The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] Since circumstances will likely prevent any lectures from taking place here in this branch over the next few weeks, I will offer a summary today. A summary that will point to certain temporal circumstances, the observation of which makes it possible to gain a more precise insight into the tasks of the present time. And such an insight into the tasks of the present time is, as is evident from various points I have just discussed here, necessary today in the most urgent way.

[ 2 ] People today—especially in Central Europe—are actually in such a frame of mind that they either fear or despise insights into the spiritual world. The two are, of course, intrinsically related. But it is precisely this fear of the spiritual world and this contempt for knowledge of the spiritual world that are connected to the extraordinarily difficult situation into which Central Europe has fallen—and in which it will, in fact, continue to find itself.

[ 3 ] I have, in fact, already alluded to many of the points I would like to discuss today in summary form, both here over the years and even in recent weeks. You will have gathered from the observations made here that in the West, among the peoples of the Latin and Anglo-American races, supersensible insights play a role in everything these peoples undertake politically in the broadest sense. Anyone who believes, for example, that Anglo-American politics is not dependent on certain supersensible insights into the development of humanity is deluding themselves. And in the same way, supersensible insights play a role in everything that is strived for in the East, among the peoples of Asia and extending all the way to Russia. However, one must exclude from what is meant here as the goal in Russia everything that relates to the current Russian regime. That is, of course, alien and far removed from all supersensible knowledge. These circumstances show that we in Central Europe are, so to speak, caught between world structures that are entirely determined by supersensible insights, which are often not of an unobjectionable nature for the present age. We have, after all, spoken of these things. And attention has also been drawn to the fact that it must not be allowed for Central Europe to continue to close itself off in a certain stubborn way from genuine supersensible insights. For this closing off from supersensible insights would drive poor Central Europe deeper and deeper into distress and misery, into confusion and chaos.

[ 4 ] It may well be in keeping with the current trend among all factions on the left and right to view everything supernatural as something childish in the development of humanity. The peoples of Central Europe would suffer greatly, very greatly, if they were to continue to close themselves off from supersensible knowledge, for they would simply be bound together by that which is imbued with supersensible knowledge in both the West and the East. It is also important to point out that, in the broadest circles today, trust in those who possess supersensible knowledge has dwindled, and that this trust is to be eradicated through the mere worship of what one can produce as “knowledge” without supersensible insight. And on the other hand, it is also true that no era more than our own requires the most intensive cultivation of trust in those who can share such supersensible insights. Thus, in Central Europe, we find ourselves, so to speak, in a situation where we most intensely need something that we also most intensely wish to reject. This fact must be faced impartially. We must ask, for example: Where did the Anglo-American world obtain these insights into the course of human development that have become so pernicious to us in Central Europe? And we must ask: What are the sources from which the Eastern peoples—namely the Eastern peoples of Asia—will be able to draw in the future that which will be capable of choking us in Europe? — Only a clear understanding of these matters can truly be of any help.

[ 5 ] If one examines what is being propagated as “world ideas”—even among so-called Enlightenment historians and politicians in England and America—one will find that even among these Enlightenment figures, their ideas are permeated throughout by something that is somehow influenced by supersensible insights into the course of the world. Within the Anglo-American world, this has been gained—especially since the mid-nineteenth century—through a kind of mediumistic process. The path proposed here, for example, in my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*—which is the direct path arising from the development of the human soul’s powers—is not favored in the Western world. In the Western world, the practice is to seek out certain people who are considered particularly suited for exploring the spiritual world—people who possess more or less mediumistic abilities. Those who do not believe what I am about to explain—or rather, future generations—will have to pay dearly for this disbelief. Mediumistic individuals are specifically sought out. These mediumistic individuals are induced into altered states of consciousness—trance-like states—and if one is familiar with the corresponding techniques through which, after the external mind has been silenced, what these mediumistic individuals carry within their subconscious is revealed, then one elicits precisely what lay dormant in their subconscious. And it was through such mediumistic personalities—particularly in the course of the nineteenth century in the Anglo-American world—that the principles were discovered which enabled the political successes achieved against Europe and Asia. They simply took individuals who were suited for the task, induced them into a certain trance, and then, from within that trance, these individuals developed the strategies for the Anglo-American world. The people of the Anglo-American world are far too intelligent to do things the way Central Europeans do, who simply do not believe what is revealed in this way from the depths of existence. With this disbelief, one closes oneself off from all those impulses that can help one move forward in the true movement of humanity.

[ 6 ] Now, the path I have indicated here—which consists in experiencing humanity’s supersensory developmental impulses through mediums—is an extraordinarily precarious one. For, of course, the instincts of the Anglo-American race prevail in the bodies of all those who are selected from the Anglo-American population. And the cultural-political impulses gained in this way emerge in such a way that they are colored and intermingled with the egoism of the Anglo-American race. Precisely because of this, these impulses then work in the self-serving interests of the Anglo-American race. And anyone who can see through what needs to be seen through in this area knows that the successes of the Anglo-American race against Central Europe have been achieved with the help of what the occultism of the Western world has brought up from spiritual depths in the manner I have just indicated. The method employed here is, after all, easy to see through. You need only recall what was said here eight days ago. You need only remember that the ordinary logical intellect—as we apply it to external sensory observation and to the establishment of external sensory science—that this intellect extinguishes true supersensory knowledge. For this ordinary logical mind is, after all, bound—in the most eminent sense—to the instrument of physical corporeality. As soon as you develop yourselves upward to those powers of cognition discussed in my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*, you are no longer dependent on the instrument of the physical body with these powers of cognition. As soon as you make use of merely that logic to which one is accustomed in today’s everyday life—that logic to which one has become accustomed as a result of today’s external natural science—you are placed in a position where it is impossible to come to know what actually governs human development in social and spiritual terms. That is why people in the Anglo-American world who are well aware of this fact derive their political principles by setting aside ordinary logical reasoning. For by inducing suitable individuals into a trance, one shuts down ordinary logical reasoning. The medium speaks from the depths of their soul, without the use of reason. And if one then clothes what is gained in this way in the thought forms of common sense, then one can indeed comprehend it, and one can then also apply it in practical life. In the Western world, everything observed in the treatment of political and cultural realities—with the ordinary mind set aside—is obtained through mediumship. Important impulses for the cultural policy of the Western world have been gained in this way, and they have had an impact in recent years.

[ 7 ] In the East, among the peoples of Asia, and also among certain segments of the Russian population in Eastern Europe, things are done in exactly the opposite way. You see, I do not believe that the ideas of the threefold structure of the social organism would have been properly understood had I not first undertaken an investigation of the human organism itself—that investigation of the human organism of which I spoke, at least in passing, in my book *The Mysteries of the Soul*. There I showed how the ordinary human natural organism is a threefold one, how this human natural organism is divided into a nervous and sensory organism, a rhythmic organism, and a metabolic organism. Recognizing these three members of the natural human organism is of immense importance for the current thinking of humanity. And through the very insight that one gains by contemplating the threefold natural human organism, one also comes to correctly recognize the social organism in its threefold nature. Just as we can investigate today that the natural human organism consists of these three parts—the nervous or sensory organism, the rhythmic organism, which is linked to the rhythmic activity of the respiratory and cardiac systems, and the metabolic organism—just as we can investigate this today, so it was not investigated in ancient times. But in ancient times, people had a certain instinctive, atavistic understanding of these things. And the East, which had advanced particularly far in regard to the ancient way of looking into the supersensible world and gaining supersensible knowledge, has preserved even to this day the instincts to apply in life what can be gained from such supersensible knowledge. That is why the Eastern person still seeks supersensible impulses today, just as the Westerner does; but he seeks them in a contrary manner. The Eastern person does not attempt, through mediumistic practices—as the inhabitant of the Anglo-American world does—to shut down the intellect, but on the contrary, he seeks to enrich the intellect. That is to say, they seek to enrich the nervous-sensory human being from the perspective of the rhythmic human being. Therefore, in the East, you will find that those who wish to perceive something supersensible are, above all, advised to train their human respiratory activity—to train the entire rhythmic human being. The Eastern yoga exercises, which are intended to impart true insight to the people of the East, are designed to train the rhythmic human being in such a way that, through a certain type of breathing and a certain technique of heart movements, an influence is exerted on the human mind, which is otherwise bound solely to the physical body. By devoting himself to certain yoga exercises, the Eastern person lifts ordinary rhythmic breathing and ordinary heart activity out of their natural course and sets them in a course such that they gain influence over the mind—which would otherwise be directed solely toward the sensory world—and through this influence, insights into the supersensory world are, as it were, infused into the mind. Thus, the Eastern person, following a path opposite to that of the Westerner, also gains genuine insights into the supersensible world. These two paths of knowledge both yield genuine insights. But just as the American and the Englishman, as occultists, gain insights—for the reasons I have cited—that are rooted in national egoism, so too does the Eastern person, by approaching the body—which is inflamed by racial impulses—directly through his yoga exercises, acquire racial egoistic impulses. We are, in fact, caught between the national-egoistic impulses of the West and the racial-egoistic impulses of the East. But insights can be gained along this path. And those in the West and the East who gain insights in this way simply laugh at the Europeans, who believe they are gaining true insights through their sciences or their social analyses. What Europeans spout from their natural science, from their so-called causal understanding—and what they then spout from their way of thinking into their social science and social agitation—is regarded by both Westerners and Easterners as mere drivel, which, when it comes down to it, is exactly what it is in comparison to true insight. For what lies at the heart of our European sciences and our European impulses for agitation is, in the face of the real forces that guide human development, nothing but mere drivel. And that is why—because we live in a world of mere drivel, because we reject everything drawn from reality—we find ourselves in this predicament. No sooner do people unconsciously realize that something has been drawn from reality—such as the idea of the threefold social order—than they immediately denounce it as something that must not exist. But as long as we seek to eliminate everything that is reality from the world through this nonsense—be it the nonsense of science or the nonsense of political parties—we will not emerge from chaos and confusion; rather, we will only be driven deeper into chaos and confusion. But we must also be fully aware that neither the path of the West nor that of the East can be ours. For it is precisely here in Central Europe that it is necessary to follow the path that is modern in the most eminent sense. And that can be none other than the one described in my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*. In contrast to the West and the East, what is the basis for what is outlined in this book? To understand this, however, one must look a little into the development of humanity. Above all, one must have internalized a great historical truth, which consists—as I have often mentioned here as well—in the fact that the mid-fifteenth century marked a turning point for modern humanity. According to our spiritual-scientific historical classification, this marks the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, which differs markedly from everything that preceded it—a period that lasted from the eighth century B.C. to the fifteenth century A.D. This is where humanity’s endeavor to attain all knowledge through a new state of consciousness begins. This struggle of humanity to rise to the pinnacle of the personality and to fully develop the conscious soul runs parallel to other facts I have already mentioned. And there is no other way for us to strive for supersensible knowledge than by taking this fact fully into account.

[ 8 ] External science must, after all, remain mere babble because it cannot look into the course of the Earth’s development as it relates to the evolution of humanity. What external natural science speaks of are, in reality, only the waves that rise to the surface of life. This external natural science speaks of what is investigated in the physics laboratory, what is observed through the telescope and microscope; it speaks of what is observed in a corpse; it speaks of everything that is dead in its development. It speaks nowhere of what is alive in its development. For there is no test tube in any laboratory there is no chemical reaction through which one could determine that which can be determined solely through the supersensible experience of human beings themselves. It is human beings alone—living human beings—through whom the great events can be investigated. The great events of earthly existence must not be investigated by turning to the retort in the chemistry laboratory. The great events of earthly existence must be investigated by turning to the very being in whom these powerful reactions take place—to human beings themselves. But if one simply considers human development as it is today, one fails to grasp the most important aspects; one must view it over the course of millennia, and this is truly possible only through supersensible knowledge. And when one views them through this supersensible knowledge, one finds that in everything we call “food” today, for example—in all the external material substances we can consume to satisfy our physical needs—there is no longer the same life force present today as there was before the fifteenth century. As paradoxical, absurd, and crazy as this may seem to people of the present day—who consider themselves so scientific, though in our view they are mere babbling fools—and as paradoxical and unreasonable as this may appear from the perspective of people today, it is nevertheless true that certain forces in almost all foods and in almost everything we take from the physical external world to satisfy our physical needs have changed since the fifteenth century. Before the fifteenth century, all material substances—whether taken directly from nature or cooked—contained forces that still had an effect on the soul. When a person ate, they received certain spiritual forces from the food they consumed. This ability to provide people with spiritual forces through simple eating has been completely lost since the middle of the fifteenth century. Since then, we have truly entered a stage of Earth’s development where we can no longer derive anything from the Earth itself or from what it provides physically to satisfy our physical needs. Since that time, only physical processes have taken place in our metabolism, whereas before, through digestion, our metabolism was still spiritual, just as it is today—forgive me for using such a harsh word—for example, in a cow or a snake. It may surprise you that I say this. But with regard to external metabolism, when a cow is digesting, it is a more spiritual being than a human, and the same is true of a snake. When you see the cow lying or standing like that after it has eaten, or when you see the snake digesting, there is something alive in the astral organism of this cow or this snake that also lived in human beings in earlier times, when they were more attuned to the animal realm, but which no longer lives in human beings today. We have been so liberated by nature in this respect that it no longer works in the same way as it once did. You may find it surprising that, for us, food in particular has lost its spiritual effect, whereas for the cow it has not; but that is simply the way it is. Terms always have different meanings for different beings. Precisely for human beings—because they are organized differently—food means something other than it does for the cow or the snake, which the materialists, of course, do not believe. Precisely for human beings—because they are organized differently from cows—the situation is as I have just explained. Therefore, today we must take into account this more physical nature of our metabolism compared to the past. But we must also learn to take into account everything that has changed in the opposite direction.

[ 9 ] You see, if we were to remain awake our entire lives, we would be the most foolish beings imaginable when it comes to the supersensible world, for we would always use our intellect solely through the medium of the ordinary physical body. That is to say, we would inevitably lose all supersensible insight. It is our good fortune that every time we fall asleep, we draw our mind out of the physical brain and then have access to the supersensible world. However, we do not yet wish to develop our consciousness to the point of bringing this knowledge of the supersensible world—which we unconsciously attain in sleep—into our physical organism. But we must do so; then we will become different people than we are now. It is indeed the case that while our daily digestive processes make us increasingly physical, during our sleep we become ever more spiritual, ever more mental. And the only thing that matters is to bring into our waking life the spiritual experiences we accumulate from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up. We do this not by following the Eastern approach—that is, not by allowing our intellect to infiltrate our being through the breathing process, so to speak—but by treating ourselves purely in a spiritual-soul manner, as described in *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* — so that in this transformed outer life—which comes about for us when we treat ourselves in this way—everything that the mind gathers in the supersensible world from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up can enter into us.

[ 10 ] As I mentioned earlier: However, the way many people do it today does not allow one to receive the influence of the supersensible world: they drink so much beer in the evening that they feel heavy enough to fall asleep. Yes, in that case one certainly cannot remain in the supersensible world from the moment of falling asleep until waking up in such a way that what is experienced there can truly take hold. Instead, we must treat this body—which, in any case, has been different since the mid-fifteenth century than it was before—as it were, from the soul outward, as described in the book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*. Then we will first attain a supersensible disposition, and then also supersensible knowledge.

[ 11 ] What is recommended here as a Central European ascent into the supersensible world differs quite significantly from the ascent of Westerners and from that of Easterners. What is recommended here is the cultivation of what human development has simply demanded since the fifteenth century. What is being pursued in the West is based solely on what has been observed through experiences with the Native Americans. These Native Americans, who were exterminated during the conquest of America, were, in the view of Europeans, quite uncivilized people. Yes, outwardly they were indeed quite uncivilized people. But what was remarkable was that these American Indians, who were exterminated, possessed a very intense supersensible knowledge, and that they acquired this supersensible knowledge through methods which the Anglo-Americans then learned from these Indians and cultivated in a somewhat more civilized, but consequently also more decadent, manner. This is based, in particular, on a very significant process in the evolution of the Earth.

[ 12 ] As you know, history presents a one-sided account of how things unfolded in cultural development. History tells of all kinds of cultural migrations from Asia to Europe via Greece, Rome, and so on. But it does not tell us that another cultural migration took place—not from Asia to Europe, but from Asia across the Pacific Ocean to what is now the West, to America, along routes that were entirely possible in ancient times. The spiritual achievements of the East were brought precisely to America. And you know—at least those of you who were here when I spoke about this perhaps a year ago—that the entire external history of the so-called “discovery of America” and of the great principles of human development is nonsense. For I said at the time: As late as the twelfth century, people in Europe knew quite well that there was an America in the West. It had simply been forgotten. That knowledge had been suppressed, and the “discovery” of America was merely a rediscovery, a re-finding of what people had known quite well in the past. First, the connection between the European and American essences was severed; then this connection was rediscovered. But it was rediscovered in such a way that the Americans of that time—the American Indians—were massacred. This kind of cultural expansion was the first stage on the path we then gradually continued to follow. Yes, it is indeed true that when the Europeans came to America, they found among the Indians what they regarded as a crude, materialistic culture, but they also found a highly spiritual life among these so-called savages, whom they subsequently wiped out. And these “savage” people spoke at every opportunity of the Great Spirit, who lived with them in every detail of their lives. For those Europeans who were able to understand it, it was sometimes a profound experience to learn precisely how these American Indians spoke of the Great Spirit. How was it that, in the course of Earth’s evolution, these very Indians—who appeared outwardly degraded—had preserved the ability to look up to this Great Spirit, which ripples through and weaves through the world? It was precisely because they had become, in a certain sense, outwardly and physically degraded. They had become outwardly and physically ossified. Through this, the knowledge of the Great Spirit—which had come to them from the East, from our East, but by the other, opposite route across the Pacific Ocean—had remained with them like a powerful memory. They had preserved this. They had separated spiritual knowledge from knowledge of the soul and knowledge of the body. In a sense, they lived entirely immersed in the Spirit.

[ 13 ] The Europeans had a deep-seated fear of what was emerging as knowledge about the Spirit from the North American Indians. The Europeans had, after all, already ensured earlier on that this fear of the Spirit would not be dispelled. I have often mentioned to you that memorable Council of Constantinople in the year 869, at which the Catholic Church abolished belief in the spirit, at which the Catholic Church decreed that in the future one was not to believe in body, soul, and spirit, but only in body and soul. And this abolition of the recognition of the Spirit has brought about all the scientific and epistemological chaos that has befallen Europe. It was therefore no wonder that this European humanity, raised in fear of all things spiritual, was seized by an even more desperate dread when it now faced the American Indians with their message of the Great Spirit. But as I said, that was only the beginning of the path we have continued to follow. Gradually, as a result of the great European Enlightenment, we have also weaned ourselves away from belief in the soul, and in today’s materialism we believe only in the efficacy of the body. But from this belief—from this superstition in the efficacy of the body—must emerge that which, in turn, leads to the recognition of the spiritual, of the supersensible, along the path I have just spoken of—a path that is neither that of the West nor that of the East, but must be specifically Central European. And it is through this Central European path that we will also find the one thing that alone can lead us out of social distress and social chaos. No other path can lead us out.

[ 14 ] But you can also see that this path requires some effort. One must work on oneself. One must have the patience to develop one’s soul and spiritual powers. For since the middle of the fifteenth century, these soul and spiritual powers have no longer developed in such a way that one merely needs to eat, and then, from the digestion of food, that which can imbue us with spiritual insights rises up. We must, so to speak, take our own development into our own hands since the fifteenth century if we do not wish to remain foolish. But that is the great ideal of materialistic humanity in Europe: to remain foolish, not to become wise, to recognize only what arises from the digestion of the body. This is, after all, the true cause of the social ills that have arisen in Europe since the middle of the fifteenth century: these ideals of European materialistic humanity—not to take one’s own soul and spiritual development into one’s own hands, but to remain as one was born and to develop while excluding, as far as possible, any spiritual and soul development.

[ 15 ] And yet people don’t even realize what the historical context actually is. For example, they do not realize at all that our academic scholarship—and likewise our social theories of today—are driven by the very same impulses that underpinned the Eighth Ecumenical Council in 869, which abolished the Holy Spirit. People believe themselves to be enlightened because they see only what is in their consciousness. They do not realize that there would have been no Marx, no Engels, no Lassalle—with their distinctive ways of thinking—if Marx, Engels, and Lassalle had not been the disciples of those who had been prepared for their views by the Ecumenical Council of 869. Social democracy, in its various parties today, is the faithful discipleship of what has prevailed in the Catholic Church. People simply do not realize this. They do not realize that they are often merely following in the wake of Catholic-Christian impulses. They believe they are merely caught up in the impulses of the very latest era. It will be a powerful coming to one’s senses when the parties—especially today’s left-wing ones—finally realize just how Catholic, in the negative sense, they actually are. When people’s eyes are finally opened to this, when they finally wake up to it, oh, that will be a remarkable coming to one’s senses. That is why such great care is taken to ensure that people’s eyes do not open to these connections. So it is already the case today that anyone who sees through these matters can really only ever say what ultimately makes all people today—on the left and on the right—feel quite uncomfortable. It is impossible today to go along with the rhetoric from the left and the right if one understands how things are connected. That is why, today more than at any other time, there is a desire to exclude from public life all those who understand the issues, and why the preferred leaders are those whose stubbornness is not clouded by any expertise. But unbiased thinking must take root in people’s minds and hearts regarding these matters; otherwise, things will not move forward. Therefore, we must repeatedly urge people to view present-day circumstances with such an unbiased perspective. Above all, we must recognize the connection that exists between sound social principles and what is known as insight into the supersensible world.

[ 16 ] There are three important concepts in the social sphere. You will find them in my book *The Key Points of the Social Question*: the concept of a commodity, the concept of human labor, and the concept of capital. Much has been said about these three concepts in recent times by both academics and non-academics, by party members and independents alike. But it is hard to imagine anything about which such inaccurate statements have been made with such aplomb as about these three concepts: commodity, human labor, and capital. I do not mean to say that perfectly apt sentiments regarding these matters have not sometimes been expressed. For the sentiment I have often characterized in my lectures—the one aroused among the vast proletarian masses by the view of labor power as a commodity—is indeed entirely justified. Important social impulses must also arise from this sentiment. Yet this in no way precludes the fact that the concept, the idea, the actual impulse from which this sentiment stems, is fundamentally flawed. For one simply cannot grasp the concept of a commodity unless one has at least assimilated the first stage of supersensible knowledge. As paradoxical as this may seem to people today, it is nonetheless true. A commodity is something to which human labor is attached, into which the human being has, so to speak, invested themselves. The definition of a commodity, as you find it in Marx, is entirely incorrect. For Karl Marx uses only the concepts that can be derived from ordinary sensory science. A commodity cannot be understood at all by anyone who has no concept of imaginative cognition. Therefore, there will be no definition of a commodity until imaginative cognition is recognized. And in my book *The Key Points of the Social Question*, I have taken precisely these matters into account. No wonder people say they do not understand these things. They simply have to familiarize themselves with the way of thinking that prevails in this book, not with the one that prevails outside of it in literature that is far removed from all reality.

[ 17 ] No one can speak of human labor without knowing something of inspired insight. For to simply say today that a commodity is stored labor power—or that capital is stored labor power—is, of course, utter nonsense. I have already mentioned here that labor—the application of labor as such—is not decisive for any concept in national economics. For someone who plays tennis all day or does something else that has no effect whatsoever on the national economy expends the same labor power as someone who chops wood, which has a significant effect on the national economy. What matters is not how much labor power is invested in the process of human development, but rather how the output resulting from that labor fits into the economic cycle of national economic life. Nothing derives its value from labor. The moment you make the value of a commodity dependent on labor, you would end up with nothing but absurdities. That is the crux of the matter: how labor is integrated into the national economic process; otherwise, labor is something entirely independent of the economy, something bound to human nature itself. Consequently, one cannot make judgments about labor based solely on the economic process itself; rather, one must make such judgments on a basis independent of the economic process—namely, on a purely legal basis. You will also find this discussed in the book *The Key Points of the Social Question*. To understand these matters, it is necessary to look at reality in a way that is entirely different from what the scientific drivel of the present day is capable of. These matters must be discussed with the utmost seriousness, because everything that is presented today with immense arrogance and immense self-importance is, in this day and age, nothing more than scientific drivel. And, in light of the demands of the present, scientific drivel is anything that refuses to rise from merely sensory knowledge to supersensory knowledge. The role that labor plays in the process of human development can only be discovered if one has a sense of inspired knowledge.

[ 18 ] And as strange as it may sound: no one can truly understand the functions of capital unless they have some concept of intuition, of the highest form of knowledge. The Bible already sensed this when it said that Christianity was meant to combat Mammonism. However, this insight must, in a sense, be one that works in the opposite direction. One must gain insight into what is to take the place of Ahrimanic capital through supersensible knowledge, not through knowledge bound to the senses. Thus, the development of a healthy national economy depends on people engaging with sound supersensible knowledge; otherwise, people will continue to ramble on about matters of national economy in the future just as they do now. To understand socio-economic matters today, it is necessary to know the science of initiation. But this science of initiation, of which we speak here, is precisely what is rejected and despised by those who wish to be active in the public sphere today. Therefore, what resounds today from mere sensory perception in the form of party opinions—for those who see through these things, this must be stated plainly—is like the clamour of the utterances of a society of fools. Now you can imagine that, given the nature of the truth, it is by no means a pleasant task to speak this truth to humanity today. But this truth must be spoken to humanity today. Things have come to such a clash today that humanity simply does not want to hear the truth, yet it is absolutely necessary that this truth be spoken to humanity without reservation. For, in accordance with its feelings and emotions, humanity today actually desires precisely what lies in the essence of this truth. But today’s humanity has been lulled into what one might call the illusions of life, and it does not want to part with these illusions of life.

[ 19 ] Some time ago, I quoted here a statement by a man who came from the Latin cultural tradition, noting that a particularly powerful flash of insight into truth can often emerge from cultures in decline. Benedetto Croce says in his *Outlines of Aesthetics*—I quoted it to you fourteen days ago—that art cannot possibly be based on the external physical world. Why not? According to Benedetto Croce, it is because the external physical world is not real, and art strives for reality. Such ideas seem completely unbelievable to people today. And yet they are true, absolutely true. What lives in true art is a reality entirely different from what lives in sensory external appearance. Through artistic creation, one strives to move out of the unreality of physical nature toward the reality that is first intuited in the spirit and can then be found in the spirit through supersensible knowledge. That is why contemporary humanity must be aided precisely through supersensible forms, through supersensible artistic creations, because it seeks to find its way back into the supersensible world. But the only way to make progress in these matters is to develop an inner sense—and as you know, the instructions in the book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* also point in this direction—that one must develop an inner sense for what is truly real, and that one must also develop a sense of how little this sense for the true is actually being cultivated in the present through the ordinary means of culture. Just think how, over the last five to six years, we have reached a point where the voice of truth hardly resounds anymore in the great affairs of the world. Consider how much untruth has been spoken in major world affairs over the past five to six years and up to the present day. All of this testifies to the current world’s tendency toward untruth. Precisely here, within the bosom of this Society, it has had to be mentioned time and again that cultivating a sense for true reality is of the utmost necessity. When work began here in the spirit of the anthroposophical movement, there were many people within this movement—carrying over old habits—who were always inclined to gloss over the truth. It is precisely in movements such as the anthroposophical one that it becomes apparent how people prefer to cultivate old faults rather than new virtues. Such a tendency to gloss over the truth had developed into a particular inclination. And it was often difficult, especially within this Society, to introduce something that simply consists of calling a lie a lie. Whenever people within this Society have spoken something that is not true, there has always been a tendency to make excuses, to present it as though good intentions might lie behind the untruth, and so on. No, but what matters is that one calls a falsehood a falsehood. You know that it was the turning toward truth that led to the Anthroposophical Society breaking away from the old Theosophical Society, which, as you also know, continues to exist in the world. Well, with regard to everything that is at work in this Anthroposophical Society, the Theosophical Society continues to spread falsehoods. And it is indeed necessary—since I am also taking other contemporary developments into account here—that today, as I must summarize certain points that have been alluded to over time, I draw your attention to the sophisticated manner in which the Theosophical side is once again lying about the anthroposophical movement, even in a book whose preface contains the sentence: “I hope to have reported the truth.” But within this book, for which the author hopes to have reported the truth, it states, among other things: “It is certain that Steiner’s separation was a blessing.” — The separation of the Anthroposophical Society from the Theosophical Society. — “The Occultist”—now listen to this blatant lie—“The Occultist”—that was meant to refer to me—“was also a staunch Pan-Germanist.” Let us suppose for a moment that he had become president of the Theosophical Society; there he would have found far greater resources and influence over almost every country in the world. He would have been able to pursue his Pan-German policy more freely and with authority. And in all likelihood, he would have done so.”

[ 20 ] And what is this lie based on? On the fact that, little by little, I have not only given my lectures on anthroposophy in Germany, among Germans, but that I have also traveled to other countries. I have, in fact, given lectures from Bergen to Palermo, and I still consider it today one of the most beautiful signs of the impulse that could emanate from this very movement toward world peace—that as late as May 1914, I was able to give a lecture on anthroposophy in Paris before a public audience, in German, so that every sentence had to be translated. The audience at that lecture was not made up of Germans living in Paris, but entirely of French people. We had already made such progress that, by May 1914, people throughout Europe were discussing aspects of our worldview. Then came the event that robbed the world of peace and the possibility of life. This is actual proof—precisely this activity in Paris in May 1914, before the outbreak of that terrible global catastrophe—that within the bosom of the Anthroposophical Society there lay something that could have contributed to world peace as well. And what, then, was the purpose of all these lectures? Not a single one was given on our own initiative; rather, they were requested by friends in Bergen, Paris, London, the Netherlands, Palermo, and so on. They were always requested by others. Here, a lie is being fabricated to suggest that they were held to propagate German culture throughout the world. It is necessary to call a lie a lie. This book, which promises in its preface to report the truth, contains—at least regarding everything pertaining to the Anthroposophical Society and to me—nothing but lies. — Now people will say once again that I am turning against the others, while here, you see, are the following unctuous sentences. I ask those who know the facts to compare these sentences with the facts: “What, then, was our president’s attitude toward this colleague, who first sought to diminish her influence within the inner circles and later wanted to oust her? Her conduct was always one of great tolerance, of perfect courtesy. She saw in him great intellectual qualities, a rare philosophical development; she appreciated everything that was beautiful and sublime in him, and… made no mention of the rest. She ceaselessly urged her students to practice tolerance and patience, even as those who were “more royalist than the king” were annoyed by the behavior of the German section. In doing so, she was simply following her principles.”

[ 21 ] Please compare this with the truth of what actually happened, and you will see just how far people are capable of lying. Perhaps, upon hearing what I have said today, some will say that I am being aggressive. But I would like to point out that I have never said anything critical before being attacked.

[ 22 ] These things, too, must be viewed as a cultural-historical phenomenon that manifests itself in the fact that, within a movement that seeks to work toward the spirit, even falsehood can be cultivated in a heightened way. It is indeed necessary that we strive for a sense of truth today in the most tremendous way possible, The whole thing was, after all, only translated into German and even published in Basel in German, in order to somehow eliminate the anthroposophical movement that will emanate from the Goetheanum in the future. You see, these people are accustomed to introducing national-egoistic impulses even into what they propagate as spiritual science. They therefore cannot imagine anything other than that the other side, too, harbors such impulses. Today, there is no other recourse than to call a lie a lie, even if this lie arises on ground where, in the abstract and theoretically, one claims that truth is being sought. Whether lies arise today on religious or ideological grounds, those lies that can be contrasted with the facts must be branded as lies; otherwise, we will not make any progress. For the spirit of falsehood, the spirit of deceit, is the greatest enemy of true intellectual progress. And that intellectual progress is the only thing that can move the world forward today—I hope to have demonstrated this to you once again today by presenting a few perspectives that I consider particularly valuable for the present.

[ 23 ] And so I would like you all to view the events that have taken place here in context—to view them in such a way that, on the one hand, there is the social aspect, and on the other, the spiritual aspect, yet both are intimately connected. The fact that people do not see things in this context is precisely what constitutes the calamity of the present.

[ 24 ] Eight days ago, I said here: Three demands run through the social life of the Gegenwatt.

1. The Anglo-American powers’ quest for world domination.
2. The efforts—which are still quite abstract today—aimed at establishing a League of Nations.
3. The efforts we refer to as social.

[ 25 ] These three currents are, in today’s cultural world, the three dominant currents: the global dominance of the Anglo-American powers; the alliance of nations; and the pursuit of a social framework for world affairs. There are three formidable obstacles to these three aspirations: Opposing what the Anglo-American world—radiating from England—strives for as a world power stands the spirituality of the ancient Indians, Indian spirituality. This will create the great contrast: the search for universal principles through mediumship—versus the search for universal principles through the path of yoga in India. This struggle will be the greatest struggle that must be waged in the spiritual realm throughout world history. To see clearly the two poles that exist in the flow of time—that is the first task of anyone who wishes to be a true spiritual scientist.

[ 26 ] In the realm of the quest for a League of Nations, it must be clearly recognized that two impossibilities are inherent in this quest today. What stands in the way of the modern quest for the unification of humanity—for that humanity of which Ferder, Lessing, and Goethe spoke—what stands in the way of this quest by modern humanity for human unity, is precisely national egoism and national chauvinism in all spheres. And now the League of Nations is to become a union of self-contained nations. The Tower of Babel, after all, illustrates that it was precisely by separating the peoples into their respective national identities that efforts toward a League of Nations were thwarted. And this is supposed to be the means of uniting the peoples. The Fourteen Points—Woodrow Wilson’s utopia—aim to solve this problem by preserving what is symbolized in the Tower of Babel in order to unite the nations. It will only promote what drives the nations further apart. It will only make the confusion of the Tower of Babel even greater. Thus, there is a contradiction inherent in the second movement; there are two impossibilities embedded within the League of Nations’ policy.

[ 27 ] And in the third—the social movement—lies a rejection of the spiritual. People rely solely on the economic and the material, and believe that something spiritual will spring forth from the material itself. They want to establish a paradise on earth by excluding everything that could bring order to paradise—by excluding the spirit. There, too, you have the full contradiction within the third aspiration.

[ 28 ] There is no other way to overcome these contradictions than through the path of the spirit, which works in the spirit of human evolution and not against it. And as far as our limited strength allows, the anthroposophical movement in particular should commit itself to these paths. People will not understand it unless they understand that it advocates for what is realistic and possible, as opposed to everything that is unrealistic and utopian.