The Renewal of the Social Organism
GA 24
Preface to the First Edition
[ 1 ] In the beginning of March 1919, my Appeal to the German Nation and to the Civilized World 1See Appendix. was published. Its purpose was to state briefly what is necessary in order to bring healing forces into our declining life situation, one that revealed its symptoms of decay in the worldwide catastrophe of the war. Many Germans and Austrians, and a number of Swiss, signed their names to the Appeal. Thereby, they testified that the proposals it puts forward point to vital necessities for the present and the immediate future.
These proposals were further elaborated in my book, Toward Social Renewal.2Towards Social Renewal, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1977 To give them permanent representation and carry the movement into practical life, a League for The Threefold Order 3Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus was founded in Stuttgart and in Switzerland. Among other steps taken to bring about this practical realization was the founding of a weekly paper, The Threefold Order,4Dreigliedernng des Sozialen Organismus which was published in Stuttgart. The following studies formed the lead articles I wrote for that paper during the summer and winter of 1919–1920. They can be treated as supplementary expositions of the principles established in Toward Social Renewal, or may serve equally well as an introduction to these principles.
[ 2 ] Everything I published both in Toward Social Renewal and in these studies is not merely the elaboration of theoretical premises. For over thirty years I have followed the most varied ramifications of European spiritual, political and economic life. In so doing, I believe I have gained insight into the tendencies this life has itself brought forth in trying to effect its own cure. I believe the thoughts expressed here are not merely the private thoughts of one individual: they voice the unconscious will of Europe as a whole. Owing to the special conditions of present-day life that I frequently mentioned both in Toward Social Renewal and in these studies, there have not been enough people who have manifested this will clearly, consciously, and with a desire to make it a reality. One could say the tragedy of the present is that countless people obstruct their insight into actual necessities with illusions as to what is worthy of this striving. Thoroughly outdated party lines shed a dense mental fog over these vital necessities. These views result in all manner of unrealistic and impracticable tendencies. What they actually undertake is hopelessly utopian, while they dismiss as utopian suggestions that come from actual life experience. This is what we have to contend with; in what follows, we will meet it with a fully conscious stance.
[ 3 ] Such impulses still govern foreign relations throughout the world today. Versailles and Spa are further steps in the same direction. Few recognize that such steps are leading more and more to the downfall of our civilization, which has already demonstrated through the catastrophe of the Great War its incapacity for further progress. To be sure there are individuals, among both the victors and the vanquished, who recognize this today. However, their number is not large enough; moreover, the majority of even these people view what is really necessary as utopian.
[ 4 ] If the League for the Threefold Order is regarded by many as an association of impractical people, it is, in my opinion, just because “the many” have lost touch with all reality and mistake their daily routines and party illusions for that reality. However, we shall never succeed in healing our civilization until the actual will of the age, so deeply hidden beneath the underbrush of impractical and illusory party schemes, is raised to full consciousness.
[ 5 ] For one who knows only too well that he is not suffering from foolish delusions it is hard to write what, among many today, will earn him the reputation: “He thinks himself wiser than all those actually engaged in practical life, who have therefore won the right to a voice in such matters.” Nevertheless, the author believes that the false reproach contained in such words should not prevent him from expressing what he holds to be necessary. This is especially so if one believes that one's inner vision has been guided to this necessity through more than three decades by a special relationship of one's life situation to present-day life.
[ 6 ] At any rate, it is my conviction (acquired through an observation of life that shuns all theory and keeps only the practical in view) that the will of the times is pressing toward this “threefold division of the social organism”; and that all the signs of decline and degeneracy now making themselves felt have arisen because public opinion in Europe has attempted to pursue old way of thinking that are no longer viable instead of turning to this new impulse.
[ 7 ] One group of people (from which the leaders came before the war, and from which many of them still come) continue to hold the same views that have led to the downfall; they do not want to see the connection between this downfall and their views. They attempt to fashion new life from the same forces that have led to death.
[ 8 ] The other group pursues a mode of thought born of negative criticism. They refuse to see that all this can do is cobble together an illusion of a social order out of the ruins of the past. Its existence can be only transitory, and is thus necessarily destructive. This group keeps to the old by contraries, but has no seeds of a new.
[ 9 ] Midway between these two groups lie the forces that are striving to bring forth this “threefold order of the social organism,” buried under the rubble of the past, out of the real and present will of this age. The bearers of this impulse feel they possess what the present hour needs.
Rudolf Steiner
Mid-July, 1920
Vorbemerkungen
[ 1 ] Anfang März 1919 ist mein «Aufruf an das deutsche Volk und an die Kulturwelt» erschienen. Er wollte in Kürze zum Ausdruck bringen, was nottut, um dem niedergehenden Leben, das in der Weltkatastrophe seine Krankheitserscheinungen enthüllt hatte, gesundende Kräfte zuzuführen. Zahlreiche Persönlichkeiten Deutschlands, Österreichs und eine Anzahl Schweizer haben unter diesen Aufruf ihre Unterschrift gesetzt und damit bezeugt, daß sie die in ihm ausgesprochenen Anregungen für etwas hielten, das auf die Lebensnotwendigkeiten der Gegenwart und der nächsten Zukunft hinweist. Eine weitere Ausführung habe ich dann diesen Anregungen in meinem Buche «Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage in den Lebensnotwendigkeiten der Gegenwart und Zukunft» gegeben. Um für sie in nachhaltiger Weise einzutreten und das Angeregte im praktischen Leben zur Durchführung zu bringen, ist dann in Stuttgart und auch in der Schweiz der «Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus» begründet worden. Unter den mancherlei Maßnahmen, die getroffen worden sind, um diese praktische Durchführung zu bewirken, ist auch die Begründung der in Stuttgart erscheinenden Wochenschrift «Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus». Die folgenden Aufsätze bildeten die Leitartikel, die ich im Sommer 1919 und im Winter 1919-1920 für diese Wochenschrift geschrieben habe. Sie können als ergänzende Ausführungen dessen gelten, was ich in den «Mernpunkten» begründet habe. Man kann sie ebensogut als eine Vorbereitung zum Lesen dieses Buches ansehen.
[ 2 ] Alles, was ich sowohl in den «Kernpunkten» wie in diesen Aufsätzen veröffentlichte, ist nicht aus theoretischer Gedankenarbeit erwachsen. Im Laufe von mehr als drei Jahrzehnten habe ich das geistige, politische und wirtschaftliche Leben Europas in seinen verschiedensten Verzweigungen verfolgt. Dabei ergab sich mir, wie ich glaube, die Einsicht in die Tendenzen, nach denen dieses Leben als zu seiner Gesundung hindrängt. Ich meine, daß die Gedanken, die ich ausspreche, nicht die eines einzelnen Menschen sind, sondern daß sie das unbewußte Wollen der europäischen Menschheit ausdrücken. Die besonderen Verhältnisse des Gegenwartslebens, auf die ich in den «Mernpunkten» und in diesen Aufsätzen wiederholt zu sprechen komme, haben es nicht dazu kommen lassen, daß dieses Wollen in klaren Umrissen und verbunden mit dem Streben nach praktischer Durchführung im vollen Bewußtsein einer genügend großen Anzahl von Menschen zutage getreten ist. Man möchte es die Tragik der Gegenwart nennen, daß zahllose Menschen sich durch Illusionen über das Erstrebenswerte die Einsicht in das wirklich Notwendige verbauen. Völlig veraltete Parteianschauungen verbreiten einen dichten Gedankennebel über dieses Notwendige. Sie ergehen sich in unpraktischen, undurchführbarenTendenzen; das Wirkliche, das sie unternehmen, wird zur unfruchtbaren Utopie, und dieVorschläge, die aus wahrhaftiger Lebenspraxis heraus gemacht sind, werden von ihnen als Utopie angesehen. Mit dieser Tatsache hat das in den folgenden Aufsätzen Ausgesprochene zu kämpfen; zu ihr will es vollbewußt Stellung nehmen.
[ 3 ] Aus dieser Tatsache heraus wird gegenwartig in unserer Welt der Zivilisation noch immer Weltpolitik getrieben. Versailles und Spa sind die Etappen dieser Politik. Die Anzahl der Persönlichkeiten, die durchschauen, wie diese Etappen zum weiteren Niedergange der Zivilisation führen, die in der Weltkatastrophe die Unmöglichkeit ihres Fortschreitens erwiesen hat, ist noch eine geringe. Solche Persönlichkeiten sind heute zwar in den Ländern der Sieger und der Besiegten vorhanden. Aber sie sind erstens nicht zahlreich genug, zweitens sehen wohl auch die meisten von diesen dasjenige, was wirklich nottut, als utopistisch an.
[ 4 ] Wenn der «Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus» von vielen als eine Gemeinschaft unpraktischer Leute genommen wird, so ist dies, meiner Meinung nach, deshalb, weil diese Vielen gerade von aller wahren Lebenspraxis abgekommen sind, und ihre Parteiillusionen und Lebensroutinen für Praxis halten. Man wird aber zu keiner Gesundung der Zivilisation gelangen, wenn man nicht das Wollen der Zeit, das so dicht in dem Gestrüppe der unpraktischen, illusionären Parteischablonen verborgen ist, zum vollen Bewußtsein bringt.
[ 5 ] Für jemand, der nur zu gut weiß, daß er nicht an albernen Einbildungen leidet, ist es schwer, das hinzuschreiben, was ihm bei vielen heute den Ruf einträgt: «Der glaubt gescheiter zu sein als alle, die in praktischer Lebensbetätigung sich das Recht erworben haben, in den Angelegenheiten, um die es sich handelt, mitzureden.» Der Verfasser dieser Aufsätze glaubt aber, daß der falsche Vorwurf, der in solchen Worten liegt, nicht abhalten darf, auszusprechen, was man für das Notwendige hält, wenn man der Meinung ist, daß ein besonderes Verhältnis der eigenen Lebenslage zu dem Leben der Gegenwart durch mehr als drei Jahrzehnte das geistige Auge auf dieses Notwendige hingelenkt hat.
[ 6 ] Es ist nun einmal meine in Lebensbeobachtung, die glaubt, alles Theoretische zu meiden und nur das Praktische ins Auge zu fassen, erworbene Überzeugung, daß das Wollen der Zeit nach «Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus» drängt, und daß alles, was an Niedergangserscheinungen erlebt wird, seinen Ursprung darin hat, daß das öffentliche Bewußtsein der europäischen Zivilisation, statt diesem Drängen sich zuzuwenden, in den alten unmöglich gewordenen Bahnen fortschreiten möchte.
[ 7 ] Die eine Gruppe von Menschen, aus der die führenden Persönlichkeiten vor dem Kriege hervorgegangen sind und aus der viele auch heute noch hervorgehen, lebt fort in den Anschauungen, die zum Niedergang geführt haben, und will den Zusammenhang zwischen diesen Anschauungen und dem Niedergang nicht sehen. Sie möchte aus den Kräften, die ihren Weg zum Tode gewiesen haben, ein neues Leben zimmern.
[ 8 ] Die andere Gruppe setzt die Denkungsart fort, die aus der negativ wirkenden Kritik geboren ist; sie will nicht einsehen, daß in dieser Denkungsart zwar die Möglichkeit gegeben ist, Scheingebilde gesellschaftlicher Organisation mit den Trümmern des Alten zu einem vergänglichen, allerdings selbst in dieser Vergänglichkeit verheerenden Dasein zu bringen. Sie setzt auf umgekehrte Art das Alte fort, aber sie ist ohne Keime eines Neuen.
[ 9 ] Zwischen diesen beiden Gruppen steuern die Kräfte, die die Bestrebungen für «Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus» aus dem wirklich vorhandenen, aber vom Schutte des Alten bedeckten Wollen der Zeit entbinden möchten. Ihre Träger sind der Meinung, daß sie dasjenige enthalten, was heute nottut.
Mitte Juli 1920
Rudolf Steiner
Preliminary remarks
[ 1 ] My "Appeal to the German people and the cultural world" was published at the beginning of March 1919. It was intended to express in brief what was needed to bring healing forces to the declining life that had revealed its symptoms of illness in the world catastrophe. Numerous personalities from Germany, Austria and a number of Swiss people signed this appeal, thereby testifying that they considered the suggestions expressed in it to be something that points to the vital necessities of the present and the near future. I then gave these suggestions a further elaboration in my book "Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage in den Lebensnotwendigkeiten der Gegenwart und Zukunft". In order to stand up for them in a sustainable way and to implement the suggestions in practical life, the "Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" was founded in Stuttgart and also in Switzerland. Among the various measures taken to bring about this practical implementation was the founding of the weekly journal "Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" (Threefolding of the Social Organism), which was published in Stuttgart. The following essays were the lead articles that I wrote for this weekly in the summer of 1919 and the winter of 1919-1920. They can be regarded as supplementary explanations of what I have explained in the "Mernpunkte". They can just as well be seen as a preparation for reading this book.
[ 2 ] Everything I published in both the "Key points" and in these essays did not grow out of theoretical thought. Over the course of more than three decades, I have followed the intellectual, political and economic life of Europe in its various ramifications. In doing so, I believe I have gained an insight into the tendencies that this life is pushing towards its recovery. I believe that the thoughts I am expressing are not those of a single individual, but that they express the unconscious will of European humanity. The particular circumstances of contemporary life, to which I repeatedly refer in the "Mernpunkte" and in these essays, have not allowed this will to emerge in clear outline and in connection with the striving for practical realization in the full consciousness of a sufficiently large number of people. One might call it the tragedy of the present day that countless people, through illusions about what is worth striving for, obstruct their insight into what is really necessary. Completely outdated party views spread a dense fog of thought about what is necessary. They indulge in impractical, impracticable tendencies; the real things they undertake become unfruitful utopias, and the proposals made on the basis of real life practice are regarded by them as utopias. It is with this fact that what is expressed in the following essays has to contend; it wants to take a fully conscious stand on it.
[ 3 ] This fact is still the basis of world politics in our world of civilization today. Versailles and Spa are the stages of this policy. The number of personalities who see through how these stages lead to the further decline of civilization, which has proved the impossibility of its progress in the world catastrophe, is still small. Such personalities do exist today in the countries of the victors and the vanquished. But firstly, there are not enough of them, and secondly, most of them regard what is really needed as utopian.
[ 4 ] If the "Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" is perceived by many as a community of impractical people, this is, in my opinion, because these many have strayed from all true life practice and consider their party illusions and life routines to be practice. But no recovery of civilization will be achieved unless the will of the time, which is so densely hidden in the thicket of impractical, illusionary party templates, is brought to full consciousness.
[ 5 ] For someone who knows only too well that he does not suffer from silly conceits, it is difficult to write down what earns him the reputation among many today: "He believes himself to be more clever than all those who have acquired the right in practical life activity to have a say in the matters at issue." The author of these essays believes, however, that the false reproach inherent in such words should not prevent one from saying what one considers necessary, if one is of the opinion that a special relationship between one's own situation in life and the life of the present has directed the mental eye towards this necessity for more than three decades.
[ 6 ] It is, after all, my conviction, acquired through the observation of life, which believes in avoiding everything theoretical and focusing only on the practical, that the will of the time urges for the "threefolding of the social organism", and that everything that is experienced in the phenomena of decline has its origin in the fact that the public consciousness of European civilization, instead of turning to this urge, wishes to continue along the old paths that have become impossible.
[ 7 ] The one group of people from which the leading personalities emerged before the war, and from which many still emerge today, continues to live in the views that led to the decline, and does not want to see the connection between these views and the decline. It wants to carve a new life out of the forces that have led it to death.
[ 8 ] The other group continues the way of thinking that is born out of negative criticism; it does not want to see that in this way of thinking there is the possibility of bringing pseudo-structures of social organization with the ruins of the old to a transient existence, but one that is devastating even in this transience. It continues the old in an inverted way, but it is without the germs of a new one.
[ 9 ] Between these two groups are the forces that would like to liberate the efforts for the "threefolding of the social organism" from the will of the time, which really exists but is covered by the debris of the old. Their supporters are of the opinion that they contain what is needed today.
Mid-July 1920
Rudolf Steiner