The Rudolf Steiner Archive

53. The Limitation of the “Coming Day” Program

[ 1 ] The circumstances of the times and the opposition of wide circles interested in economic life force the "Coming Day" to dispense with a further socio-economic program for the immediate present and to keep its activities within narrower limits. In the near future, it will be the association of some economic enterprises with spiritual enterprises that support each other. The spiritual enterprises: Waldorf School, Clinical Therapeutic Institute, Biological and Physical Research Institute are to serve scientific-spiritual and moral-social progress in the sense that corresponds to the demands of the present and the near future. The purely economic undertakings should provide the material basis for the overall enterprise. They should initially carry those undertakings that can only bear economic fruit and financial returns in some time, because the spiritual seed to be poured into them now can only sprout after some time.

[ 2 ] The shareholders will continue to receive the dividend promised in the program from this closely held company. An expansion of the activity can also take place as far as possible in this transformed program. Although the program originally developed for the further development of economic life in connection with the cultivation of spiritual values is a necessity of our time, its comprehensive realization is currently hopeless due to the limited willingness of the contemporary community involved in economic life. Thus, what is initially possible must take precedence over what is necessary. Those personalities who are sympathetic to the idea of the "Coming Day" will be all the better able to unite their interests in it. Serving them will be the duty of its leadership.