The Renewal of the Social Organism
GA 24
19. Longing for New Thoughts
[ 1 ] “Well meant thoughts don't make bread.” Such is the wisdom heard today the moment one speaks of ideas like those underlying the threefold social order. In view of the gravity of the times, this piece of wisdom may rank with another frequently heard today: “The social question will look different only when people return to work.”
[ 2 ] Whoever does not hear these two truths constantly repeated has no ears for the language of public discourse in widespread circles. And even if they are not expressly spoken, one hears these words behind much that is said publicly.
[ 3 ] It is hard for the ideas that the age requires to compete against such founts of wisdom because these objections are so incomparably “insightful.” A person need only say, “Show that they are wrong!” for the keenest thinker to recognize his powerlessness. Of course they cannot be refuted; they are obviously perfectly true.
[ 4 ] Is this all that is important in life—to say something that is perfectly true? Is not the all-important task to find thoughts that can set the facts of the matter into motion? It is a feature of modern public life (and one which does it great harm) that people will not combine their thinking with
a sense of reality.
[ 5 ] It is only this lack of a sense of reality that stands in the way when one tries to bring fruitful ideas to bear upon modern social troubles. People have long been accustomed to such deficient thinking; however, now it is truly time for a radical change of habits, especially in this aspect of human life.
[ 6 ] First, one must perceive how people came to slip into this kind of thinking. One must look at the kind of thought valued by our age.
[ 7 ] One such cherished train of social thought goes back to the life and customs of primitive times. People burrow into “primeval ages” to find communistic customs and such things, and draw from this certain conclusions about what should be done today. This train of thought has become very fashionable in pamphlets on the social question, and has thus spread throughout large circles. It may be found today in a great many ideas about “the social question,” especially among the masses.
[ 8 ] People might actually have arrived at this particular train of thought with far less effort than has been devoted to it in many quarters. They might have compared human social life with the lives and habits of various wild animals. They would have found that the animals have instinctive functions which lead them to satisfy their needs, and that these instinctive functions are adapted to acquiring in the best way the things nature provides.
[ 9 ] The essential point is that in the human being this instinctive functioning must be replaced by conscious, intentional thought. We must build upon the foundation of nature, just like every other creature that must eat to survive. The “bread question” touches the natural foundation of our very existence. But this question exists for every creature that needs food; one cannot possibly talk of “social thinking” in this regard. Social thinking begins only when the human being works upon nature by means of his intellect. Through thinking he makes himself master of the forces of nature; through thinking he brings himself into association with other human beings in a labor process through which the “bread” won from nature becomes a part of general social life. For this life, the “bread question” is an intellectual one. It can mean only, “Which are the fruitful thoughts that can, when realized, guide human labor to the satisfaction of our needs?”
[ 10 ] One can readily agree with anyone who, after hearing such an argument, replies, “Really, that is a very primitive piece of wisdom! What is the use of expounding anything that is so self-evident?” Indeed, one would very gladly stop expounding it, if only those who believe it is so superfluous were not the very people who cast it to the winds and destroy all sound social thinking with these words of wisdom: “Bread is not made by thoughts.”
[ 11 ] It is the same with that other wise saying, through which people seek to evade the gravity of the social question: “First of all, people should get back to work.” We work when a thought stirs in our soul and sets us working. If one is to work as a member of society as a whole, and at the same time feel one's existence to be one worthy of a human being, social life must be shaped by thoughts that reveal our contribution in the light of human dignity. Certain circles, it is true (socialist ones, moreover), would like to replace this incentive to work with compulsory labor. That is their particular way of avoiding recognition of the need for fruitful social ideas.
[ 12 ] The world has been brought to its present pass by those who make it impossible for ideas to effect anything because they run away from them. Salvation is possible only if a strong body of people, who are still able to rouse themselves to sufficient consciousness of the true state of affairs, join together. These people must not grow faint-hearted at this critical time, for they will be buffeted with the scornful words: “Impractical idealist! Utopian dreamer!” These people will do their duty and build, while the scoffers tear down. For everything that the others, with their “magnificent accomplishments,” have built or still wish to build, will fall into ruin because with their dread of ideas and their “practical life” they have built upon a quagmire of false “realities.” Such people are merely weaving delusions around their own routines, and procuring themselves a cheap complacency by scoffing at life's real work. To the open-minded, it is as clear as day; to look at such things clearly is the urgent duty of all who are unafraid to change their way of thinking. The age longs for creative thoughts. This longing will not be silenced, however noisily the foes of thinking may try to drown it out by thoughtlessness and grandiose gestures.
Der Durst der Zeit nach Gedanken
[ 1 ] Gutgemeinte Gedanken schaffen doch kein Brot. Das ist der Kern der Weisheit, die heute oftmals zu hören ist, wenn von Ideen gesprochen wird, wie sie der Forderung nach Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus zugrunde liegen. Man möchte angesichts des Ernstes der Zeit diese Weisheit zu einer anderen stellen, die man heute auch des öfteren vernehmen kann: wenn die Leute erst wieder arbeiten werden, dann wird die soziale Frage ein anderes Gesicht bekommen.
[ 2 ] Wem diese beiden Weisheiten gegenwärtig nicht in den Ohren klingen, der hat keine Ohren für die Sprache, die in vielen Kreisen zur alltäglichen geworden ist. Werden sie auch nicht unmittelbar ausgesprochen, so klingen sie doch hindurch durch vieles, das öffentlich geredet wird.
[ 3 ] Man kommt gegen Einwände, die aus diesen Weisheitsquellen stammen, mit den von der Zeit geforderten Ideen deshalb so schwer zur Geltung, weil sie ja so unvergleichlich «einleuchtend» sind. Es braucht jemand nur zu sagen: widerlege mir doch diese Einwände; und der beste Denker wird seine Ohnmacht bekennen müssen. Denn sie sind natürlich nicht zu widerlegen. Sie sind selbstverständlich richtig.
[ 4 ] Aber kommt es denn im Leben nur darauf an, daß man in irgendeiner Lage etwas Richtiges sagt? Hängt nicht vielmehr alles davon ab, daß man die Gedanken findet, die Tatbestände in Bewegung bringen können? Es ist eine Erscheinung im heutigen öffentlichen Leben, die diesem zum schwersten Schaden gereicht, daß man mit dem Denken nicht Wirklichkeitssinn verbinden will.
[ 5 ] Nur dieser Mangel an Wirklichkeitssinn ist es, der sich hemmend entgegenwälzt, wenn man den sozialen Nöten der Gegenwart beikominen will durch fruchtbare Ideen. Aber man hat sich lange gewöhnt an ein Denken im Zeichen dieses Mangels. Jetzt tut es wahrlich not, gerade an dieser Stelle des menschlichen Lebens gründlich umzulernen.
[ 6 ] Man muß nur erst sehen, wie man in ein solches Denken sich hat hineingleiten lassen. Man muß sich beliebte Gedankengänge der neueren Zeit vor Augen führen.
[ 7 ] Ein solch beliebter Gedankengang ist im Gebiete des Sozialen derjenige, der sich aus den Lebensgewohnheiten primitiver Völker ergibt. Man sucht zu erforschen, wie in «Urzeiten» ein gewisser Kommunismus und dergleichen geherrscht hat, und zieht daraus gewisse Schlüsse für dasjenige, was man heute machen soll. In Schriften, die von der sozialen Frage handeln, ist ein solcher Gedankengang sehr gebräuchlich geworden. Und er hat sich von da aus breiter Kreise bemächtigt. Er lebt heute in vielem, was in der «sozialen Frage» gerade von den Massen gedacht wird.
[ 8 ] Man hätte diesen Gedankengang wirklich billiger haben können, als man ihn auf vielen Seiten errungen hat. Man hätte das soziale Leben der Menschen vergleichen können mit den Lebensgewohnheiten wild lebender Tierformen. Da hätte man gefunden, wie Instinkteinrichtungen zur Befriedigung der Lebensbedürfnisse führen, und wie diese Instinkteinrichtungen auf die entsprechende Aneignung desjenigen gehen, was die Natur den Lebensbedürfnissen entgegenbringt.
[ 9 ] Das Wesentliche ist, daß der Mensch die Instinkteinrichtung durch das bewußte, zielgetragene Denken ersetzen muß. Auf die Naturgrundlage muß er bauen, wie jedes Wesen, das zu seinem Leben essen muß. In der Brotfrage steckt eine Frage der Naturgrund lage. Aber die ist für jedes nahrungsbedürftige Wesen vorhanden. In bezug auf sie kann von «sozialem Denken» gar nicht gesprochen werden. Dieses beginnt erst bei den Verrichtungen, denen der Mensch die Naturgrundlage durch sein Denken unterwirft. Durch sein Denken bemeistert er die Naturkräfte, durch sein Denken bringt er sich mit andern Menschen in einen Arbeitszusammenhang, der das der Natur abgerungene «Brot» in das soziale Leben hineinwebt. Für dieses Leben ist die Brotfrage eine Gedankenfrage. Es kann sich nur darum handeln, zu antworten auf die Frage: Welches sind die fruchtbaren Gedanken, die, zur Verwirklichung gebracht, aus der Menschenarbeit die Befriedigung der menschlichen Bedürfnisse hervorgehen lassen?
[ 10 ] Man kann jedem Recht geben, der nun, nachdem er dergleichen Auseinandersetzungen gehört hat, sagt: das ist doch wahrlich eine primitive Weisheit. Wozu spricht man dergleichen Selbstverständlichkeiten erst aus? Oh, man unterließe das Aussprechen recht gerne, wenn nicht diejenigen Menschen, welche finden, daß sie auszusprechen überflüssig ist, dieselben wären, die zum Schaden des gesunden sozialen Denkens sie in den Wind schlagen mit ihrer Weisheit, daß «doch Gedanken kein Brot erzeugen können».
[ 11 ] Und so steht es auch mit der anderen Weisheit, durch die man sich von dem Ernste der sozialen Frage hinwegdrücken möchte: es handle sich vor allem darum, daß die Leute wieder arbeiten. Der Mensch arbeitet, wenn in seiner Seele der Gedanke keimt, der ihn zur Arbeit treibt. Soll er im Zusammenhange des sozialen Lebens arbeiten, so empfindet er sein Dasein nur als menschenwürdig, wenn in diesem Leben Gedanken walten, die ihm sein Mitarbeiten im Lichte dieser Menschenwürde erscheinen lassen. Gewisse, auch sozialistisch orientierte Kreise möchten allerdings diesen Antrieb zur Arbeit durch den Arbeitszwang ersetzen. Das ist eben ihreArt, sich von der Einsicht in die Notwendigkeit fruchtbarer sozialer Ideen hinwegzudrücken.
[ 12 ] Die Welt ist in die Lage, in der sie sich befindet, durch diejenigen gekommen, welche die Wirksamkeit der Ideen unmöglich machen durch ihre Flucht vor denselben. Eine Rettung ist nur möglich, wenn diejenigen zu einer starken Macht sich sammeln, die noch in sich ein hinlängliches Bewußtsein von diesem Tatbestande entwickeln können. Diese dürfen in dieser ernsten Zeit nicht kleinmütig werden. Sie werden heute noch die Hohnworte: unpraktischer Idealist, phantastischer Utopist umbrausen. Sie werden ihre Pflicht tun, wenn sie bauen, während die Höhnenden zerstören. Denn fallen wird, worinnen es «so herrlich weit gebracht» haben diejenigen, die im Zeichen der Ideenflucht ihre «Praxis» auf den Sumpfboden einer täuschenden «Wirklichkeit » gebaut haben oder noch bauen wollen. Deren einziges Denken erschöpft sich heute darinnen, sich über ihre «Praxis» Illusionen zu machen, und sich durch das Verhöhnen wahrer Lebenspraxis eine billige innere Befriedigung zu schaffen. Klar in das zu schauen, was sich dem unbefangenen Verstande in dieser Richtung darbietet, ist heute wichtigste Lebensaufgabe all derer, die nicht davor zurückschrecken, über vieles umzudenken. Nach schaffenden Gedanken dürstet das Leben der Zeit; der Durst wird nicht verschwinden, wenn das gedankenlose Sich-Gebärden der Gedankenfeinde auch noch so laut für seine Betäubung sorgen möchte.
The thirst of time for thoughts
[ 1 ] Good thoughts do not make bread. This is the essence of the wisdom that is often heard today when people talk about ideas such as those underlying the demand for the threefolding of the social organism. In view of the seriousness of the times, one would like to add this wisdom to another that can often be heard today: once people start working again, the social question will take on a different face.
[ 2 ] If these two words of wisdom are not ringing in your ears at the moment, then you have no ears for the language that has become commonplace in many circles. Even if they are not spoken directly, they still resound through much that is said in public.
[ 3 ] The reason why it is so difficult to counter objections that stem from these sources of wisdom with the ideas demanded by the times is that they are so incomparably "plausible". All someone has to do is say: refute these objections for me; and the best thinker will have to confess his impotence. For of course they cannot be refuted. They are, of course, correct.
[ 4 ] But does life only depend on saying the right thing in any given situation? Doesn't everything depend on finding the thoughts that can set things in motion? It is a phenomenon in today's public life that does it the most serious harm that people do not want to connect a sense of reality with thinking.
[ 5 ] It is only this lack of a sense of reality that is a hindrance when one wants to address the social needs of the present with fruitful ideas. But we have long become accustomed to thinking in terms of this lack. Now it is truly necessary to thoroughly relearn precisely this aspect of human life.
[ 6 ] You only have to see how you have allowed yourself to slip into this kind of thinking. You have to look at popular trains of thought in recent times.
[ 7 ] One such popular train of thought in the social sphere is that which arises from the habits of primitive peoples. One seeks to investigate how a certain communism and the like prevailed in "primeval times" and draws certain conclusions from this for what should be done today. This line of thought has become very common in writings that deal with the social question. And from there it has taken hold of wide circles. It lives on today in much of what is thought by the masses in the "social question".
[ 8 ] This train of thought could really have been achieved more cheaply than it has been on many sides. One could have compared the social life of humans with the habits of wild animal forms. There one would have found how instincts lead to the satisfaction of the needs of life, and how these instincts lead to the corresponding appropriation of what nature provides for the needs of life.
[ 9 ] The essential point is that man must replace the instinctive faculty with conscious, goal-oriented thinking. He must build on the basis of nature, like every being that must eat to live. The bread question is a question of the natural basis. But this is present for every being in need of nourishment. With regard to it, there can be no talk of "social thinking". This only begins with the activities to which man subjects the natural basis through his thinking. Through his thinking he masters the forces of nature, through his thinking he brings himself into a working context with other people, which weaves the "bread" wrested from nature into social life. For this life, the question of bread is a question of thought. It can only be a matter of answering the question: What are the fruitful thoughts which, brought to realization, allow the satisfaction of human needs to emerge from human labour?
[ 10 ] You can agree with anyone who, after hearing such arguments, says: this is truly primitive wisdom. Why do we say such self-evident things in the first place? Oh, one would be quite happy to refrain from saying them if it were not for those people who think that it is superfluous to say them and who, to the detriment of healthy social thinking, throw them to the winds with their wisdom that "thoughts cannot produce bread".
[ 11 ] And so it is with the other piece of wisdom by which one would like to get away from the seriousness of the social question: it is above all a question of people working again. Man works when the thought germinates in his soul that drives him to work. If he is to work in the context of social life, he will only feel that his existence is worthy of human dignity if thoughts prevail in this life which make his work appear to him in the light of this human dignity. However, certain circles, including those with a socialist orientation, would like to replace this drive to work with the compulsion to work. This is just their way of avoiding the insight into the necessity of fruitful social ideas.
[ 12 ] The world has got into the situation in which it finds itself through those who make the effectiveness of ideas impossible by fleeing from them. Rescue is only possible if those who can still develop a sufficient awareness of this fact within themselves gather together to form a strong force. These must not become fainthearted in these serious times. Today, they will still be muttering the epithets: impractical idealist, fantastic utopian. They will do their duty if they build while the scornful destroy. For those who have built or still want to build their "practice" on the swampy ground of a deceptive "reality" in the name of the flight of ideas will fall, in which they have "come so wonderfully far". The only thinking they do today is to create illusions about their "practice" and to create a cheap inner satisfaction for themselves by mocking true life practice. To look clearly into what presents itself to the unbiased mind in this direction is today the most important task in life for all those who do not shy away from rethinking many things. The life of time thirsts for creative thoughts; the thirst will not disappear, no matter how loudly the thoughtless posturing of the enemies of thought would like to ensure its numbing.