embryon ic time. But this was possi ble only because of the following facts. We explained yesterday the pecul iar phe nomena of sleep in relation to social l ife. When man is asleep, his ego and astral body are outside the physi cal and the etheric body. There is a di ffer ent relationship between the ego and the astral body, on the one hand, and the p hysical and etheric bodies on the other hand during sleep from that existing in the w aking state. While man is asleep,

he stands in a d i fferent relationshi p to his physical and etheric bod ies. Now, there is a certa i n resemb lance between our sleep and our embryonic period - a resemblance, not an identity. In a certain sense , our l ife d uring the period from sleeping to waking is s i m i la r to the l i fe that we l ive from con ception - or actually three weeks thereafter - un til b i rth - again s i m i lar, not identical. Wh i le we 159

rest as an infant in the body o f ou r mot h e r , o u r li fe

is simi lar to what we experience late r d u ring sleep, except that during sleep we breathe th e outer air. For th is reason I have to say o n ly " si m i l ar" but not " id en ti cal . " We do n ot breathe the outer air when we rest in the body of the mother. We are sti mulated to breathe the oute r a i r w h e n w e a re._bor n. Thus, in th is way l ife d u r i n g sleep i s d i fferent from the embryon ic life . Now hold fi r m l y to the fact that, while the human bei ng is sleeping, h is life is in many respects sim i la r to that of the em bryonic state except that someth ing is at work that ca n occur only between birth and death and n ot i n the embryonic l ife. Breath i ng works here. T h e fact that man breathes the outer a i r causes h i s organ ism to be i n fluenced in a certain way. But every thing that influences ou r organism affects the total ity of our life-expressions, even our psych i c expression . Because we b reathe, we u nd erstand the world otherwise than if we d id not b reathe. Now , there was a cultural element in the evolu tion of h u manity. We touc h u po n a sign i ficant mystery of hu man evolution when we u nd ertake to explai n this. T h is was the Old Testamen t c u l tu ral element, which was permeated i n an espec ial ly profou nd way for its ini tiates by the fact that man is different, by reason of the breath i n g between b i rth and death, from the embryo n i c l i fe, which is otherwise like the l i fe of sleep. I t was u pon this inner knowledge of the nature of breathi ng that the relationsh i p between the old Jewish ini tiates,

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the Hebrew i n itiates o f the Old Testament, and their Jehovah God was based. The Jehovah God manifested hi mself. as we need only learn from the Bible, to his people. Wh ich was the people of Jeho vah? It was the people w h o had a pecul iar relation ship to this truth of b reathing that I have just ex plained. This is the reason why precisely this people received the revelation that man became man when the b reath of l i fe w as given to him. We acquire a special understanding w hen this is developed on the basis of the n ature of human breathing. We acq u i re an understanding of the life of abstract thinkin g, w h ic h was called in the Old Testament the life of law, an u nderstanding of the reception of abstract thoughts. Strange as this may seem at present to material i stic thought. it is nevertheless true that the human power of creat ing abstractions is determi ned essentially by the breathing process. The fact that man can abstract. that he can concei ve abstract thoughts, j ust as laws are abstract thoughts, is connected with his _breathing process and even physiologically with his breathing process. T h e i nstrument of abstract thinking is, of course, the b rain . This brain is in volved in a continual rhythm synchronized with the breath ing rhythm . I have already spoken here repeatedly in regard to this relationship of the brain rhythm with the b reathing rhythm. I have explai ned to you how the brain is floating i n the cerebral fl uid , and how this flu id, when the air is breathed out, flows down through the spinal 161

column and empties below i n to the abdominal cavity; how the fluid is pressed u pw ard again when the air is breathed in so that a c o n ti n ual vi bration occurs: with exhalati o n , a s i n k i ng of the cerebral fluid; with inhalation, a n ascent of the cerebral fluid and the i mmersion of the b rai n in the cerebral fluid . The capaci ty of the h u man be ing to form abstractions is con nected even physiol ogically with this rhythm of the b reath i n g process. A people who based thi ngs in special measu re upon the breathing p rocess w as l i ke wise the people of the abstraction process. For thi s reason the initiates could impart a special revelation to their people, as they perceived thi ngs i n thei r Jehovah manner, because this revelation was completely adapted to the process of abstract th inking. This is the secret of the O ld Testament revelation. Man received a w i sdom that w as adap ted to the abstracting capacity , the c apacity of abstract th inking. Jehovah w i sdom is adapted to abstract thinking. As regards th is J ehovah w isdom, man is asleep in the ordi nary state of consciousness. T he Jehovah initiates simply received i n con nection w ith their in itiation what man exper i e nces through his breath from fal ling asleep u nt i l waki ng. Because of this fact, persons who love half-truths h ave often designated Jehovah as the d ivini ty who regul ates sleep. This is true also. H e i m p arted to man that element of wisdom that he would experience i f he

should become as clairvoyant as the i n itiates be·

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came, and should experience consciously the l ife between fal l i n g asleep and wak i ng. Now, this was not experienced by the ord i nary consciousness i n the O ld Testament times, but was given to man as a revelation, so that he thus rece ived as revelation in th is Jehovah wi sdom that through w h i ch they had to sleep. I t was necessary to sleep through thi s,

since otherwise the l i fe p rocess could n ot co nti n ue. Th is is the essential element of the Old Testa足 ment culture. The n ight w isdom was revealed as Jehovah w isdom. To a certa i n extent - but I beg you to note that I say to a certai n exte n t - th i s pos足 sibility for man was exhausted during the peri od when the Mystery of Golgotha d rew near because th is wisdom, which i s i n a sense the w i sdom of sleep and b reath i ng, is one-seventh of all the w is足 dom that man m ust develop i n the course of his evolution. It is the w i sdom of a s i ngle one of the Elohim, that is, J ehovah . T he other six-sevenths could and can come to h uman i ty only as the Christ impu lse flows i n to m an k i nd . We may thus say that, as Jehovah revealed h imself, h e revealed the wisdom of n ight and b reath i ng i n anticipation. The six other E lohim, constituti ng i n their totality together w i th the seventh Elohim the C hri st im足 pulse, reveal al l other w isdom, w hic h comes to man between b i rth and d eath otherwise than through breath i n g.

With in the l i fe of O l d Testament culture man would have been enti re ly antisoc i al if J ehovah had

not revealed the social element to h is people in that 163

sis. I t was necessary that the Christ impulse should be u nderstood for the future. Without an understand i ng of th is Chr ist im pulse, no social demand takes the d i rection leading to any sort of wholesome objective. The almost twenty centuries during wh ich Christian ity has previously been dissem inated were only preparatory stages for the real under stand i ng of the C h rist i mpulse because the Christ impulse can be understood only i n the spirit. Everything happens gradually. I n our critical times, when we face a crisis in regard to just those things I have called to your attention, the situa tion is as fol lows. The i nstinct leading toward a mere Jehovah w i sdom sti l l extends into our age as a remnant, tend i n g toward the w isdom that de pended upon what was acquired during the em bryonic l i fe and i s m od i fied only by the uncon scious b reathing process. The Jehovah w isdom rv quires a revelation i n order to enter our con sciousness. This sufficed up to the time when the consciousness sou l had not yet evolved to a certai n degree. Now, since the consc iousness soul has evolved to this degree, humanity cannot get along further w ith Jehovah w isdom that is adapted to the breath ing, but it i s invarial;>ly true that an effort is made to continue to get along with some thing that has become i nsufficient according to inner necessities. S i nce, for the life between birth and death, what is connected with the breathing remains unconscious, the Jewish culture was a 165

folk culture, not an i nd i v i d u a l i zed c u l tu re of humanity. It was a fol k c u l tu re i n w h. i c h e very th i ng is related to the d e sce n t from a common tribal father. Jewish revel ation i s, in i ts esse n tial nature, a revel atio n adapted to the Jew i s h people, because it takes account of w h a t is a c q u i r e d d u r

i ng the embryon ic l i fe a n d

mod i fied only

through an unconscious e l ement, the b reath i n g process.

W hat is the result of this fact i n our c r i ti ca l ti mes? The result is that those w h o w i l l n o t b e come ad herents of the C h ri s t w i sdom that b r i ngs into the hu man being the othe r e l e m e n t, acqui red during the l ife between b i rth and d eath apart

from the breath i ng process, w ish to conti n u e i n the ir relationsh i p to the J ehovah w isdom a n d to have humanity establ ished o n ly on the basis o f fo l k

cultures. T h e present clamor i n favor of an o rgan i: zation consisti ng of i nd i v iduals from mere peoples

is a ret rd ed ah r i ma n i c d e ma n d for the estab l ish a

ment of such a c u l tu re

in which all the peopl es

represent only fol k cultu res, that is, O l d Testa ment cultu res. The peoples i n all parts of the world

are to b ecome l i ke the Jewish Old Testament people. This is the demand of Wood row W i lson . We are h e re tou c h i n g upon a most p rofound

mystery, which w i l l be u n ve i led- i n the g reatest va riety of forms. A soci a l element th at is ant i soci a l as regards the whole of h u man ity a n d u nderta kes to base the social l i fe upon i nd i v i d u a l peo p l es a lone i s str i ving to com e to manifestation as a n ah rimanic

166

element. The cultu ral impulse of the O ld Testa ment is to be mai ntai ned i n an ahrimanic form. Thus you see things are not so simple as people suppose in th inking that it is necessary only to think out one th ing o r another i n order to propose ideals to men. We m ust be able to look i nto reality. We must be able to say w hat really governs and develops its powers amid these realities. M an is faced, in fact, w ith the prospect of not being able any longer to base h i s l i fe upon the merely u ncon scious or of fi nding it necessary to base his life up on the consc ious element wi th i n life between birth and death. The u nconscious depends upon the breathing process and thus i nevitably upon what is connected with the b reathi ng process, upon the blood circulation, that is, upon the l ine of descent, upon connections by b l ood, u pon heredity. The cul ture that must come into existence cannot base the social order upon mere b lood connections because these blood con nections yield only one-seventh of what must be establ ished i n the cul tu re of human ity. The other six-sevenths must be added through the Ch rist impulse: I n the fifth epoch, one; in the sixth epoch , the second; i n the seventh epoch, the third. The rest stretch out into the fol lowing periods of time. For this reason there must gradually devel op in humanity what is connected with the true Christ impulse, and what is related to the mere Jehovah impulse must be superseded. Typically, far-reaching endeavors of the Jeho vah impulse will take place, for the last time, in 167

wh�t the proletariat understan d s as i nter n ational socialism. I n essence. this is the l ast sti r r i n g of the Jehovah impulse. We face the strange s i tuation that every people will become a J ehovah people, and every people w i ll at the same ti me demand the right to spread i ts own Jehovah c u l t, i ts own soc ial ism, th roughout the world . These will be the two contend i n g fo rces between which a balance must be fou n d . I n all that c omes to mani festation as objective neces s i ty i n the course

of humanity's evolution there m i ngles the feel ing. the sentiment, of human b e ings w h o tak e one rela tion or another to the various national grou ps, and who work d isturb i ngly with i n the o bjectively in evitable course of evolution . Through the Jehovah wisdom one of the seven doors to the u n io n of h u manity has been opened. A second door will be opened when it shall come to be k n ow n that w hat man bears with h i m as the physical a nd the e theric nature becomes ill i n the cou rse of l i fe. N aturally , I do not refer to an acute i l l ness, b u t i n ou r fifth epoch

life is identical w i th a gradual p rocess of be

coming i l l. This has been true s i nce the fourth epoch; it is especially true in the fi fth e poch. The life process is the same thi n g, o n ly g rad u a l i n i ts stages, as an acute i ll ness, except that this takes a more rapid course. If, therefore, a n ac u te i l l ness must be cu red by a speci fi c heal i ng p rocess, some th ing must enter also i n to h u m a n l i fe that b r i ngs heal ing. In short, the natural l i fe of human bei ngs, from

168

the fi fth post-Atlantean epoch on w ill be a sort of conti nual, grad ual beco m i n g i l l. All i nfluences of education and of c u l tu re m ust be d.irected to the objective of making wďż˝ll. In a certain way, th is is the first true activation of the C hrist impulse: heal i ng. T h i s is the s pecial m ission of C hrist i n the fifth post-Atlantean e poch - to be the Healer, the One w ho heals. The other forms of the C hrist impulse must remai n in the background. For the sixth post- Atlantean e poch, the C hrist impu lse must work i n the direction of seersh ip. There the spirit self comes to development within w hich man cannot live without seers h i p. In the seventh postÂ Atlantean e poch a sort of prophetic nature will develop as the third element, si nce i t must, i n deed , pass p ro phetica l ly over i nto an entirely new period . The other th ree members of the si xfold Ch rist Being w i l l do their work in the following periods. T h us m ust the C h rist impulse find its way into human i ty, as the element that permeates mank ind w i th soci al warm th i n the course of the present and the two fol low i ng cultural epochs, that is, as the heali n g process, the seer process and the prophetic process. T h is is the real l iving entrance of the C h rist i m p u lse. This- w i l l i nterpenetrate other th ings necessary for evolution that we have al ready mentioned. One door has been opened through the Jehovah w isdom, but this door became un usable i n the m i d dle of the ni neteenth century. If manki n d should pass through this door alone, the only result that can fol low would be that 169

all peoples woul d in a way develop H eb ra i c cul足 tures, each i n its own form . Other d oors must ue opened. I n itiation w isdom. w h i ch w i l l become known through a second, t h i r d , a n d fou rth door, must be added to the w i sdom th a t h as become known through the J ehovah d oor. O n ly in this way can man grow i nto other c o n nectio n s than those that are regulated by t h e b o n d s of b lood and breath. This constitutes, i n turn, t h e c r i t i c a l e l e m e n t of our age. It is a fact that human bei ngs w i sh to preserve a regulation of the w o r l d o r d er accord足 ing to the bonds of blood, com i ng i n an a h r i m a n i c way out o f ancient times, but t h at a n i n ner neces足 sity strives outward beyon d these bonds of blood. In the futu re what controls the soci a l l i fe can not proceed from anything h av i ng to d o w ith k in sh i p. On the contrary, only what the sou l i ts e l f i n i ts own free decision can ex perience as regu lating the social order w ill be val i d . An i n n e r n ecessity will so guide men that everythi n g that penetrates into the social order out of m e re bonds of blood w il l

b e el iminated. A l l such th i ngs e n te r i nto m a n i fes足 tation at first tu multuously. In o u r age there m ust evolve spirit knowledge and freedom of thought, especial ly freedom of thought i n the rel igiou s real m. The science of the s p i r i t m u st d evelop for

the reason that man m ust e nter i n to r e l ationsh i p with man. B u t man i s spi rit. M a n c a n e nter i nto relationship w ith man only when the ap proach is

from the spi rit. The relations h i p i nto which men

170

entered at earl ier stages had its origi n in the un consc ious spirit vi brating in the b lood, in accord ance with J ehovah w i sdom, w hich leads only to abstraction. T hat to w hich the men must next be led must be someth i ng grasped within the soul. The heathen peoples h ad their myths in pictorial form, created through atavism i n ancient cultural forms. The Jewish people had i ts abstractions, not myths, but abstractions: the Law. This has con tinued its existence. T h i s was the first elevation of the h u man b e i n g to the conceptual force and into the force of thought. B ut from human ity's present view of the m atter, w h i c h is only the revival of the command, "Thou s h a l t m ake u nto thysel f no im age," man m ust revert to the capacity of the soul that can once m ore, and this time consciously, form i m ages. It is only in i m ages, in imaginations, that the social l i fe also can be r ightly establ ished in the future. The soc i al l i fe cou l d be regulated only as regards a si ngle people in abstractions, and the regu l ation for a people in social relation ships was that of the Old Testament. The next form of regulation of the soc ial l i fe will depend upon the capaci ty to exerc ise in a conscious way the same force that once e xisted atavistically, i n unconscious o r h a l f-conscious form, i n man's myth build ing capacity. M e n wou l d be completely filled with antisoci al i nsti ncts if they shou ld endeavor to continue d isse m i n ating mere abstract laws.

They must come aga i n by way of their world con ception, to the p i ctorial. Out of this conscious myth 171

creation there w i l l arise also the poss i b ili ty for the development of the soc ial element i n the interÂ course of man with man. You may look at such a scul ptural form as that of our Group: the Represen tative of M an , Luc i fer and Ahriman. There you confr.ont for the first time what is working i n the w hole h u man being, because m a n is the state of b al a nce between the l u ciferic and the ahri m a n i c . I f you p erm eate yourself in actual l i fe w i th the i m pulse to confront every person in such a way that you correctly see th is trinity i n h i m , then do you begi n to underÂ stand h im. This is an essential capaci ty, bearing with i n itself the impulse to evolve i n t h i s fifth

post-Atlantean epoch . Thus we shall no longer pass by one another as one specte r passes another, so that we form no picture of each oth e r but merely define the other person w i th our abstract concepts. The truth is that we do noth i ng more at the present time. We pass by each other as i f we were specters. One specter forms the conception , "That is a n i ce fel low," and t h e other, "That is not such a nice fellow" . . . <ďż˝That is a bad man" . . . "That is a good man," - all sorts of suc h abstract concepts. In the intercourse of man w i th man we have nothi ng but a bundle of abstract concepts. This is the essential thi n g that has entered into humanity out of the Old Testament form of l i fe: "Make u nto thyself no i mage." It must i nevitably le ad to an antisocial l i fe i f we should conti n ue it further. What is flowing out from the i n nermost 172

nature of man, striving toward realization, is that, when one i ndividual confronts another, a picture shall stream forth in a certain way from the other person, a picture of that special form of balance manifested individually by everyone. But this requires, of course, the heightened interest that I have often described to you as the foundaÂ tion of social life, which each person should take in the other person. At present we have not yet any intense interest i n another person. It is for this reason that we criticize him , that we pass judgment u pon h i m , that we form our judgments accord ing to sympathies and antipathies and not accord ing to the objective picture that leaps to meet us from the other. This capac ity to be mystically stimulated in a certain way as we confront another person w i l l come to real ization. I t w i ll enter as a special soÂ cial impulse into h uman l i fe. On the one hand, the consciousness soul is striving to come in an antisocial w ay to complete domination in this fifth post-Atlantean epoc h . On the other hand, someÂ thing else is striving outward from the nature of man, that is, a capaci ty to form pictures of the human bei ngs w ith w hom we l ive. It is here that the social impulses arise, the social i nstjncts. The simple fact is that these th ings l ie at a far greater depth than is ord i narily supposed when people tal k about the soc ial and the antisocial. Now the question may arise in your minds as to how we shall gradually attain to the capacity of 173

causing the picture of the other person to leap to meet us. I t is in l i fe that w e m u st gai n this capa city. J ehovah capaci ties are given to u s at b i rth; we evolve them in th e embryo n i c l i fe. T h e c u lture of the future w il l not make th i ng s so c o m fortable for people. The capac ities a person m u st m a n ifest w il l have to b e developed d u r i n g t h e cou rse of h i s life.

Far m o re concrete and defin ite p r i nc i ples must

enter i nto education than those that are now being brought i nto dom inance i n suc h an u tterly con fused manner in today's ped agogy . It is most i m portant of all that the i n st i n c t sh a l l be i m pl anted in peopl e to look back more fre q u en tly d u r i ng this l ife, but in the right way. What peo p l e develop at present as memories of e a r l i e r exper ience is marked as yet for the most part by a selfish character. If a person looks back in a more unsel fish way to what he has experienced in c h i ld hood, youth, etc. - accord i n g to the age he has reached - there emerges as if out of the gray depths of the spirit various persons w ho h ave had somethi ng to do with his l i fe i n all sorts of r e l ationships. Look back into you r l ife and pay l ess attention to what interests you in you r own respectable per son and much more to those f i gu res that have come i nto contact with you , educating you, be friend ing you, assisting you , perhaps also i njur ing you - ofte n i nju ring you i n a hel pfu l way. One th ing w i l l then become evident to you and that is how little reason a person real ly has to ascribe to h imself w hat he h as become. Often

174

someth ing i m portant i n us is due to the fact that one person or another came i nto contact with us at a certa i n age, a n d - perhaps, w i thout knowi ng it hi mself, or perhaps, being ful ly aware of the fact - drew our attention to something or other. In a comprehensive sense, a really unselfishly conduct ed survey of our l i ves i s made u p of all sorts of thi ngs that do not give us occasion to i mmerse our selves sel fish l y in ou r own being, to brood over our selves egotistical ly, b u t lead us to broaden our views to i nclude those figures who came into con tact with us. Let us i m merse ourselves with real love in what h as come i nto our life. We shall often d i scover that what evoked an anti pathy i n us at a certain period i s no longer so disagreeable to us when a sufficient l ength o f time has passed be cause we beg i n to see an i n n er connection. The fact that we had to be affected i n an u npleasant w ay at a certain time by one person o r another might have been useful to us. We often gain more from the harm that a person does to us than from the fur therance afforded us by another. It would be ad vantageous to a person if he more frequently exer cised such a su rvey of h i s l i fe, and should permeate his l i fe w ith the convictions flow ing from h is self observation. "How l ittle occasi on I really have to occupy myself w i th myself! H ow i m measurably richer my l i fe becomes when

I look back to all

those who h ave e n tered my l i fe!" In this way we free ourselves from ourselves when we carry out such an unselfish surv.ey. We then escape from

175

that terrible evi l of our times , to w h ich so many fall victims, of brood i ng over ou rsel ves. I t is so ex tremely necessary that we shou l d free ou rselves from this b rood ing over o u rselves. A nyone who has once fel t the power of such s e l f-obse rvation as I have just described w i l l fi n d h i mse l f far too unin teresting to spend much t i m e b rood i n g over his own l ife. Unl imited i l lum i n a ti on is cast over this l i fe of ours when we see it i rrad i ated w ith what enters into it from the gray depths of the spirit. But th is has such a germ i na t i n g p o we r over us that we really ac q u i re the i m ag i n ative forces necessary to confront the conte m porary human being in such a way that in h i m the t h i n g is mani fest that appears to us o n l y after m an y years in our backward su rvey .of those figu res w i th w hom we have l ived together. W e t h u s acq u i re such a capa city that pictures actually come to meet us from the individuals we con fro n t. The cul t ivation of the soc i a l l i fe , w h i ch i n earlier times had its sou rce only i n the bonds of blood, does not depend so much upon any sor t of socialistic programs, but u pon m an's beco m i n g a s p i r itual social being. He w i l l become s u c h a being by awakening with i n h i mse l f, i n the man ner I have described, the deeper forces that c a n bring to bi rth w i th i n h i m the capacity for conceiving pic torially the other h u m an bei ng. O therwise, we shall al ways remain antisocial bei ngs, capable of approach ing others only accord i ng to our sympa thies and antipathi es, i ncapable of approach ing

1 76

them accord ing to the picture that may stream forth from each person if we only develop the picture-fo r m i n g forces in our intercourse with them. Precisely i n the social l ife of humanity must the princ i p l e come into ex istence, "Thou shalt make for thyself an i mage of thy fellow man." Then, when w e form a p icture of our fellow man, we enrich o u r o w n soul l i fe; then do we bestow a treasure upon o u r o wn inner soul life with each human acqu ai n tances h i p . Then we no longer so l ive that A 1 ives there, B there, C there, but A, B and C l ive i n D; A , B and D l ive i n C ; C, D and E live in A; etc. We gain the capaci ty to have other hu man bei ngs l ive i n us. But this m u st be acqu i red; i t is not born in us. If we should continue s i m p ly to cultivate those char acteristics that a r e born i n us, we should continue within the l i m i ts of a m ere blood culture, not the culture to w h ich cou ld be ascri bed in the true sense of the word human b rotherhood. Only when we carry the other h u m a n being w ithin us can we really speak of h u man brotherhood, which has ap peared thus far o n ly in an abstract word. When we form a p icture of the other person, which is im plan ted as a treasu re · in our souls, then we carry

within the real m of o u r soul life something from him j ust as i n the case o f a bodi ly brother we carry around someth ing t hrough the common blood. This elective affinity as the basis of social life must take the place i n this concrete w ay of the mere blood affi nity. T h i s is something that really must

177

evolve. It must depend upon the human w i l l to deter mine how brotherhood shall be awakened among men. Human beings have h itherto been separated. They ought to become soc ial ized in brotherhood. In order that the mani fold n ess shall not be lost, the innermost element in man, thought, must be able to take form individually in every si ngle person. With Jehovah the whole folk stood i n a relationÂ ship. With Christ each i nd ividual person m ust stand in relationshi p. But the fact that b rotherÂ hood will thus awaken requi res that there shall be a compensation in an entirely d i ffere n t field, that is, through freedom of thought.

178

THE INN ATE CAPACITIES OF THE N ATIONS OF THE WORLD

n the last two l ectures I pointed out that the so called social question _ is not so simple as i t is usual ly supposed to be, a n d that it is necessary to take careful acco u nt o f the com plicated nature of man . We must take acco u n t of the fact that both social and antisocial i m p u l ses exist in him and must come to ex pression regardl ess of what social struc ture exists a n d w h at social ideas are brought to realization. A s we h ave seen, the antisocial i m pulses, especially i n our epoch of the consciousness soul, play a special role. I n a certain way they have an educational m issi on i n the evolution of human ity in that they c ause men to stand on thei r own fe�t. They w il l be overcome by reason of the fact that, after t h e epoch of the consciousness soul, there will follow the epoch of the spiri t sel f, al ready i n course of preparation, w hose essential !!) iss ion w i l l be to b r i n g h umanity into social un ity. This w i l l not happen, however, in such a way as is dreamed at present by people i ndulging in i llu sions, but i n such a way that one person shall really know and be i nterested i n the other as a human

1 79

bei ng. I n sh ort, he shall center h is attention upon the other person so that each i n d ividual shall ac

quire the capac ity of comp rehend ing the other w i t h full interest. What comes to l ight tod ay as a social demand, c o n sti tutes i n a certain w ay a sort of skirm ish or outpost action, a sort of preparation, w h ich naturally takes a chaotic for m and gi ves r ise to many illusions and errors because i t i s only the germinal stage for somethi n g that w i l l come later. These illusions an d errors ar� due to the fact that social impulses at the p resent tim e arise in great measure from the u n conscious or the sub conscious, and are not c larified by s p i ritual knowledge of the world or of h u m an ity. T h is i ll u sory form comes especi ally to ex p ression i n the development of the so-called Russian revolution. It is characte rized by the fact that in its p resent manifestation it has no right relationsh i p to w hat is in course of preparation as a people i n Russia for the coming sixth post-Atl a ntean epoch. Rather, it is brought in out of a bstractions. Thus these more or less illu sory ideals o f the present Russian revolution are espec ially sign ificant in connection with a study of th i s c haotic sti rring with in hu man ity i n rel ation to someth i ng that is to com e later. We m ay say that the especially characteristic head of this Russian revolution , Trotsky , who is typical of the abstractly th i n ki ng man, living entirely i n abstraction, appears really to have not the least notion that there is a reality 1 80

in such a th ing as h uman social life. Something wholly alien to real i ty is thought out and is to be implanted i nto reali ty. This is not a criticism but a mere description. The simple truth is that one of the characteristics of our times is that the inclination toward abstrac tion, toward a th i n king alien to real ity, wills also to implant within real i ty such principl es as are sim ply assumed w i thout any knowledge of the laws of this reali ty. T hese princi ples are considered abso lutely right w i thout regard whatsoever for com pl icated human l i fe, as we study it with the help of the spir itual lying at the basis of external physical reality. But everything that is to come into exis tance must arise from this reality. For that reason, since in this case something so preeminently alien to real ity is brought forward, including in a chao tic way all manner of i mpulses and instincts due to the p roletariat w ay o f thinking, great signifi cance therefore attaches to the i deas that seek to be real ized i n this Russian revolution and that l ive in these Russian revolutionary heads of the present time. Fro m this po i n t of view they are exceedi ngly s ignificant. I ndeed, we can see that in Russia per sons with the most varied conceptions of l ife h ave taken part i n a brief span o f time i n giving s hape to the revolutionary movement. As things h ave been b rought to a climax in Russia, the rea l social problem of the present age became actual under the i nfluence of the war catastrophe. F rom thi s

181

actuality of the problem o f ownersh i p the re then develop ed i n M arch 1 9 1 7 the so-cal led February Revolution in Ru ss ia, w hose esse n t i al objective was to overthrow the political powers that stood behi nd the system of owners h i p . B u t th is purely political, externally political, for m of the revolu tion was soon set aside in t h e v e ry first stages of

the revolutionary th i n k i n g by those men who are conceived, accord ing to Trotsky's ter m i nology, to be men of understanding. They are m e n w h o , by all sorts of speculations, clever concepts, i deas, and even clever notions transformed i nto con cepts, w ished to bri n g about a social structu re. These revol utionaries com p r i s e d p r i m ar i ly those persons w h o had al ready at an earlier time taken part more or l ess in the form i ng of the social structure,

the

intellige n tsia,

the

com mercial

people, the industrial c i rc l es, all o f w hom took human reason as their poi n t of d e parture in the

effort to b r i n g about some sort o f social formation. Trotsky, however, considers, w i th a certain jus

tification even though rel ative a n d one-s ided, that these persons who w ish to bri ng about a social

structu re in such a way through a l l sorts of spec ulations, with good

i nte ntions and good w i l l ,

merely delay the revol ution. T hey h ave no capa city whatever, are i ncapab l e of d o i n g a nyth i n g at al l. You know on the basis of the reflections I h ave presented to you t hat the p roletariat world view

tends pri marily to the judgme n t that noth i ng whatever can be accompl ished by such considera182

tions no m atter how clever they are, even though they are based so completely u pon the foundation laid by those persons whom T rotsky calls chat terers or tongue-waggers because they can speak so cleverly. I n other words, these rational con siderations are rejected by the proletariat world view out of a certain i nsti n ct, which has become gradually a defin ite theory in marxism. There is simply no belief t h at a ny sort of satisfactory social structure can be b rought about in the future by any kind o f ration a l considerations whatsoever. The only th i ng that the p roletariat bel ieves is that fruitful ideas are born only i n the heads of the proletariat themse lves, i n the heads of these masses who ow n not hi n g, and out of the economic conditions in w h i c h t he members of the proletar iat live. T hese i d eas ca n never be born in the bour geoisie nor i n any other c lass, for the reason that they i nevitably th i nk d ifferently because of their characteristic ideas. O n ly w i th i n the class of the workers do i deas arise that alone can give the motive force to b r i n g about a future social for mation. When we consi d er th is fact, it is clear that the inevitable conclusion for such a head as that of Trotsky is that the only thing to be done is to de prive the bourgeoisie of thei r possessions and to lead the property less classes to the position of mastery. T h i s is someth i ng that has been in a preparatory stage i n such heads for decades, and they now wish to i ntroduce it into Russia since the 183

great crisis has arisen i n th at c o u n try. T h i s con dition was to be brough t about th rough the so called October Revolution, after the othe r parties - if we may so call them - were set asi d e i n the seizure of power by the p ro l etari at i tsel f. F rom this point of view, which is natu ral ly a p u rely abstract one and concrete o n l y to the e x te n t that it makes everyth i ng depend.en t u p o n a defin ite c lass of men, thus constitu ti ng a real ity , the l ead i ng per sonal ities of the Russian Revolution h ave guided affairs since October 1917. N ow. such a revol utionary w ay o f th i n k i n g gives rise to certain difficulties. These d i ffic u l t i es fol l ow in a particularly intense for m i n R u s s i a a n d i t was characterized by cer tai n special p rereq u i si tes, as ,

you know on the basis of o u r s p i r it ual-scien t i fic discussions. These difficulties arise fro m the exist ent class formations throughout the w o r l d , o n ly they were man ifest in a partic u l a r l y i nten se way because of Russian conditions. The first great d i f ficulty is that the whole social a n d p ol i tical l eader ship of humanity is to be given over to a c l ass that was previously deprived of everyth i ng , and h ad n o connection whatever w ith so-cal l e d culture. The proletarian , who is actually to take the steering wheel, has previously been excl uded from all those i mpelling forces that established the ex isting power factor. He has h i therto never taken any thing to market except his own l abor, h i s physical capacity for handwork. This cond ition exists in al l cou n tries. Thus it

184

will come about everyw here that, to the extent that a revolution takes r i se, the proletariat w i l l at first take over the l eadership as a pol i tical group. Everyth i n g, however, w i l l continue as it was, in a certain sen se. T hose persons w ho have h itherto held ad m i n istrative power w i l l remai n in their posi tions becaus e they a re techn ically trained and know the i r jobs. I n other words, there will be no

further

change than that a governing board of

laymen w i l l i nterject itself i nto the whole appara tus brought over from a nc i e n t ti mes. B ut the i m portant poi n t is th a t t h i s govern i ng board of lay men is a speci a l type, t h e proletariat type_, and it w i l l be com p osed e n t i re ly of p roletarians. S ince these person s w i l l a l l b e l o n g to the proletariat they w i l l w ish to m ake c ertai n that the principle shall apply t h at h o l d s that the control l i ng ideas i n the future can c o m e o n l y o u t of the heads o f the proletariat. T h i s l e adersh i p cannot be subjected to such a th i n g as a n at i o n a l or a constituent as sembly, because that wou l d b e a certain continu ation of w h at ex i sted earl ier. Rather, what is to come about m ust constitute a rad ical transforma tion. I t

not necessa ry

fi rst to elect; those

who are to l ead are t h e re si m p l y because they be long to the proleta r i at. I t wou ld not be a national constituent assem bly, b u t the d i ctators h i p of the proletariat. At first, t h i s led to the d ifficulty that the pro letarians, as I h ave sai d , are laymen, who could merely act

overseers over those who continued

185

the previous adm i n istration. T hese i n d i v i d uals, of course, clung to earlier i n terests. Thus, particu lar ly in Russia, the proletarians ascended to the top. They previously had noth i ng to do w i th m atters belonging to the state organ i s m and were com pelled to take over everyon e w ho cond ucte d thi ngs according to ideas correspo n d i ng to the earlier state organism. They thus b rought over i nto the state, which was to be subj ected w holly to the dic tatorship of the proletari at. i n terests belonging to the old bourgeois state. These behave j u st l ike an enemy who, although not carry i ng on open war fare or a counter-revolution, yet c a r r i es over into the enemy's country every th i ng from h i s country that is to work destructively u po n the other. lt was in this way that the proletarians w ho had taken over the leadershi p in Russ i a looked u pon the ac tivities of the old i m perial groups as sabotage. Their first struggle was to overcome th i s sabotage that consisted in the effort to b r i n g over i nto the re gime they were seeking to estab l ish w hat would real ly constitute the su pport o n ly o f the old re gime. The process was the same

i f a c itizen of

one country that had not open ly begu n any sort of hosti lity should carry poisonous m ater ials into a foreign land to i m p regnate its fields so that noth ing would grow there. Thus the mem bers of the proletariat looked u pon what came from these old staffs of officials as sabotage. At first thei r most intensely appl ied regu lations were d i rected to ward the m astery of this sabotage. Here they

186

showed no restraint w hatever. E verythi ng they considered d estructive they sought to root out completely, and such a person as T rotsky is really convinced that sabotage at present has already been overcome to a certa i n extent. Those who did anything w h atever to violate the wi ll of the people and prol etari at th i n k i ng were d r iven out or other wise pun ished. The d i ffic ul ty , however, i s certainly not over come, as T rotsky h i m se lf sees perfectly well, by merely com b att i n g so-cal led sabotage. He sees that it is necessary to retai n the entire body of for mer adm i n istrators, but that i t must be made to serve the p u rposes fun damental to the leadershi p of the proletariat. Trotsky, for i n stance, sees i n this the first great difficulty. T h is i s someth i ng he believes can be overcom e by h i s abstract m eans, but he will be un able to do so. I l l u s i on begin s at t h is point, for the si mple reason th at T rotsky is a spirit alien to re ality. This ill usory element is based u pon the ab stract notion that i t is possi ble to make the whole body of tec h n ical officials, of i ntellectual and com mercial people, servants of a governi ng board consisting enti rely of m e mbers of a d ictating pro letariat. I t is a d isbelief i n the configuration of the life of sou l and s p i r it that is manifest in th is illu sion. The s i m p l e truth is that, after a certain length of time, the cond ition w i l l revert to just what it was p reviously. If the old ideas are main tained, if there is fai l u re to realize the truth of

187

what I have often em phasi zed h e re - that the so c ial trans fo rma t i on

must p roceed

au t

new

thoughts - if the old tec h n i c i ans. the old offi c i als. the old generals are simply put back in the i r posi tions, if the old is sim ply taken over a n d people do not advance to meet the new, most o f all through

education, it must revert to w h at i t was. I n other words, such a process w i l l not overcome cond itions but will si mply conti nue them. It i s poss i b l e to overcome sabotage for a certa i n l ength of t i m e by means of regulations appl ied by force, b u t it will

raise its head aga i n a n d aga i n . I f it i s tru e that a person is dependent u pon the s i tuation i n w h ich he finds himself - and h e has been d ependent for three · or four centuries, w h i c h is t r u e w ith refer ence to modern h istory - the resu lt w i l l be that, if

he is not freed from these relationsh i ps by means of effective thoughts that can come only from the spi ritual life, he must i nevitably fal l back i n to the old habits of th i nk ing a n d acti ng, just as surely as

a cat falls on all fours. This is a poi nt where such th i n k i ng i s revealed in its i l l usory character, utterly al i en to real i ty. I m ight ind icate many suc h po i nts, b ut I w ish to

make clear to you only the speci a l configu ration of this th i n k i ng. I wish to show you by m eans of in dividual exam ples how th is th ink i n g betrays i ts utter unreal ity. It is not possible s i m ply to th i n k out one th ing o r anoth er that shou l d occu r, b u t i t i s necessary to take account o f these i m pelling forces active w ith in real ity i n accordance w ith

188

inherent law. I f a person does not l i ve w ith these, he inevitably fal l s p rey to i l lusions. O ne of the most important i l l usions in the case of Trotsky is the follow i ng. T rotsky knows that through the par ticularly i n tense suppression that has been ex perienced by the great m asses even of the present proletariat i n Russia - and t hi s term is j ustified condi tions had to come to a special cli max among these persons. He knows that the form the revolu tion takes under these special conditions cannot lead to a v ictory. He is out of touch w i th real ity, but not so com pletely out of tou ch as to prevent h i m from see ing i n a rational way that i t i s possible to bring a new soc i al structure into existence under the present cond itions in a region which, however extensive, is l i m ited i n comparison with the whole earth. For this reason Trotsky counted upon a revolutionary movement to be brought about by the proletariat throughout the civilized world. He did not i n d u lge i n the i llusion that the Russian revolution alone could be v ictorious. He knew that it depended upon the v ictory of the proletariat revol ution th roughou t the world. Now, the w hole abstrac t character of Trotsky's way of concei v i ng t h ings m an ifested itself in these ideas. Trotsky believed in the proletariat revolu tion over the w hole earth . He believed tha t the war wou ld grad u al ly take on such a character as to bring abou t a

sort of proletariat revolution

throughout the world and that the war wou ld be transformed i n to the p roletariat revolution. 189

Now this catastrophe of w a r w i ll certai nly be transformed into all sorts of t h i ngs. B u t the actual ity of things has already s ho w n c o n clusively that this idea of Trotsky's is o u t of touc h w ith real i ty. It wou ld have been true only if t h i s war catas trophe had ended i n u n iversal exhau stion, if such a str i k i ng so-cal led v i ctory - it came about in a strange way - had not been ach i eved by one of the parties to the war. This v i c to ry s i m ply el i m i nates the hope that exhaustio n m ight come about uni formly throughout the c i v i l ized w orld . W h at has occurred is a decisive h egemony of the Western Powers in connection w ith a compl ete subjection on the part of the Central and E aster n Powers. A complete mastery over the C entral a n d E astern Powers by the Weste r n Powers is w hat has been establ ished as a dom i na n t force, a n d the s itua tion could not have been other w ise. T h i s w as clear

to those who saw into real ity i n this real m. Trotsky, however, is simply a s p i r i t ali e n to real i ty , and he ought now to say to himself, " I have been refuted by even ts." H e uttered someth i ng not w ithout basis, someth ing brill iant i n a m erely abstract way of th inki ng when he said, "The bourgeois con ception of life at the present t i m e h as no alterna tive but to choose between last i ng w ar and revolu tion." The th ing turned out d i fferently. The so called victory of the W este r n Pow ers has taken place - neither lasti ng war nor revolution. In what is begi n n i ng i n a p re l i m i nary way i n the West there is no germ for any sort of proletariat

190

revol ution . On the contrary, here there is simply the shapi n g of the entire West into a politically organized great bourgeoisie, faci ng the p roletar· iat of Central and E astern Europe. This is the outcome in world h istory. It will cer tainly be transformed again but at present exists. This is the real state of the case, so that Trotsky ought, therefore, to reflect in an entirely differ ent way if he w i shes today to see real ity. He would have to say to h i mself, "Under this shaping of events, how can what I intended through the Rus sian revolution become victorious, since one of the most i mportant presuppositions, the world revolu tion of the proletari at, w i l l not occur?" If he is still counting today upon th is world revolution, it is simply evidence of his complete isolation from reality. At still another point the alienation from reality characteri z i ng th e th i n k i n g of such a revolution ary manifests itself i n a pecul iar way. Such revolu tiortists also have natu rally always referred to Prussian-Ger man m i l i tarism as the greatest of all evils, declaring that it must be overcome and elim inated from the world . Now the course of events has been such that P russian-German militarism has been e l i m i nated from the world, but the mili tarism of the E ntente will in the near future exer cise a considerable domi nation! Now, I do not wish in the least to speak about th is, but Trotsky h im self has had occasion to raise the question, "What, then, is the most important of the immed iate tasks

191

of the Russian revolution i f it w i s hes to mai ntain i tself?" H is answer is, "Th e c reation of an army!" J ust th is is designated by T rotsky as the most im portant i m med iate task. These thi ngs ought to receive careful at �ention. They need to be thoroughly seen through . Only when these thi ngs are obse rved and seen through does it occur to people to say, " N ow, I m ust really look a little deeper into the i m pe l l i n g forces within h uman ity i f I des i re to for m conceptions for myself as to what is to resul t from the c h aos that this war catastrophe has developed." B u t h u m an ity is de cidedly d is i ncl ined today to p e n etrate i n to such i m pel l i ng forces, w h i c h I h ave d escri bed to you here from the greatest n u m b e r of v i ew po i nts as the true, the only poss i b le, soc i a l forces. H u m anity woul d be able to get u nder the su rface of these things if the determ i nation were reached s i m ply to get a fi rmer hold upon the real forces domi nant in man's evolution . O ne extremely ch aracte r i st i c expression ap pears again and aga i n from the m i n d s of the Rus sian revolutionaries. I n the main, what do these mem bers of the proletar ian d ic tatorsh i p really w ish? They want to make the world i n to a great factory i n terpenetrated by a k i n d of bank book keepi ng system exten d i n g over a l l grou ps. "We shall fi t the old technicians, the old offi cial s, even the old generals into our proletariat d i ctatorship, " they say, "but w e m u s t h ave the book keep i n g for the total economy, the factory accou nti ng depart-

192

ment in our own h ands." T h i s i s not surprisi ng, be cause the w ho l e m ovem e n t h as taken its rise in modern industry. I f people woul d only pause

reflect that th i s move m e nt h as origi n ated w ith the proletariat of m o d e rn i nd ustry, no one wou ld be surprised that the i r w ay of th i n k i ng, developed i n connection w i th w h at these people have seen i n factories, shou l d b e a p p l i e d t o everythi ng upon which they can l ay their hands. T h is is the natural resul t and consequence of the failure of the bour geoisie to pay attention to the enormous expansion of the p role tariat in recent ti mes. E ven if it was Inevitab l e t h at t h e bourgeoisie closed their eyes and calm ly perm i tted everyth ing to occur, it most certa i n ly is not a m atter of necessity that the sti l l more i mportant c o n d itions, the i mpelling forces _existent i n t h e worm, should continue to be unob served . So l o n g as these forces are not observed, it is i m poss i b l e for p e o p l e to become acquainted with social tasks. Here i t i s n ecessary to k now how d i fferentiated humanity is in various parts of the world - as I said, i nd ee d , yesterday or the day before. It is necessary to k n ow t h at the people live in the W est

differently than those i n the East and in the M id dle Cou ntries. I t i s not possible by m eans of ab stract i deas, w h ic h i gnore real ities, to bring about any sort of social for m ation. The Russian revolu tion is certa i n to suffe r s h i pwreck because of its great i l l usion a n d isolation from realities. Such i l lu s ions can be transformed for a time i n-

193

to reaiity by people who are free bei ngs th rough education, that is, free to the extent that a person who possesses the power can make use of it. But reality then elimi nates i llusions; it cannot use them. Reality accepts only what is i n keeping with the course of this reality. W e must not forget that the most important thing of all is the fact that we are living i n the age o f the consciousness soul development, which occurs i n sharply di fferen tiated forms throughout the world. Let us consider the various i m pell ing forces un derlying the civilized world in the l ight of the most important European d i fferentiations that come to expression through lan guage. I h ave often brought to your attention the fac t that the E nglish speaki ng peoples possess the real germi nal po tentiality for the development o f the consciousness soul. It is important that w e should see this clearly. This is connected w ith everything that happens to the world, if we may so exp ress the m atter, under the influence of the E nglish- speaki ng peoples. The E nglish people - I am by no means speaking of individual persons, but of the people - are en dowed with all the i m pell i ng forces that lead to the consciousness soul. The cond ition is such that the trend toward the consciousness soul appears in stinctively i n them in a manner entirely d ifferent from that characteriz i ng the rest of h umanity. This spiritual ized i nstinct to d evelop the con sciousness sou l exists nowhere else i n the world as it does among the E nglis h people T here it is an

194

instinct, and nowhere else is that so, even among

the people of Roman descent who are united with the E ngl ish-s peak ing peoples. The people of Ro man descent constitute really successors to what actually l ived i n the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. At that ti m e this Rom �n people had the instinct for what developed in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch in special degree. Their instincts are no longer elemental i n the same way. They have been ration al ized, i ntellectualized and they appear in rhet oric, through the i ntellect, through the psychic l ife as a decorative form. They have been removed from the i nstinctive life. What appears among the Latin people as a fol k temperament is altogether different from w h at appears as a folk tempera ment among the E nglish people. Among the Eng lish people thi s trend toward the consciousness soul. this str i v i n g of the individual person to stand upon his ow n feet, is an instinct. In other words, w hat constitutes the mission of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is rooted in the English as an i nstinct, as an i m pel1ing force arising instinctively from the soul of the people. Now, their posi tion in the world is connected with th is fact. T h is i mp u lse is dominant within the social structure of the E nglish-speaking peoples. It is decisive, and it can suppress other tendencies. The other tendencies, as you can see from the ex planations I have offered, look toward the i ntegra tion I have given of the social question, that is, the economic impulse and the im pulse of spiritual 195

prod uction. I f, however, you study the fo lk char acter of the English-spea k i ng p op u l ations psycho logically, you w ill see that these i m pu lses, the econom ic and the spiritually productive, are whol ly overshadowed by what r ises fro m the i nstinctive impulse that tends toward the d evelopment of the consciousness soul. For th is reason the spheres that m u st shape the social l ife of the future take on a s pecial coloring among the E n gl i sh-speak ing p eople. T he three spheres must i n the futu re s h ow themselves espe cially effective in special ways, and they must be decisive. F i rst, politics, w h i ch must provide se cu rity. Second , the organ ization o f work, purely material work, the econo m i c order. T h i rd is the system of spiritual production, to w h ic h I attri bute also, as I said to you , j u r i sp r u d e n ce and the ad m inistration of justice. T hese th ree sphe res of the social structure are, as a matter o f cou rse, over shadowed by what constitutes the p r i m ary im pulse in the case of any d i fferentiated peoples. The fact that a development toward the consc iou sness soul

works

instinctively

a mo n g the

E ngl ish

speaki ng peopl e b r i ngs it to p as s that among them - as history teaches i n p ro fusion - pol itics, one branch , take on the most cons p i c uous form, and the dom i nant position. Pol itics are d o m i nated wholly by the instinctive i m pulse to set men on thei r own feet, and to d evelop the consc iousness soul fu lly. T he i nstinctive i m p u l se d rives in such a direction - and t h i s i s a mere descri ption I 196

giving, and no c r i t i c i sm. I t drives toward the re sult because i t i s i n sti nctive and i nstincts are al ways rooted i n se lf- seeki ng. A mong the E nglish speaking peop l es self-seek i n g and pol i tical goals sim ply c o i n c i d e . I t leads to the fact that all politics performed in a n u tte rly n aive fas h ion - and this does not justify attach i n g any bl ame to a pol itician of the E ngl ish-speak i n g peoples - can be used by the se lf-seek i n g person to fu lfill thereby the m is sion of the E ngl is h-spea k i n g people. I t is only in this way that you w i l l s ucceed i n understanding the real natu re o f E ng l i sh pol itics, which are ac tually the d o m i n a n t p o l itics of the entire popula tion of the earth. I f you observe the matter, you will f i n d t h a t E ngl i s h pol itics are considered everywhere as ideal - the par l iamentary system with its shu ffl i n g o f m ajorities and minorities, etc. I f you exam i n e t h e condi tions i n the various parlia ments as these h av e d eveloped, you will see that B ritish politics h ave been determ i native in the political l ife. B u t, as these pol itics have spread i n various p laces a m o n g d i fferently constituted peo ples, they could n o lo nger remain the same because they are roote d , a n d r ightly, in the self-seeking and ego ism that i ne v i tably cli ngs to everything of an i nstincti ve n atu re. It is this that renders u nd erstanding so difficult when peop l e try to grasp the n ature of E nglish or American pol itics. The n uance, w h ich it is abso lutely necessary to see clearly, is not clear at all. T h is is the fact t hat these politics must be self-

197

seeking, and must rest u pon i m pu l ses of a self seeking character. Because of thei r s pec i al nature, they must rest upon self-seek i ng impulses. T hus, they will look upon these self-seek i ng impulses as something to be taken for granted , as the right and moral thi ng. No objection can be raised here. This is not to be attacked w ith criticism. but to be recognized as a necessity i n world h i story, even a cosmic necessity. N either can this statement be refuted, for the simple reason that anyone w ho Uil dertakes to oppose it as a membe r of the E nglish people will always find h imself on a false path. O n the basis of moral considerations, which have nothing to do w ith the matter, he w i l l deny that the politics of the E nglish people are self-seeking, but moral considerations have nothing to do with this. Engl ish pol itics w i l l ach ieve w h at they b ring about precisely by reason of this instinctive char acter. So, during our fifth post-Atl ante an epoch, the element of power is assigned to th is English speaking population. We call to memo ry the three figures in Goethe's fairy tale: power; ph enomenon or appearance; wisdom, know ledge. Of these three elements, power is assigned to the E ngl ish speaking people. W hat they accomp l i sh politically in the world is possible by reason of the fact that one of their i nherent, i nborn characteristics is that they should work by way of power. To work by way of power will be accepted during the fifth post Atlantean epoch as someth ing not subj ect to dis198

cussio n . E n gl ish pol itics are accepted all over the world. O f course, a l l the i njurious effects, which, however, are al w ays to be found in the reality be longing to the p hysical plane, may be sharply criticized , even by those belonging to the British _E mpire itself. Yet B ritish politics are accepted. It is in here nt in the evo l ution of our times that they are accepted, and without any reflection, without any effort to fi nd reasons for this. More over, the reas o n s would never suffice, because it is sim ply a m atter o f i mmed iate inevitabil ity that the power that com es from this d i rection is ac cepted. This is not true as regards the people of Roman descent w h o are u n i ted w ith the E nglish-speaking peoples. T hey m a n ifest i n a certain way the shad ow, the time s h ad o w , of w h at they were during the_ fou rth post-Atlantean e poch. Instincts have been _ transmuted i n to the i ntellectual w h ere they are no longer so e l e me ntal . T hu s, E nglish politics are accepted as somethi ng beyond d iscussion. F rench politics are accepted only by those whom they are able to p l ease. T h e F rench nature is loved in the world to the extent that it pleases. The E ngl ish nature does not d epend at all u pon this. It is based upon the i ncontesta b i lity with which· the effective politics

of the p resent time fall to the share of the

English nature. B ecause of this situation, how ever, it is also possi b l e that precisely among the English-s peak i n g populations, the economic l ife is held w ithin l i m i ts and is subordinate to the domi-

199

nant impulse toward sel f-see k i n g and power that is suitable in pol i t i cs. The spi ritual l i fe a lso, to the extent that it belongs to the fifth post- A tlantean epoch . becomes subserv i e n t to pol i tics. Every th ing enters u ni ted ly i n a c erta i n w ay i nto the service of pol itics. Thus marx ism is s i mply w ro n g for the E nglish speaking worl d because it presu pposes politics to be an appendage of the econ o m i c order. This i s not the case among the E ngl i sh-spea k i ng peoples. The marxi st social order is p reven ted from suc ceed i ng there, not by reason of argu mentation or discussion, not because of anyth i ng that happens in the world, but th rough the fac t that the Bri tish E mpire is constructed upon a d i fferent foundation of realities from those upon w h i c h m a rx i sm and the marx i st proletariat b u i l d s. T h i s is the great contrast between the p roleta r iat, th i n k i n g i n a marx ian way, and the B ri ti s h w ho work out of the instinctive life, extend i ng the B r i tish E m pire throughout the world . S u ccess w i l l not be atta ined by the banking i nstitutio n s or the book keeping system that T rotsky wishes to i ntrod u ce i n to Rus sia. It w i l l be attai ned by the great ban k i ng i nsti tution, the great in stitution of finance, i nto which the E nglish-speaking population i s o rga n i zed by reason of its spec ial i n herent q ual i ties. I f we i n vestigate the manner i n w h i c h an i nd i v idual peo ple is rel ated ip its parti c u lar d i ffere ntiation to the three spheres of society th at I have d escri bed to you as based upon real i ty, t h i s can be clearly

seen. 200

Someth i ng else m us t be added to th is. It is ex· tremely i m portan t. T h e d ifferentiation regarding which I spoke to you goes so far that the person who does not stri ve to free h i msel f from his people, but rather strives for closer u n i on - and politics do defi nitely strive for such union - has enti rely differen t

experie nces

con nection

with the

Guard i a n of the Th reshold from those of the per son who str i ves to free h i mse l f from his people. Here I come to a poi n t that, if you w i l l study it thoroughly, w i l l provide you w i th the basis for disti n gu i s h i ng betwe e n �h olesome occultism that

appears n atu ra l ly th roughout the world, with out d ifferentiation as to peoples, and the kind of

occultism that e nter s i n to the political service of a people and works outward as i n the case of those societies I h ave m entioned. You may ask, " H ow, then can I d isti n gu i s h these?" You can d istinguish them if you w i l l give close attention to these great differentiati n g c h a racteristics that I shall pre· sent to you today. In order for anyone to attai n to real occultism, thus serv i ng the w hole o f human ity, he must out grow h i s fo l k c h aracte r . He m ust i n a certain sense - here we m ay be perm itted to use the I ndian ex pression - become a "homeless" person; in the in nermost natu re of h is sou l he m u st not consider himself as belonging to any one people. He must not have i m p u lses that serve only a single people if he desi res to advance in gen u i ne occulti sm . But

the k i nd of occu l ti s m that desires to serve a single people in a l i m ited w ay arrives at a special

201

ex-

perience w hen confronting the Guard ian of the Threshold. Thus, i n the case of a l l those wh o seek for an occult development w i th i n the societies of the E nglish-speaki ng peoples, w h at becomes man ifest in the presence of the G ua rd ian of the Thresh old is that they d i scover at the m o m e n t w hen they desire to cross the Threshold those forces l iv i ng in the depths of human nature. T hese become mani fest when one enters the su perse n s ible world and are of the same c haracter as the d estructive forces in the u niverse. This is what they behold i n the presence of the Guardian of the T h resho l d . W hen they are guided in such a society to the poi nt of crossi ng the Threshold, they then become ac quainted with the evil powers of d isease and death, of everyth ing that paralyzes a nd destroys. W hen the same destructive forces that cause d eath in na ture - and they work w ith i n u s also - bring about knowledge, it is this knowl ed ge that comes to l ight in those societies. M ost assuredly o n e d oes enter the supersensible world, but one must pass the Guardian of the Threshold . I t is necessary to pass by the Guard ian of the T h resho l d i n such a way, however, that one has the experience of learning to know death in its true form, as i t d wells i n us and also in outside nature. This is due to the fact that a h r i m an i c powers l ive in external nature a ro u nd us, a nd i n it you can perceive no other th an ahrimanic powers - that is, to the extent that you rema i n w i th i n external nature. You can come i n to con tact w i th the mani festation of such powers as e nter i nto external

202

nature i n the man ner of specters. This explains the inclination of the West to spiritualism, to the see· ing of such for m s as rea lly belong to the sensory physical world, and are not visible i n ord inary life except u nder speci al conditions. These are the powers of death, d estructive powers, ahrimanic powers. T here are absolutely no other spirits withi n the w hole b road realm of spi ritualistic gatheri ngs than ahr i m an i c spirits, even where the spiritualistic gatherings are genuine. They are the spirits that a person takes with h i m out of the sense world w h e n he crosses the T hreshold. They go with h i m . T hey pursue him thence. The person crosses the T h reshold, and those who accompany hi m are the ahri manic demons, which he had not previously seen but w h ich he sees on the other side. These are the servants of death, illness, and de struction . T h is experience shocks the person into supersensible k nowledge and brings hi m into the supersensible world. All persons w ho are trai ned and .instructed in this way for occulti s m have significant experi ences. T his i s a significant experience of which I have spoke n to you, but it is an experience growing out of the fact that the person does not devote him self to an occultism related to all l) uman beings, but to a form pertai n i ng to a single people. There is such a d ifferentiati on . If the assertion is made to you anywhere i n the world that when you cross the Threshold you learn primarily the evil powers of il lness and death , you may know from this state ment that the occultist in question comes from the 203

corner I have often desc ri bed to you . You w i l l know this sim ply o n the bas i s of t h e e x pe r i e nce he relates to you i n connection w i th the G ua rd ian of the Threshold. The situation is d i fferent i n co nnection w i th the German-speaking

peoples.

I n to

the

German

speaking population someth i n g has also been in terjected. The Latin element h as been i n te rjected into the E ngl ish people in the sphere of its world power. The German-spea k i n g people has some thing that does not come from the past b u t is l i ke a flash of heat l i ghtning betoke n i ng the future. The Slav element, begin n i ng in Russia, is the futu re, is actually presen t only i n i ts fu ture germ i nal poten tial i ty but the S lavs, w h o h ave been th rust for ward, are the vanguard , the heat l ig h t n i n g por tending what is in course of p re parati o n . T hey sig nify in some way the heat l i ghtn i n g of the future of the Central E u ropean German world. as the Latin element signifies the shadows o f the past of the Western E ngl ish-spea k i n g world. This German element i tself, however, d oes not possess an i nsti nctive basis for the development of

the consciousness soul , but only the basis t h rough which it can be educated to the consciou sness soul. I n other words, whereas i n B r i tish regions the in

stinctive basis for the evolution of the conscious ness sou l is present, the German M i d d l e E u ropean

must be educated i nto the conscious ness soul if he is to make th is active w i th i n h i m in a ny w ay . He can achieve this only through education. So, since the epoch of the consciousness soul is at the same

204

t i me the epoch of i n te l l ectual i ty, the German who is to bring the consc iousness sou l i n any way i nto

activity w i t h i n h i m se l f m us t become an i n tellec tual person . T h u s. the German h as sought h i s rela tionship to the consc i o usness sou l pri marily by way of inte l l e c tual ity , not by way of the i nstinctive life. Therefore th e tasks of the German people h ave been attai ned only by those w h o h ave taken i n hand i n a certai n way thei r own self-education. The persons of m e re i ns ti n c t remain u n touched by this inner activati n g of the consciousness sou l and remain beh i nd in a certain sense. This is l i ke w ise t h e reason w hy the B r i tish people are e n d ow e d i nstinctively from the start for pol itics, w hereas the G e r mans are a non-politi cal people and not i n the l east e ndowed for pol i tics. When they u n de r ta k e , therefore. to pursue a pol iti cal course, they r u n a great risk, which w i l l be come espec i a l ly c lear to you if you give particular attention to the fac t that the Germans have taken over the task of i n trodu c i ng the second element into the wo rld w ith i n the i n tel lectual sphere. The

British fol k c h aracte r i s power. The German fol k character i s t h e a p pearing, the see m i ng, i f you will, the. shapi n g of t houghts, that which is not in a certa i n sense of the sol i d earth . I n th e B ritish fol k �haracter a l l i s of the sol i d earth, but just trace the intel lectual i ty of the Germans. You m ay compare

it with that of the G r e e ks except that the G reeks ,

gave form to the see m i ng in accordance with its pic tu re n atu re w h e reas the Germans have given form to the seem i ng especial ly i n relation to its 205

i ntellectualizing nature. I n the l ast analysis, there is noth i ng more beautifu l than w h at has been formed through Goethean i s m , th rough N oval is, through Sche l l i ng, through a l l those s p i r i ts who are truly arti sts in though t. T h i s m akes the Ger mans a non-pol itical people. If they are ex pected to be pol i tical, they are not e q ual to a person who th i nks politically through h i s i nsti ncts. O f the three thi ngs that are i nclu ded i n Goethe's fai ry tal e - power, see m i ng, k nowledge - what has fallen to the lot of the Germans i n the intellec tual epoch is the mou l d i n g of i nte l l ectua l i ty i n the . §.Phere of the see mi ng. I f he i s dete rm i ne d , never theless, to take hold of pol i tics, he r u n s the r isk of bri ngi ng into the sphere of real i ty w hat is beauti

ful

within the formation of though ts. T h is is the

phenomenon,

for

examp l e,

T re i tschke.

reality, i t will then sometimes happen that w hat is really beautiful in seem i n g, s i nce i t d oes not l ie with i n the l i mits of its own pote n tial i ties, w i l l be come somethi ng not rightfu l ly connected w i th the human bei ng, someth i ng that may rema i n a mere assertion, or must make the i m pression of u ntruth fu lness u pon the worl d . The great d anger, wh ich can obviously be overcome, cons ists i n the fact that the German not only l ies w h e n h e is cou rteous,* but he may also l i e when he i n trod u ces even h is best talents i n to a field for w h i c h he does not pos* An allusion to Fattst I I , Act 2: " l m Deutschen lueght man wenn man hofl ich ist. " ( l n German one l ies when one is courteous.)

206

sess i nborn potentia l i ties. He must- fi rst develop these potential i ties w i th i n h i mself, but to do so must make a spec i a l effort. Some years ago I said that the E ngl ishman is someth i ng, and that the German can only become someth i ng. T h i s constitu tes the great d i fficulty i n German cultu re. T h i s i s the reason w hy i n t he culture of Germ any and of German Austria only s i n gl e i nd ividual i ti e s stand out p rom i nently who have taken themselves in h an d , whereas the mass

es do not w i l l to occu py themselves w ith thoughts, which are i nherent i n the i n sti ncts of the B r i tish peoples, but w i l l to be control led. It is for th is rea son th at the popu lation of Central E u rope fell un

der th e

dom i nation o f such l u st for rulership as

that of the H ap sb u r gs and the Hohenzollerns

Just becau se of its n on -pol iti cal natu re-. and be cause the German is faced by entirely d ifferent necessi ties if he w i shes to achieve his m ission. He must be educated to this m i ssion. He must in some way be touched by w h at Goethe moulded into form i n his Faust, that i s , by the process of becoming of the h u man being between b i rth and death. T h i s is manifest, l i kewise, in the presence of the

Guard ian of the Threshold . If an i ndividual re mains wi thi n the German folk character, and

comes thus to the Gu ard ian of the Threshold, he does not observe, as d o those British societies of which I have s poken , the evil servants of i ll ness and death. It is i n this way that you can d raw a dis tinction i f you give c lose attention to these things.

207

He observes primarily how a h r i m a n i c and luci feri c powers, the former rush i ng i n from the physical world and the latter rush i ng i n from the spiritual world , are engaged i n a confl ict w ith each other. He sees how t h i s strugg l e m ust be ob served , si nce it is really a conti nuously fluctuating struggle and it is never possible to say where the v ictory w i l l fal l . Such a person becomes acquai nt ed i n the presence of the Guard i a n of the T h reshold with what constitutes the real basis for dou bt, what is present in the world as a conti nuously in flamed and u ndecided struggle, w hat b r i n gs one into a state of wavering but at the same time edu cates one into look i n g at the world from the most varied poi nts of view. T h i s w i l l be the s pecial mis sion of the German people i n s p i te of everyth ing possible to the contrary. They shal l take hold upon world cu lture from this side, even as the German people. Th rough its spec ial characte r as a people, certain th i ngs that I shal l touch u pon today, for example, i n the real m of knowled ge, can be evol ved only through the German people. Darwi nism in i ts mate rial istic c o l o r i n g has ari sen from the B r i tish people. T h i s i s an enti rely true principle - you can read t h i s i n my book, The

Riddles of Philosophy. I t is an e n t i rely true pri nci ple that organic creatures h ave gra d u a l ly evolved from the i m perfect to the more perfect, even up to man. The perfect is derived from the i m perfect. This pri nciple is absolutely true i f a p e rson ob serves

the physical world and in the presence of the

208

G uard ian o f the T h reshold comes u pon the powers of death and destruction . B u t we can express th is also d i ffe re n tly; i n other words, we can say that the im perfect is d e r ived from the perfect. Read the chapter deal i n g w i th P reuss in my book, The Riddles of Philosophy. We can j ust as well p rove that the pe rfect existed fi rst and that the imper fect comes i nto e x i sten ce t h rough decadence. I n other words, that m a n ex isted fi rst a n d that the other k i ngdoms late r descended from h i m th rough decadence. T h i s is just as correct. The situation i n which a th i n k i n g person finds h imse l f the moment he must say one th i n g is true and the other also true - to recog n i ze this situation i n its whole fru i t fu l character w as real ly granted to the German peoples alone by reason of the i r folk character. This is not understood at a l l a nywhere else in the world . It is not at all u nderstood in the world that people can a rgue for a long time over th is question, one maintai n i ng that the perfect bei ngs are de rived from the i mpe rfect, as Darw in does, and the other maintai n i n g, as Schel l i ng d oes, that the i m perfect bei n gs are d e ri ved from the perfect. Both are right, b u t fro m d i fferent poi nts of v iew. If we look at the s p i r i tual p rocess, the i m perfect is de rived from the perfect; if we look at the physical, the perfect is d e r i ved from the i m perfect. The whole world has been trained to be able to hold fi r m ly to one-sided truths. The German people are tragically condemned to stupefy them selves, thus deny i n g thei r own potentiality, when 209

they linger in the presence of a one-sided truth. Should they develop their own potenti al i ties, it will become clear to them every where, provided they submerge themselves to a certain depth , that no matter what assertion is made i n regard to uni versal relationshi ps, the opposite is also true. Only by seeing the two things together is i t possible actually to see reality. We learn to recognize this truly in the presence of the Gua rd i an of the Th res hold when we behold the struggle between those spirits who accompany us al l the w ay to the Guard ian of the Threshold out of the p hysical world and those who rush agai nst them from the other world, from the supersensible world. T hese are over looked by those societies of w h i c h I have spoken. Again, the situation is d i fferent in the case of the genu ine Slavic-speaking popu l ati on. B u t I have already said that the Western S l av has been inter jected in a certa i n way into the German-speaking M iddle E uropean popul ation. J ust as the Latin element is the shadow of the past, so are the inter jected Western Slavs, with whom the German speak ing population toward the E as t is brought into contact, heat l ightni ng i ndi cating what is to come from the Slavic· peoples i n future. For this reason, they manifest in a certain d i rectly opposite way what the Latin population among the E ngl ish shows in its way. The Western S l avs are also or ganized i n the epoch of the consciousness sou l for i n tellectuality, but they transform i t into mysti c ism. The Germans are non-pol i tical; the Western 210

Slavs are a l so non-political, but they tend toward bri nging the s p i r i tual world down i nto the physi cal world. They do th i s even i n the p resent l i fe. I n this way they h ave a characteristic p recisely oppo site that, for example, of the F rench or the Ital i an . The I talians and the F rench, i n the i r pol i tics, are dependent upon the degree to which they p lease others. The pol itics of E ngland are accepte d

someth i ng beyond d i scussion whether it pleases o r does not please. T h e pol itics of F rance depends upon the degree to w h ich the F rench people p lease other persons. The effect of what they have done has been dependent u pon this. At certai n times they h ave pleased greatly. In the case of the W est ern Sh ivs it is d i fferent. Their pol itics are depen9ent upon the m a nn er in which thei r spiritual nature acts anti pathetically upon the German speaking population. T hey are dependent upon the degree to w h i ch they fai l to p lease. If you study the destiny of the Czechs, the Poles, the S lovenes, the Serbs, the Western S l avs, you will find that th is is brought about by the degree to which they are antipathetic and fail to please the M iddle Euro p�alJ_ p_o pulatio n . The relationshi p of the French or the Ital ian is d ependent upon how they please; the relationsh i p of the Poles, S lovenes, Czechs and Serbs is depen d e n t upon the manner in which they fai l

to please. If you study h istory you will fi nd this

pri nci pl e confi rmed in a wonderfu l way because one is connected with the past and the other w ith the future.

211

The situation is utterly d i ffe re nt i n the case of the S lavic people of the E ast. T hey hold the germ of the future. T here the s i tuation is s u c h that ger m i nating spi r i tual i ty is the b as i c c h a racter istic. the most fu ndamen tal natu re of the S lavic popu la tion. U n l ike the great mass of the G e r ma n popula tion that al ways causes only i ts i n d i v i d u al i ties to stand pro m i nently among i t, the Russian people are dependent u pon the i n d i v i d u a l i ty w h o receives outside of the fol k characte r t h e reve l ation that ought to be received by the people. T h e Russian people's cultu re w i l l continue to be a c u l tu re of revelation for a long time, even to the d aw n ing of the sixth post-Atlantean e poc h. T he Russian in greater measure than any other person i s depend ent u pon the

seer,

but he is a l so receptive to what

the seer bri ngs to h i m . T h e E nglish-speaking people are- s i m p ly gu ided through their pol i tics to that for w h i c h it is en dowed by nature. The German-speak ing people are brought by their pol i tics to some th i n g that really does not pertain to the m , someth i n g where by they are easily led i nto a dark c ha n n e l , i nto u n truthfu lness,

especially

when

they

s u r render

themselves to the i r insti ncts. This never happens, however, to those persons w ith the a p p ropriate self-ed ucation who are stri vi n g tow a rd i ntellectu ality. They actually represe n t the German people. The others have sim ply not arrived at w hat con stitutes the real nature of the G e r man people and are l iving below that l eveL T h i s is sti l l more true of

212

the Russian peopl e. The Russian people are not only non-po l i ti ca l l i ke the Germans but anti pol i tical. It is for this reason that British pol itics ':_V i ii be sel f-seek i n g; German pol i tics w i l l b u rge�n into a d reamy ideal ism , which may have nothing �hatever to do w i th rea l i ty. I am not speaking i n a moral sense here b u t this d reamy ideal ism is con nected w ith everyth i n g untrue and theoretical , and a l l that comes from theorizing i s un true. Rus §ian pol i tics must be utterly u ntrue, since they are an al ien element and do not belong to the Russian· character. W h e n the Russian w ishes to become pol i tical on the basis o f h is character, he is more likely to become i l l . A mong the Russian peopl e beco m i ng " political" means becom i n g " il l ." I t sig nifies taki ng pestr uc tive forces i nto oneself. The Russian is an ti-pol i tical, not merely non-pol itical. He may be overpowered by such pol i ti cians as those who were i n office at the begin n i n g of this war catastrophe, but these do not work as Rus sians. T hey work as someth i ng entirely d i fferent. The Russian, however, becomes i l l when he is ex pected to become a pol itician, for he has noth ing whatever to d o w i th pol i tics i f he stands within h is own folk c h aracter. H e has to do w i th someth i ng different. H e has to do with w hat constitutes the th ird eleme n t i n the sense of Goethe's fai ry tale, that is, w it h knowledge and w isdom that is to dawn u pon

human ity during the sixth post

Atlantean epoch. I t is thus that the threefold combination is d is-

2 13

tr ibuted: power, seeming, knowled ge - West, M iddle, East. This must be take n i n to account. S ince the Russian nature becomes i ll i n con nection with politics, even such pol i tics as those o f bolsheÂ vism can first be expected of the R ussians in the crassest form, in the most rad ical for m , because it would be possible to inoculate the R u ssians w ith someth ing else j ust as well . The Russian nature i s not only non-pol itical, b u t anti-po l i tical. These things become m a n i fest in the p resence of the Guard ian of the Threshold . W hat the Russian pri mari ly perceives in the p resence of the Guard ian of the T h reshold , if he rem a i n s w i thin h is Russian nature as an occu l ti st, i s the spirits rushing toward h i m from the other side, the s p i rits rush i ng inward from the supersensi ble. He does not see the spirits who accom pany h i m , nor does he see the struggle between them . He sees p r i marily the spirits coming across from the other side, which are in a certain way ful l of l ight. H e does not see death. He does not see decay. He sees w hat, i n its subl imity, overwhelm s the h um a n being, so to speak. It puts h i m i n danger most of all of being ever more humble and of th ro w i n g h i msel f upon his knees in the presence of the s u b l i m e . Being b l i nded by what comes across i s the danger i n the presence of the Guard ian of the T h reshold for the Russian who remains as an occu l tist among h is own people. Such th i ngs must absolutely be taken i nto accou nt if we are to see actual real ities. T h i ngs are 214

actually so i n the world , th i ngs actually work i n this way. Abstractions d o not suffice. H umanity has never succeeded by means of abstractions. I n earlier periods of time h u ma ni ty possessed i n stincts, but i n the case of the E ng l i sh-speak ing population only one i n stinct exists i n i ts spiritual ized form and that i s the i nsti nct to develop the consciousness sou l . Everyth i n g else m ust be con �ciously acquired. This i s th-..! characteristic thing for the world , that these th i ngs m ust be ach ieved consciously. W i thout knowledge of the forces work ing i n humani ty regard ing which we have spoken today, it is i m possi ble even to th i n k of being able to say anyth i ng determi native about the social element. If a person speaks of soci al reform without know ing the object to w hich this reform is to be appl ied, he is speaki ng l ike a bl i nd man about colors. It is this that gives repeated occasion for the warning that the t i me h as actually arrived when the human being m ust take earnestly the duty of _learni ng through h i s l i fe and not dealing w ith i t ] i ke a game to be played. B y means of those th i ngs we develop from our i nherited potentialities, we get as far i n our l i ves as the twenty-s�venth year. In future the number of years w i ll be conti nually lower. You know th i s on the basis of earlier d is cussions. We need someth i ng that mai ntains us throughout l ife as h u ma n bei ngs who are in the process of beco m i ng and not as individuals who are fi n i shed and com pleted. On the basis of these

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things, men w i l l obtain an i nsight i nto m u c h that bears on the soc ial question. T h ey w i l l correct much of w hat they possess today i n the form of i l l u sory ideas and, indeed, m u c h m u st be corrected . It may well be said that the task that l ies before men can be called a d i ffi cult one, b u t i t can be mas tered. J ust consider for a moment the fact that you are actually sitting here, and know these t h i ngs. But do not consider yourselves on that account as specially chosen . Reflect rathe r u pon the fact that in the world outside there w i l l be many others who w i l l be able to understand the same th i ngs. I t is by no means i m possible that these i deas shal l enter i n to h u man l ife. In other words, the h i n d rance is only something artifi cially set u p . To be sure, this artificially e rected h i nd rance is som e th i ng terri ble, but i t must be overcom e for the reason that salvation can come in no oth e r way. M ay everyone in his own place do what is poss i b l e toward over com i ng the d i fficulties i n this fie l d . There is m u c h that needs t o b e d o n e for h u mani ty if only we a1 low the seriousness of our task to fi l l us through and through. F i rst, i t is necessary to achieve an insight i n to rea l i ty; not to l ive one's life in dull drows i ness, nor per m i t h u man i ty to l i ve i ts l ife i n d u l l d rowsi ness. As we b ecome acquai nted w ith indi viduals today we observe how l i ttle people are incl i ned rea l ly to go deeply i nto such thi ngs. We have surely experienced the l ast fou r or four and a half years! Truly i t was repeatedly possible to h ave well-meani ng, even q u i te i ntell i -

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gent, persons approach one w i th all k inds of pro足 grams for the future - and w hat p rograms for the future there are i n the world! People th ink out every i magi nable th i ng. F rom the very b eg i n n i ng, however, these thi ngs are not calculated to bring heal ing to h u man i ty, but rather noth i ng w hatever 9r a cu rse - noth ing w hatever i f no one takes them up or a cu rse if people e nter i nto them. I t is neces足 sary to resolve only one thi ng and .that is si m ply to acquaint one's self w i th real ity. One w i l l then not suppose that he can form a un ion or do this or that. But people w i l l consider themselves in d u ty bound to th ink i n h armony w ith th i s real i ty w hatever it is they th i n k is real. I f only w i th i n our ow n Move足 ment, at least, a goodly number of persons w(mld really endeavor i n the right way to permeate the i r soul l ives w i th those i m pulses to which w e h ave here called your attention! If they would turn thei r attention away from abstract fantastic ideals for human happiness, would study i nstead the actual tasks and i m pu l ses of our own ti me, and woul d determ i ne the i r o w n conduct accordingly, some足 thing would real ly have been attai ned. Now, I h ave wished once more from a special poi nt of view to show you today how the soc ial question also m ust b e stud ied. A person cannot sim ply say, " S i nce I am a human being I know mathematics, and I can, therefore, b u i ld a great rai l way b ridge." H e k nows that he must first gai n a knowledge of mathematics. o f mechan ics, of dynam ics. Thus m ust a person l earn the laws of

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the being of man i f he w ishes to h ave true soc ial judgment even in the s i mp l est matters. People are sim ply not identical i n the i r natu res ove r the whole earth, as T rotsky i magines, but are at most differentiated as groups when they belong to single peoples, or are actual ly i nd i vidual ities. On the one h and, we must learn to understand the characteristics of groups - for example, accordÂ ing to l anguages, as we considered the matter today. O n the other hand, we m ust acq u i re what was b rought to your attention yesterday and that is the d i rect understand i n g of one h uman indiÂ vidual by another. Th is i s connected w i th everyÂ th i n g that ought to l ive w i th i n us i n the form of social judgment and social fee l i ng. I n othe r words, I h ave w i shed to acquai nt you once more from a certain poi nt of v iew w ith what m ay give d i rection

to social judgment and a soc ial feel i n g. I wanted to call your attention to the profound seriousness of what is call ed the "social question."

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A D D I T I ONAL BO O KS BY R U D O L F STE I N ER THE T H R E E FO L D SOCIAL O R D ER An edi ted version of

The Threefold Com monwealth TO\\ \ R D SOCIAL REN EWAL A new translation of

The Threefold Commonwealth THE SOCIAL FUTU R E Shows how The Threefold Social Order can bring about a healthy social organi sm. KNOWLEDGE OF THE H IG H E R w · oRLDS A N D ITS ATTA I N M E T A how-to book that presents i n detail the means whereby everyone can develop a new knowledge of a world of soul and spirit. T H E R I D D LES OF P H I LOSOPHY What i s new here i s the treatment ot the history of phi losophi c think i ng as a m an ifestation of the evolu tion of h u man consciousness.

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