The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Brotherhood and the Struggle for Existence

Article in the “Bremer Nachrichten” dated February 8, 1906

[ 1 ] Dr. Steiner, Secretary-General of the Theosophical Society, spoke about brotherhood and the struggle for existence the night before last at the Gewerbehause before a large audience. He explained the following: Two concepts come to mind when one considers human social life in terms of its dominant forces. One expresses the great ideal of philanthropists: brotherhood; the other, that which so many see as a law of harsh reality: the struggle for existence. With a heavy heart, many say to themselves: Brotherhood is a beautiful ideal, but like so many other beautiful goals, it can be realized only to a very small extent in practice. Many human communities have existed and still exist today to bring this ideal to life. For thirty years now, the so-called Theosophical Movement has joined their ranks, spreading throughout most educated countries. It has made it its first principle to lay the foundation for a universal brotherhood of humankind. Among other things, it regards the spiritual deepening of life, feeling, and thought as one of its most important means. For the movement, brotherhood is not merely a demand relating to the details of life; for it, brotherhood is that which must inevitably arise once people come to recognize what their true “spiritual” essence is. It does not speak merely of what is accessible to the senses and the intellect, but seeks to make clear that spiritual powers and abilities lie dormant within human beings, through which they are citizens of an invisible world. It provides proof that the struggle for existence is merely a necessary characteristic of the lower physical world, but that unity and harmony arise immediately when a person surrenders to his or her higher powers. It is certainly not people of low character who subscribe to the belief that struggle is a catalyst for human progress, or that the powers to create and act are strengthened precisely through competition. A truly spiritual insight will never fall into the one-sidedness of viewing this competition solely as an outgrowth of injustice and inhumanity; on the contrary, it demonstrates that struggle is a necessary consequence of the laws of the physical world. But it also demonstrates that those who see struggle alone as a means of cultural advancement fail to take into account that there is a higher world. Humanity owes to purely materialistic thinking the entirety of modern culture, which has so powerfully harnessed the forces of nature in the service of progress. From this way of thinking have flowed modern industrialism and transportation. They stem from an understanding of the physical world. And the harmony of humanity, which must emerge as a necessary complement to this external culture, can also stem from nothing other than knowledge: knowledge of the physical separates people from one another, but knowledge of the spiritual unites people with one another, for it shows how the individual is nothing without all of humanity. — The speaker was rewarded with rich applause.