The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. What I Have to Say to the Younger Members on This Matter

Newsletter of the Youth Section of the School of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] In the letter that the Committee of the Free Anthroposophical Society addressed to the members of that society in response to my announcement of a Youth Section, there is a reference to the fact that I consider “the matter” of “being young” to be “so important” that “it can become the subject of a separate discipline within the spiritual sciences,” |

[ 2 ] I truly consider this matter to be of such importance. Anyone who reads the account of my life in the weekly magazine Goetheanum will understand why I think this way. When I myself was as young as those speaking in this letter, I felt isolated with the state of mind that I now find alive in broad circles of youth. My peers at that time felt differently than I did. The kind of civilized life described in this letter—which claims that it prevents young people from “developing a worldview through any profession” and that young people, through their “search for a worldview,” can no longer be “led to any profession”—was on the rise at that time. It was perceived by young people as the pinnacle of the latest stage in human development. They felt “liberated” from the excesses of the quest for a worldview and secure in the prospect of professions that emerged from the “solid” foundations of “science,”

[ 3 ] I, too, witnessed the “blooming” of this civilization. But I could not help but feel that no true fruit of humanity could ever emerge from this bloom. My peers did not feel this way. They were swept up in the experience of this “bloom.” They had not yet been deprived of the fruit because they squandered their enthusiasm at the sight of the barren bloom.

[ 4 ] Now everything has changed. The flower has wilted. Instead of fruit, an unearthly entity has emerged that causes humanity to freeze within people. Young people feel the coldness of a civilization devoid of ideology.

[ 5 ] An upper layer of consciousness lived within my youthful companions. They could rejoice in the fruitless blossom because its fruitlessness had not yet become apparent. And the blossom shone “as a blossom.” The joy in that radiance obscured the deeper layers of consciousness—the layers in which the inexhaustible longing for true humanity lives within every person. The youth of today can no longer take joy in the withered blossom. The upper layer of consciousness has become barren, and the deeper layers have been laid bare; the longing for a worldview is evident in their hearts, and it threatens to wound their inner life.

[ 6 ] I would like to say to the youth of today: do not be too hard on the “old folks” who were young with me forty years ago. Certainly, there are superficial people among them who, even today, vainly flaunt their emptiness as a sign of superiority. But there are also those among them who bear their fate with resignation—a fate that has denied them the living experience of their true humanity.

[ 7 ] This fate placed her in the final phase of the “dark” age, during which the grave of the spirit was dug through the experience of matter.

[ 8 ] But youth has been laid to rest. And the grave is empty. The spirit does not die and cannot be buried.

[ 9 ] For those who experience it today, youth has become a mystery. For in youth, the longing for the spirit is laid bare. — But the “age of light” has dawned. It is simply not yet perceived because most people still carry within their souls the aftereffects of the old darkness. But those who have a sense for spiritual beings can know that it has become “light.”

[ 10 ] And the light will only become perceptible when the mysteries of existence are reborn in a new form.

[ 11 ] Being young is one of the first of these mysteries. How does one experience being young in a world that is frozen in the process of growing old? That is the emotional question that lives within the young people of today.

[ 12 ] Because being young has become such a human enigma, it can find its vibrant attempt at a solution only in “a distinct discipline within the humanities.”

[ 13 ] In such a discipline, one does not speak of youth in empty phrases; rather, one seeks the light that must shine upon youth so that it may perceive itself in its humanity.

[ 14 ] Being young today calls for a worldview that can infuse one’s life’s work with warmth. It fears the professions created by a civilization devoid of worldview. It wants to see one’s profession grow out of one’s humanity, not have one’s humanity stifled by one’s profession. Finding one’s way in the world without losing one’s humanity in the process requires a living, soulful relationship with the world. But this awakens only through the experience of a worldview. It is in this spirit that the Executive Council of the Anthroposophical Society has made its announcement. In this spirit, the Executive Council wishes to unite young anthroposophists in a Youth Section to work toward a life of true humanity. But there is one more thing I would like to say to the younger members. If we succeed in giving the Youth Section the right substance, then those who have come to understand, through their anthroposophical life, the proper way to “grow old” will want to join forces with the youth. May the youth then not say: “We will not sit at the same table with the ‘old ones.’” For anthroposophy is ageless; it lives in the eternal, which brings all people together. May the youth find within the Anthroposophical Society a space where they can be young. But the “elders,” when they take anthroposophy to heart and make it a living part of their whole being, will feel drawn to the youth. They will find that what they have gained through age can best be shared with the youth. For the youth will struggle in vain for true humanity if they flee from the very humanity into which they must eventually enter. In the course of world history, the old must continually rejuvenate itself if it is not to fall prey to the insubstantial. And youth will be able to find what it needs among the genuine “old” anthroposophists, if it does not wish to one day reach an age of its own from which it would like to flee but cannot.