The Rudolf Steiner Archive

39. The Leaders and the Led

[ 1 ] Those who observe events in the public life of Central Europe today without bias will not fail to notice how the broad masses of the people look up to leading personalities in blind faith in authority, how they always hope for something anew from these personalities, even if these hopes have proved to be unfounded in earlier cases. - This phenomenon proves to be so characteristic of our time that anyone who wants to stand with his ideas in reality must reckon with it. It testifies to the fact that mass sentiment is less focused on the ideas themselves, which are brought into the realm of public life, than on the people from whom they come.

[ 2 ] For the time being, people who want to be led still turn to those who, for one reason or another, had an authoritative influence before the collapse. They listen carefully to what Count Bernstorff has to say about the decisive facts that brought about America's entry into the war. One does this because one believes that one can count on him to reorganize things. But what does Count Bernstorff have to say from his experiences? Basically something quite negative. America would have been deterred from intervening in the war if Germany had not waged unrestricted submarine warfare. This opinion may be correct. But it cannot be fruitful for the present. For what has happened in this way, what has been done, can no longer be changed. But what was not done in the time of the terrible war should at least be done now; to give public affairs a purposeful direction out of ideas, that was omitted; that should be done now. From America came the fourteen Wilsonian sham ideas. Anyone who can reckon with the real facts must have known that these sham ideas could not lead to a reorganization of civilization, which was drifting towards destruction. This could only be hoped for if real ideas were put forward from the ranks of the leading personalities in opposition to the sham ideas. At that time, attempts were made to introduce such leading personalities in Central Europe to the ideas that are now alive in the movement for the threefolding of the social organism. Given the attitude of the masses towards the authority of the leading personalities, it could have meant a great deal at that time, when the war events were still undecided, if only a few had had the will to test these ideas and the courage to act in accordance with the results of the test. After all, Wilson's bogus ideas gripped the widest circles of people like a new revelation.

[ 3 ] The course of events, which are drifting ever closer to dissolution, makes it easy to justify pessimistic moods. However, one should also see the good in the fact described here, the attitude of the masses towards leading personalities. For the time being, this attitude is still going in the wrong direction. It is turning towards the old leaders. But it cannot fail to happen that one day the leaders will realize that the people with the old ideas, who do not want to change, will lead to further decline. Then it will be time for the people with the new ideas. But everything that should happen will depend on these people being present in sufficient numbers. This must be worked towards. The possibility must be sought that the trust that today still moves in the well-trodden paths towards the old leaders will turn towards the bearers of the new ideas.

[ 4 ] It will be of no avail to repeat so often today that America would not have entered the war if Germany had not decided on unrestricted submarine warfare. This confession will not make a significant impression in America. For there it is believed that in Central Europe only the principle of power will continue to operate in the future, as it did in the decision that made such a deep impression. During the war, people in America feared the monarchist exercise of the principle of power. Now they fear the Bolshevik one. They did not know how to cure America of that fear. It is now time to make an energetic effort to show the world that a school of thought can live in Central Europe which sees in the Bolshevik way of thinking only a continuation of the old system of power, and that this school of thought wants nothing to do with the new principle of power. As long as nothing of this kind is heard in the world, the opinion will not be abandoned that Central Europe must be treated in such a way that it becomes completely impotent.

[ 5 ] During the war, the leading personalities could not decide on ideas. Therefore, it was not possible to give events a direction that would have led away from total defeat. A lack of ideas now, after the defeat, would have to lead the facts towards total defeat. It could be of no use if the leading circles, fleeing from ideas, came to terms with the supremacy of the Western powers. For if this resignation took place without the work of ideas, it would always have as its shadow the unimaginative revolutionary power politics of the masses. The world would have to move towards a state in which that which results from thoughtless instincts and the fear of them would rule. We can already see this state of affairs approaching very clearly. We should not close our eyes to the immeasurable danger that lies within it. If it is not counteracted, it could only lead to the complete collapse of civilization. Pessimistic moods are justified as long as they cannot be countered with the will. No hope can be placed in this or that "happy turn of events" in today's circumstances; only the will, which is fertilized by ideas, can be relied upon.