The Rudolf Steiner Archive

51. The Real Forces in Contemporary Social Life

[ 1 ] The group of people who began to propagate the idea of the threefolding of the social organism in the spring of 1919 wanted to work honestly on the improvement of human living conditions. Out of this honesty, they could not bring the working population the old slogans and catchphrases that had been used for decades in socialist agitation. These phrases and slogans could be used to criticize the existing social order, to tell the leading classes what they had failed to do, but they could not be used to build anything. They could be used to dream up utopias, but they could not add forces to social reality that would serve life in such a way that every human being could find a dignified existence in it.

[ 2 ] The proponents of the threefold idea did not start from such phrases and slogans. They based their will on the solid teachings that life itself provides. They spoke from the standpoint of these life teachings to the leading classes as well as to the proletarians. They have not yet been understood by either side. But they know, precisely because they have drawn their thoughts from real life, that there can be no question of an improvement in conditions until these teachings of life are understood. They can do nothing but repeat these teachings until they find a sympathetic ear.

[ 3 ] Why have the bearers of the Threefold Thought not been understood? The proletariat thought they spoke too complicatedly. It could not immediately see how their thoughts really showed not only a goal, but also a way out of the spiritual, national and economic impossibilities. They wanted them to speak more simply. But they did not realize that life itself is complicated. The bearer of the threefold idea is in the same position as a doctor. He has to give his advice. He will only be able to do this if he knows the whole complicated human organism. Can he be expected to speak to every human being about this organism in a way that can be understood, if he does not get involved in what needs to be learned about the life of the organism? This cannot be demanded, because in complying with this demand he would have to resort to catchwords and phrases. But these bearers could not do that. For they only wanted to say what was imbued with honesty in every sentence. What they have to say can be understood. But you first have to bring yourself to this understanding.

[ 4 ] The proletarian will say: So you want to speak all kinds of learned things to us, but we want to hear the simple language of the people. To this we must reply: No, we don't want to speak scholarly stuff, but the language of real life. We only want to speak of capital and labor from the point of view of expertise, like a doctor or expert in nature speaks of the human organism, and not like a curing physician. But if you want to speak in this way, you will only be understood if the other person also wants to follow the right path of understanding. This path will only be found if he wants to go through heart and soul to the mind. The writer of these lines is imbued with the conviction that the bearers of the Threefold Thought speak in such a way that one can see their understanding of the true situation of the proletariat if one wants to judge them from the heart and soul. Up to now the proletariat has not sufficiently sought this path through heart and soul. It has judged according to the doctrines of the mind which it has imbibed through popular socialism. It has demanded that the bearers of the Threefold Thought should also speak as it has been accustomed to speak according to these intellectual doctrines. They could not do so because they know that these teachings contradict life and therefore lead to nothing.

[ 5 ] The writer of these lines does not want to speak of a wild fantasy. He is therefore not saying that the mind should be set aside and that a path can only be sought through the heart and soul. Certainly, the intellect must be the safe guide, but in social matters there is no other way to the right use of the intellect than through the heart and soul. My "Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage" and my book "In Ausführung der Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" count on such a path. I do not believe that in these books anyone misses the assessment of life from the point of view of the intellect, but I was nevertheless pleased, in the interest of the cause, when I recently read in a review of the first book from another source that in it the social question is grasped by the powers of the heart as well as the intellect.

[ 6 ] No more than from the proletarian side has the idea of threefolding been understood by personalities in the leading circles. Their thoughts have been so caught up in the economic routines of the past that from the outset they do not get involved in anything that does not run along their usual lines. Some of them realize that something has to happen, but if you come out with specific thoughts about what should happen, they shy away from it because they believe that they have reality and that it should be disturbed by fantasy. Most of them say they have no time to deal with such ideas. And if you don't want to be unfair from the outset, you even have to admit - they really don't have time. They are busy from morning till night in order to continue working in the old sense, they come out of the office in the evening with a tired head that doesn't want to take anything in, even if they sit down once with good will - to look at the thing. So they limit themselves to gluing together the fractures that arise in the traditional. They will not have time until they have to realize that the time they have spent was wasted and that the time they thought they were not allowed to spend would have been much better spent. I'm talking about those who have at least some good will. The others - alas, they are so numerous - cannot seriously be counted on.

[ 7 ] Whoever wants to understand the threefold idea must take the trouble to follow how stimulating thoughts for legal and economic life can only come from a spiritual life that is set on itself. He must allow himself to be instructed by life as to how an educational and teaching system administered by the legal and economic system loses that responsiveness which is necessary for the maintenance of the social organism. From there he will also come to an understanding of an associatively organized economic life and a truly democratic legal life. The writer of these lines has tried to show this path of understanding as best he could in the above-mentioned books.

[ 8 ] If one wishes to point to such a path, one must start from the social forces at work in the present age. Modern technology has reshaped life; modern science has penetrated the souls of the widest circles as a view of life through the developed school system. This has created new ideas of a humane existence. The promoters of the threefold structure reckon with these two very real forces of the present. You will understand their ideas when you feel what these forces mean. Many reckon with technology, but not with the lives of the people who are involved in this technology. Others reckon with the spirit of science. They want it - and rightly so - to be cultivated in schools. But they do not reckon with the moods of the soul that it creates. The idea of threefolding reckons with what they leave out of the equation.

[ 9 ] The proletarian has lost confidence because he feels that so many do not reckon with his life or his soul. Things will only get better when he finds his way through heart and soul to the social ideas that reckon with both, and which for this very reason can no longer offer him his cherished slogans, because they want a real path and not intoxication with utopian thoughts.