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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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185. Evil and the Future of Man 26 Oct 1918, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Alas, many signs have shown how little real good-will there is even now for an understanding of such things. The will to understand will come in time, and we must see that it does come.
This will not only lead you towards an understanding of the mystery of death; it will also show you what it is to think exactly on these important matters.
For the only way to learn to know the human being in his Ego is to cultivate this understanding of his picture-nature, and thus to approach him with the underlying feeling that everything outer physical eyes can see of him is related to the true super-sensible reality of man, as a picture painted on canvas is to the reality it represents.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: First Lecture 09 Nov 1918, Dornach

As a result of these given preconditions, those who were clever, those who understood politics in the old sense, had numerous opportunities for scheming, if one wanted this or that.
It simply lies in the fact that the English-speaking population of the world, under certain conditions, strives for world domination. This is a fact that must be accepted as a fact.
No, that is quite natural, no one there can understand it! One also understands that no one can understand it. But all these things had led to the Russian mobilization, of which one could not really know what was wanted.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Second Lecture 10 Nov 1918, Dornach

Anyone who considers how this war ended for Austria will not be surprised when they are told that it was already clear in 1916 that Austria needed peace under all circumstances. There could be no doubt about that, under all circumstances and under all conditions, that it is simply nonsense to continue the war in any way, even if the conditions are the harshest.
It is impossible to win over the proletariat for the continuity of economic life under any other circumstances than when one is able to speak to them in a language they understand. The continuity of economic life must be maintained.
You have to take into account the fact that people need to understand the issues in an understandable way. You have to realize that money as such is nothing at all.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Third Lecture 15 Nov 1918, Dornach

On the other hand, how difficult it is to awaken any understanding for the genuine image of truth, in so far as truth is not merely an abstraction but a reality.
Of course, a certain basic foundation of things remains untouched, but I am sure you will understand when I say that one must have learned to judge certain things differently. —- One can well understand that the same things are meant that have just come to light through such events as the last four years.
It will also have to be conceded at some point what national self-awareness is in select individuals; perhaps it did not live best under the aegis of people like Clemenceau, but perhaps under a different aegis. From time to time, one must also look at things apart from the phrases that dominate the world, and in world-historical moments this is perhaps also necessary.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Fourth Lecture 16 Nov 1918, Dornach

But also the demands that are made on humanity must be understood to a much greater extent than many people today imagine. Yesterday I pointed out that an understanding will have to be acquired for the truth that reigns in things.
Well, I have never met a university professor who understood Hegel or Schelling, but I have met many—even university professors—who have at least come close to understanding Kant. Now, they think: I am a clever man – such a gentleman thinks, of course – and since it takes me such an effort to understand Kant and I have finally understood him after all, Kant is also a clever man, and since it has taken me, as a man of such exquisite taste, such an effort to understand him, Kant must be the most exquisite man.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Fifth Lecture 17 Nov 1918, Dornach

But out of bourgeois science, Karl Marx tried to understand the social structure of human beings. The way he understood it made sense to the proletariat. But they had forgotten the most important thing: the knowledge of the threefold human being.
And so you find in many books that come from university professors all kinds of Marxist ideas, sometimes criticized, but all unfruitful, because the things are not seen through, because above all, one did not have the will to evoke a real knowledge, a real understanding of the threefold human being. If one had this understanding, then one would come to the fundamentals, which are necessary to understand, and what I can only hint at to you, but of which an understanding must be evoked.
It is indeed extremely difficult to find understanding on this point, and there is no salvation if one does not find understanding on this point. Perhaps it is easier for me to have gained understanding on this point than for many others.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Sixth Lecture 22 Nov 1918, Dornach

And this must also be borne in mind if one wants to thoroughly understand the current world-historical position of the social questions, if one wants to understand them in the context of the catastrophic political events of the present.
Blood and nerves could also be called that which comes into the world and wants to be understood, which wants to be mastered with understanding. It was already involved in this military catastrophe.
This is already playing a role in the current catastrophe. These things need to be understood.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Seventh Lecture 23 Nov 1918, Dornach

That will not be a sign of how one or the other will be able to express themselves under the gagging of judgment, but at least in his or her own way, man should form an independent judgment about that which is.
They have judged wrongly about everything and continued to act under false judgment. These are clear proofs of how little the present and the recent past have educated people to judge things.
In the east, towards Russia, you have the same current spreading out, but under the Mongol yoke, under the Mongol influence, I would say, from a certain point onwards it breaks off.
185a. The Developmental History of Social Opinion: Eighth Lecture 24 Nov 1918, Dornach

I have emphasized it again and again: anyone who really wants to make use of his sound understanding, not his scientifically tainted understanding but his sound understanding of human nature, can always, even if he cannot find what only the initiate can find, test it in life and understand it once he has found it.
I will say this: one could find similar things in Paris, in London, in Washington and so on, in Rome of course, in Bologna and so on. Leibniz undertook to found the Berlin Academy of Sciences under the Elector Frederick. Well, it was a good intention.
It is not enough to consider only the immediate situation; it is essential to have the will to look into the underlying causes that lie behind the mere symptoms. And one cannot look into them unless one develops a sound understanding of how symptoms arise and acquires the will to really assess them.
186. The Challenge of the Times: East and West from a Spiritual Point of View 29 Nov 1918, Dornach
Translated by Olin D. Wannamaker

Indeed, this will become manifest within the net few decades even to those persons who are unwilling today to understand it. We shall escape the great perils toward which the world is still continuing to move only if we endeavor to understand these things, but we shall not understand them unless we really study them thoroughly.
It is this specter that appears to the objective occult observer when he undertakes to form an image of what is intended to be made dominant over the world under the influence of the West.
Especially in the future will it be necessary that mutual understanding shall come about between human beings. The social question is not to be solved by cliches, programs or Leninisms, 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.

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