Section for Social Sciences

Goetheanum

Anthroposophie und soziale Erneuerung – in der Reihe: Anthroposophie – eine Erweiterung der Wissenschaft?

Anthroposophie und soziale Erneuerung – in der Reihe: Anthroposophie – eine Erweiterung der Wissenschaft? 1973 1120 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften

Anthroposophie und soziale Erneuerung

Die aktuelle Transformation in Kultur, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft

von Gerald Häfner

Immer mehr wird unsere gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit von Krisen bestimmt. Pandemien und Kriege kehren zurück, das Klima kippt, bisher gefestigte Demokratien kippen ins Autoritäre, das Vertrauen in Institutionen schwindet, Angst macht sich breit.

Kann die Anthroposophie einen Beitrag leisten zur notwendigen Transformation der Gesellschaft? Verleitet Anthroposophie zur Flucht vor der Wirklichkeit – oder leistet sie substanzielle und nachhaltige Beiträge zu einer freieren, menschlicheren, besseren Welt?

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Dieser Krieg muss enden. Jetzt! — Perspektiven für Frieden in der Ukraine und Europa

Dieser Krieg muss enden. Jetzt! — Perspektiven für Frieden in der Ukraine und Europa 150 150 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften

Dieser Krieg muss enden. Jetzt! — Perspektiven für Frieden in der Ukraine und Europa

31. März 2022

Krieg – noch immer und immer schlimmer. Längst schon werden nicht mehr wie am Anfang nur strategische Ziele bombardiert; längst schon werden Häuser angegriffen, Theater, Schulen und Krankhäuser. Mariupol, die einst blühende, vibrierende Stadt, liegt weitgehend in Schutt und Asche. Millionen von Menschen sind auf der Flucht, Familien zerrissen, Kinder alleine, Eltern in Bunkern oder U-Bahnschächten. Sie alle eint die Angst. Es ist nötig, dass wir darüber sprechen und nachdenken: Wie konnte es zu diesem Krieg kommen? Wie kommen wir daraus? Ein Blick auf die Ukraine, auf Russland, auf den Westen und auf Europa.

Anthroposophische Initiativen in der Ukraine unterstützen:
Sophia Stiftung
Kontoinhaber: GLS Treuhand e.V.
IBAN: DE63 4306 0967 0013 0227 10
Verwendungszweck: Sophia Konto 3502 4004 – SOLIDARITÄT

*** Das Goetheanum ist der Sitz der weltweit arbeitenden Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft und der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft. Die Freie Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft entfaltet ihr Leben, wo ‹der Labortisch zum Altar wird›, wo es gelingt, die Innenseite, die geistige Dimension der tagtäglichen Fragen im Klassenzimmer einer Schule oder im Konferenzraum einer Bank zu erfassen und daraus uns Menschen gemäße Antworten zu finden.

«Krieg ist inakzeptabel!»

«Krieg ist inakzeptabel!» 1280 714 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften

PRESSEMITTEILUNG – 

«Krieg ist inakzeptabel!» | Gerald Häfner: Neutralität und Blocküberwindung als Perspektive für die Ukraine und für Europa

Goetheanum, Dornach, Schweiz, 25. Februar 2022

Mit Erschütterung äußerte sich Gerald Häfner, Leiter der Sektion für Sozialwissenschaften am Goetheanum, über den «russischen Überfall» auf die Ukraine. Wenn die jetzt begonnenen kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen nicht sofort gestoppt würden, sei millionenfaches menschliches Leid die Folge. Krieg dürfe in Europa kein Mittel der Politik mehr sein.

Gerald Häfner sieht im zwischen Ost und West veranstalteten Tauziehen um die Ukraine die Folge einer kollektiven Bewusstseinslähmung: «Krisen sind normal. Nicht normal aber ist, auf die Krisen von heute mit den Antworten von gestern zu reagieren. Die Spannungen in der und um die Ukraine dürfen kein Anlass sein, in das überholte Blockdenken vergangener Jahrzehnte zurückzufallen, sondern ein Anlass, genau dieses endlich zu überwinden.»

Die Entwicklung der letzten Wochen habe zu einer ausweglosen Engführung des Denkens und der Politik geführt. Alte Reflexe und Rivalitäten bestimmten das Handeln. Gerald Häfner: «Die überkommene Logik von Schwarz oder Weiß, Nato oder Russland ist falsch. Die Ukraine braucht einen Weg, der nicht in eine kriegerische Vergangenheit, sondern in eine friedliche Zukunft führt: aktive Neutralität, Selbstbestimmung und kollegiale Zusammenarbeit jenseits der Militärblöcke.» Das könnte auch innerhalb der Ukraine die Spannungen lösen: kulturelle Autonomie der verschiedenen Sprach- und Volksgruppen, Rechtsgleichheit und friedliche Zusammenarbeit über Grenzen hinweg.

Kein Land hat so lange und gute Erfahrungen mit Neutralität und politischer Selbstbestimmung der Bürgerinnen und Bürger wie die Schweiz. Gerald Häfner sähe eine Möglichkeit, wenn sich die Schweizer Regierung umgehend als ehrlicher und neutraler Vermittler mit einem entsprechenden Vorschlag an alle kämpfenden Parteien richten würde. «Auch wenn sich der Erfolg nicht sicher vorhersagen lässt, wäre eine solche Initiative ein Lichtblick und ein Zeichen der Hoffnung in diesen sich verdüsternden Zeite», so Gerald Häfner weiter.

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Impfpflicht – Weg oder Irrweg aus der Pandemie? – Ein Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Harald Matthes über die sinnvolle und effiziente Gesundheitsmaßnahmen

Impfpflicht – Weg oder Irrweg aus der Pandemie? – Ein Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Harald Matthes über die sinnvolle und effiziente Gesundheitsmaßnahmen 1921 1080 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften

Wie wollen wir die Welt gestalten? – Gerald Häfner im Gespräch
Siebte Folge:

Impfpflicht – Weg oder Irrweg aus der Pandemie?

Ein Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Harald Matthes über die sinnvolle und effiziente Gesundheitsmaßnahmen

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Wo stehen wir in der Pandemie und welche Maßnahmen führen uns heraus? Wie lange wirken die verschiedenen Impfstoffe? Welchen Schutz vermittelt eine durchgemachte Infektion? Sollen wir Kinder impfen? Gestützt auf Daten und Fakten erläutert Harald Matthes die Wirkung und den Erfolg unterschiedlicher Vorgehensweisen in der Pandemiebekämpfung. Matthes empfiehlt einen ganzheitlichen, integrativen und differenzierten Ansatz anstelle einer allgemeinen Impfpflicht.

Professor Dr. Harald Matthes ist Mitbegründer und ärztlicher Leiter des 1995 gegründeten Gemeinschaftskrankenhauses Havelhöhe (Berlin) mit großer Corona-Station und eigenem Impfzentrum sowie viel Erfahrung in der Behandlung von Covid-19. Er ist zudem Professor für integrative und anthroposophische Medizin in der Charité in Berlin.

Viel Freude bei diesem informativen, aufweckenden und orientierenden Gespräch,
Ihr Gerald Häfner

Kann Religion die Welt retten? – Ein Gespräch über Sinn und Wert von Religion in einer sich wandelnden Welt mit João Torunsky

Kann Religion die Welt retten? – Ein Gespräch über Sinn und Wert von Religion in einer sich wandelnden Welt mit João Torunsky 1280 720 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften
Wie wollen wir die Welt gestalten? – Gerald Häfner im Gespräch
Sechste Folge:

Kann Religion die Welt retten?

Ein Gespräch über Sinn und Wert von Religion in einer sich wandelnden Welt mit João Torunsky

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Hat Religion noch irgendeine Berechtigung in unserer aufgeklärten, von Wissenschaft, Politik und Ökonomie bestimmten Welt? Oder liegt gerade in dem tiefen Bezug der Seele zu geistiger Erfahrung und Wirklichkeit eine Möglichkeit zur Rettung der Menschheit vor dem Kälte-, wie der Erde vor dem Wärmetod? Ein Gespräch über Religiosität jenseits von Konfessionen – ein tief berührendes Gespräch voller Klarheit und Wärme, Religiosität und Spiritualität, Unvoreingenommenheit, Aufgeklärtheit und Zeitgenossenschaft.

João Torunsky (*1956 in Brasilien) wurde nach einem Studium des Maschinenbaus 1985 Priester der Christengemeinschaft: erst Gemeindepfarrer, dann Lenker (vergleichbar einem Bischof) in Württemberg, später in Südamerika – und ist seit Juni 2021 deren Erzoberlenker.

Viel Spaß beim Zuschauen,

Ihr Gerald Häfner

Future of Democracy

Future of Democracy 3508 2479 Johanna

Future of Democracy

Under the following link the video of the contribution of Gerald Häfner from 11.10. can be viewed in English: View

The Social Science Sections of Brazil and Dornach, Switzerland, in cooperation with the initiatives ‘Dinero&Conciencia’ and ‘Banca Ética’, organized an online event in mid-October. The relationship between global autonomy and democracy was looked at from the perspective of economy, natural resources and education. Gerald Häfner was invited as a guest speaker.

What relationship do Brazilians have to democracy? Can issues be moved differently there?

Brazil is a country torn between extremes. Between rich and poor, as well as between left-wing politics (Lula, PT) and right-wing politics (Bolsonaro, Alianca). Politics is loud, hard, corrupt. But Brazilians are rather soft, sensitive, musical. More and more people are longing for a form of living together that is no longer built on power, violence, superiority and submission. That’s where we as a section are very much needed.

What is a key point in the relationship between autonomy and democracy?

Only from their polarity and higher connection a community can be shaped in a contemporary way. Democracy is the compelling consequence of human freedom, perhaps the most radical form of making self-determination the starting- and endpoint of shaping society. It is the social form of ethical individualism – the overcoming of every superiority and subordination of people to the will of others.

Do we need the association of these two for the future? What are the new common actions of it?

We are only beginning to understand and live democracy deeply enough. There is still a lot of group-soul in party democracy. That is why we are working on more contemporary forms, qualities and instruments. The goal is to combine genuine self-determination with legal equality and democracy – as a result: the rising of every person to the status of (co-)legislator, to sovereignty.

Unconsciously they have chosen the threefolding

Unconsciously they have chosen the threefolding 2306 1538 Johanna

Unconsciously they have chosen the threefolding

 

This and other exciting interviews can be found in “Das Goetheanum” online and in the print edition.

 

The election for the German Bundestag is three weeks away and in Berlin the SPD, FDP and the Greens are negotiating what policies they want to implement together as the new German government. This is an opportunity, says Gerald Häfner.

 

Wolfgang Held: How do you interpret the election?

Gerald Häfner: Compared to elections in neighbouring democracies, the political culture in Germany has proven to be mature and adaptable. In many countries, the election campaign was trivialised and reduced to a ‘him or me’, a kind of ’12 o’clock midday’ duel. In today’s media world of emotional and aggressive aggravation and filter bubbles, arguments are increasingly rarely weighed and constellations chosen, but rather leader figures are hoisted to power – with terrible consequences.

In the face of this erosion, Germany still has a diverse political landscape. The various currents and individuals have been able to articulate themselves and, in my opinion, the citizens have voted in a balanced and comprehensible manner. That does not mean that they voted the way I would have liked them to. Nor can that be the scale in such an assessment. Rather, I think the election results reflect well what concerns and hopes are alive in the population. In such difficult times of truncated narratives and fomented enemy images that are spread virally, in such times of many apolitical debates that replace politics with entertainment, the political system has proven itself. I am extremely pleased about that.

Wolfgang Held: One-third of voters are over the age of 60. What does this weight of the elderly population mean?

Gerald Häfner: Of course, this has consequences. For example, the preservation of vested interests and the fear of an abrupt change is a motive for many. After all, Germany is an ageing country in which the younger generation is a dwindling minority. In addition, only some of the young people see any chance at all to participate in the political system and to change something. Many young people have turned away in disappointment. They think that elections can change little. Others have turned away more quietly. For them, their own interests as well as their own distraction and media staging are so much in the foreground that they have not even woken up to the affairs of the community, let alone want to get involved there.

Wolfgang Held: What do Rezo’s three YouTube films mean here? The young filmmaker has made it all the way to the evening news and received millions of clicks.

Gerald Häfner: Here, a part of the younger culture has found its way into the mainstream debate. That is very rare. It is gratifying, but in my eyes not yet sustainable. But it shows what can become when younger people emerge from the parallel worlds of the media and return to the real world with all their stupendous questions and abilities.

Wolfgang Held: For the first time, there is not a single strong force in the election, but several in the midfield. What do you think of that?

Gerald Häfner: That is good! It is never wise to put too much power in the hands of a few. I go so far as to say: The people have chosen wisely. They have unconsciously chosen threefolding! They voted, first and foremost, for more social justice. We have dramatically neglected this in this country and also worldwide. This was the SPD’s call for more respect for everyone and for all members of society. The citizens have, secondly, at the same time voted for more and a new global brotherhood: The issue of climate change concerns nothing other than the realisation that we are not alone on this planet. Everything we do here has an impact on all other people, plants and animals, on the earth as a whole. There we have to overcome egoism. We have to learn to deal with the earth in a fraternal way. That was the main theme of the Greens! This topic had determined the whole election campaign at the beginning. Drought, forest fires, dying trees and raging floods underscored the inevitability of a profound policy change in this area. But after soaring to new heights in early summer, the Greens lost support because they were unable to carry the whole of society along with them. This also had to do with a change in personnel and tone. Particularly in the pandemic debate, some of the statements made here came across as super-teachy and chilly, too much like ‘pointing fingers’ and decrees from above.

This – and the pandemic policy, which was increasingly less understandable in view of developments and relied unilaterally on measures by the authoritarian state – led to a growing section of the population becoming increasingly concerned that freedom could be undermined. As a result, in the home stretch of the election, i.e., in the last three months, a party that had almost been written off gained enormous votes, the FDP. People suddenly realised that they still needed a party that stood up for freedom. Even if the way it appears and expresses itself is more evocative of the freedom of the 1990s than the freedom of the 21st century, which needs to be spelled out anew – but without freedom, even the best-intentioned policy is nothing.

In this way, citizens have unconsciously created a new government mandate:  liberty, equality and fraternity in government at the cutting edge as a political task. These three parties and the people they nominated were the ones they thought most likely to do this. Now it is only to be hoped that the responsible persons of the three parties understand this themselves and seize their role in it courageously and open to the future!

 

“How can we combine social responsibility with freedom? That’s a crucial question on the minds of most people.”

 

Wolfgang Held: Interesting personalities from the second row are now emerging.

Gerald Häfner: That is also the nice thing. For example, in the FDP. Until a quarter of a year ago, it was perceived only through its old personnel. Christian Lindner, too, has long been perceived more through ambition than through human substance. But he won. And he learned to indulge. The FDP would not have managed this upswing if other people had not been given room. This made it clear that there is an intellectual current that this country needs. And it is certainly diverse and interesting. The CDU, on the other hand, did not manage to take this step towards a new culture of cooperation. It wanted to reestablish a strong leader – but the candidate didn’t deliver. The SPD and the Greens were in a better position.

Wolfgang Held: The exploratory talks showed a respectful mutual tone. It is also part of the threefold structure that the members condition and support each other. Do you see this atmosphere?

Gerald Häfner: Exactly. That’s what makes me so hopeful. Now, for the first time in history, coalition negotiations in Germany are not being conducted from a center. Rather, they are beginning peripherally. The FDP and the Greens have started to exchange ideas, to talk to each other before they start talking to the new ‘strong man’. Of course, there are specific wounds on both sides. And the public needed a sign that the FDP really wants to help shape things and is also taking the talks seriously. But there is more at stake. How can we combine freedom with social responsibility? That’s in the background – and it’s the crucial question today. It also drives me personally – and leads to critical questions for my former friends in the Greens. They have a stronger view of the whole than others, but sometimes the necessary and available space of individual freedom and design is unnecessarily narrowed with the focus on what is necessary for the planet.

Wolfgang Held:  Presumably, everyone must find his or her own personal renunciation in freedom. This can only happen freely.

Gerald Häfner: That is the big social question in this pandemic. The tendency of those in power is to prescribe how the individual must behave. This goes as far as highly personal issues, where it is sometimes impossible to see. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to set a completely different course on a large scale. On the contrary, if and where we do so, we can refrain from being a nanny in small matters.

Socially, this freedom is being torn apart right now. Some people say: “Follow the science! – the others: “I do what I want!” Can we manage to combine freedom and responsibility, these poles? Let’s take the pandemic: can the individual in freedom respect the concern of the other and for the whole without such massive restrictions being decided? That is the question in the pandemic – and that will become the ecological question. If the individual does not want a change and create in freedom in his life, we are threatened with dictatorship. Therefore, one can and must connect the ecology issue with the freedom issue. This is the real alchemical task of our time. ‘Free ride for free citizens’ or the freedom to earn 50 million euros while people beg or die of hunger next to my house? Freedom at the expense of the whole is over. Does the whole now demand that we give up freedom? Or is it possible to shape the whole in freedom, in such a way that freedom is no longer primarily freedom from the other, but for the other: to value and respect each other and the earth and to take careful steps into the future?

Wolfgang Held: Would you agree with Harald Welzer, who said that Jeff Bezos flying into space, burning pollutants like a big city, should be banned?

Gerald Häfner: In the logic of what I just said would be that no one does this kind of thing anymore anyway, without it having to be banned. But I agree with you. The space on earth is getting narrower and is distributed. That’s why those who have great needs, new ideas or to realise themselves, go to space. It’s not distributed yet. I think we need to understand that there is no such space where you can say, ‘Here I don’t have to take into consideration and I am liberated from the others.’ It’s all our common living space, where we share responsibilities. And everything has consequences. We therefore need rules for this ‘world space’ quickly and urgently. Who owns the earth? Who owns outer space? I also consider the desire of private companies to launch thousands of satellites into orbit to be highly problematic. The new forms of rules and responsibility for this must be found quickly.

 

“It’s no longer about group membership, it’s about factual decisions.”

 

Wolfgang Held: How do the three parties come together fruitfully?

Gerald Häfner: In my experience, the strength of personality and the maturity of individual politicians is decisive. With Olaf Scholz, for example, there is this interesting mixture of official bonus and opposition – he belongs to the system and yet is able to credibly represent a new beginning. We’ve had a lot of lethargy in Germany in recent decades. When I think about how cases are processed in the courts or authorities in Germany: There, paper files are often still stapled in folders and pushed along the corridors with little metal carts. They then have to run across the desk of every judge, be signed off and commented on, until they go to print and can be presented as a verdict. That’s why our judiciary is so slow. It would be no problem to do this digitally – and thus to compress what takes place in months into days. Germany has slept through so much because it has fallen asleep and grown old in all its wealth and pride in a functioning system. It has not been about new ideas for decades, but only about the eternal ‘business as usual’. That was true of Kohl – and unfortunately it was also true to a large extent under Merkel, whose balance and prudence were good for the country, but whose absolute lack of vision paralysed it at the same time. That must change now. This is also reflected in the candidates. Olaf Scholz radiated the necessary calm and level-headedness, but is still open to new ideas, which is important. And he stands for the center, justice, equality. Laschet and Baerbock would have had the chance to win, but Baerbock wanted to be more and Laschet wanted to be different than he or she was. And what they were was not enough for first place. They could not radiate the necessary warmth and breadth of a spiritual mantle that a country needs if it is to embark on such a journey of mental and spiritual reconstruction. Robert Habeck, who would have been more capable of this and, incidentally, is also the architect of the new style we are now witnessing between the protagonists, was not available for election. In the merciless spotlight of publicity, strengths and weaknesses become publicly visible.

Wolfgang Held: The SPD’s swan song was that ‘its cultural achievement was to have integrated the proletariat into bourgeois life’. But what comes next?

Gerald Häfner: The proletariat in this classical form no longer exists. But there is a new precariat and thus a new question of justice. This became apparent on election day, as if under a burning glass, in the result of the referendum in Berlin for the expropriation of housing corporations. The clear result of the vote led to an outcry from the established and brought in a gratifyingly disruptive element. What was it all about? Berlin has – by the way, fought for by ‘Mehr Demokratie’ – the possibility to use direct democracy in addition to representative democracy. Contrary to most election programs, the majority of the population voted in favour of expropriating all apartment owners who own more than 3,000 apartments. My heart goes with that. Because people feel: Housing is vital. If this is only regulated by cold market laws, it will lead to enormous social problems in view of land speculation and rising rents. What the citizens have decided there is really contrary to the previous political dns of this country.

For me, this is part of the picture in relation to the election result: the still unconscious, perceived threefolding – and then the Michaelic sword. Federal election and Berlin vote. They shout into the country: “We want something to change radically! Don’t stay in your old mental cages, but open doors and windows for new ideas! Otherwise we can’t save this world and this society, otherwise it will fall apart.”

Wolfgang Held: Is this the evening glow of party thinking, which, after all, dates back to the 19th century?

Gerald Häfner: There used to be three or four major parties, and you belonged to the electorate of one or the other. That has become incredibly differentiated. People make new decisions at every election, and the number of “swing voters” and late deciders is increasing. New parties are emerging. Eight percent of the electorate voted for parties that were not in previous politics but failed the 5 percent hurdle. I suspect it would have been 16 percent without this hurdle, because no one wants to waste their vote. There is a simple solution for this, which I have been proposing for decades: the substitute vote. So: I vote for A. If A doesn’t get into parliament, my vote goes to B. That way it’s not worthless. That way it is not worthless. In a democracy, every vote should count equally. So: The citizens want and have more choice. It is no longer about group membership, but about material decisions. If direct democracy were added to this, the parties could also be overcome in the long term. But not the need for consistent policy designs and debates. But let’s take the climate, pandemic policy, taxation: If more direct participation were made possible, completely new ideas would come onto the market and into play than just those that are still being moved in parliament.

Wolfgang Held: Does Germany’s election have an impact on foreign policy?

Gerald Häfner: Yes, it has! In all parts of the world, many countries and people look to Germany and Central Europe. Especially now, when we are witnessing antagonism and populism almost all over the world, when we are experiencing a deconstruction of democracy, when there is hardly any discussion about content, but the other person is already considered an enemy just because he thinks differently. So it’s very reassuring that democracy in Germany is functioning and even evolving. Issues that the political establishment has long excluded are being put on the agenda by citizens. There is more and more citizen participation. The association “Mehr Demokratie”, which I founded decades ago, has contributed significantly to this. In many, many countries, I see how this is seen as a model and also encourages others. Internationally, I would like to see the politics of confrontation and the resurgence of bloc thinking overcome. This also applies to Europe. It is not about forming a large bloc vis-à-vis America, China or Russia. It is about pursuing a humane and sustainable policy that is effective for the entire planet, starting from Europe – and that dissolves bloc thinking both internally and externally. If Germany were to take this on board, it could actually make a contribution to good development in the years to come.

 

Gerald Häfner, October, 15th, 2021

How the Goetheanum is showing flag

How the Goetheanum is showing flag 150 150 Johanna

How the Goetheanum is showing flag

 

This interview first was published in the Info3 November 2021 edition

A rough wind has been blowing towards Anthroposophy in the media for months. With Gerald Häfner, member of the leadership of the Goetheanum in Dornach/Switzerland, we took a look at the position of anthroposophy in the public eye. How can one react to attacks without losing sight of the essentials?

Interview: Anna-Katharina Dehmelt und Jens Heisterkamp

Since Rudolf Steiner’s 150th birthday in 2011, which was strongly perceived by the public, one could have the impression that anthroposophy and its fields of practice have arrived in society and found a predominantly positive resonance. Now in the Corona period, however, accusations of racism against anthroposophy, have again come quite strongly to the surface. Of course, one has to speak critically about passages in Steiner’s work where people with certain skin colors are devalued, but in the meantime even as an anthroposophist one is marginalized and made contemptible. Are we actually dealing with a form of discrimination?

The subject has many layers and these layers require a very different view. So there is a great danger of seeing only one side or the other. One aspect of the matter is the following: To a certain extent, the increase in public attacks and public stigmatization actually has to do with the fact that the relevance of anthroposophy and anthroposophical practice has increased. If you have a movement that seems to be suspect in your point of view, then the first strategy is always: ignore it, don’t make an issue out of it, and wait for it to somehow fizzle out or remain in a marginal area. But if it grows, then you have to do something, and then, of course, all implements are unpacked. In Germany, the most effective and worst instrument that can be used for stigmatisation is the accusation of racism or anti-Semitism. And at this point I would like to say with great determination and emphasis: Rudolf Steiner was neither a racist, nor an anti-Semite. He was actually the opposite of both. There are few people in his time who were so radically committed to the freedom and dignity of every individual and against any group judgment, against any form of nationalism or racism. The basic intention of Rudolf Steiner and the basic intention of anthroposophy is the freedom of the individual, the development of individuality, and at the same time, to think of society as a worldwide one, ecology as a worldwide one and our worldwide responsibility for it. That’s why one see anthroposophists again and again in civil society and other initiatives, which stand up for peace, for human rights, for solidarity trade, for a better treatment of disabled or marginalised people and so on. So I consider this blanket accusation of racism to be slander and even an attempt of group-based discrimination, which is not justified. It is interesting: With the gesture of anti-discrimination, racism is foisted on anthroposophy – and thus blithely discriminated against.

 

In the spring of 2021, there was an article in “Die Zeit” in which a conceptual chain was cloncluded from alleged hostility to science to anti-intellectualism and to anti-Semitism. They are against chemistry in the fields, so they are anti-Semites, because that has been the case before. That’s slander. How can one defend oneself against something like that?

The first thing to realise is that one can not not communicate. Not saying anything to such accusations, to remain silent, to turn away, is also a form of communication. So that means: We have to communicate. But how can we communicate? Unlike perhaps the Catholic Church or some other organizations, the Anthroposophical Society cannot take or proclaim certain ex cathedra positions on contemporary issues. Only individuals can ever have positions. But where it is a matter of necessary rectification, we also raise our voice, as recently with regard to the accusation of racism. At this point I have to say: Unfortunately, there are also positions, statements and behaviours on the part of anthroposophy that fuel the attacks, for example, when complex debates are conducted merely with reference to two quotes from Rudolf Steiner, without being able to argue comprehensibly themselves. This discredits anthroposophy to a considerable degree. Because anthroposophy is something where I set out on a path of cognition; and what I cannot recognise, I do not know (yet). One must be able to distinguish between that.

There is also a broader context. Since the 2000s, people who are interested in spirituality have also articulated themselves more and more clearly in public. There is a no longer quite small population group for whom this is an issue and who are looking for alternatives to the materialistic mainstream. What is happening now, I experience as a great counterattack against this awakening. In view of the sharpness of these attacks, one can become frightened, up to the concern that we could run towards a time where anthroposophy has to be cultivated again in back rooms like in the GDR.

 

In fact, we as a whole mankind are standing at  crossroads, at a threshold crossing. Unconsciously, people have long been aware that a purely reductionist view of the world, which focuses only on the dead, the countable and the measurable, cannot fully grasp reality. I see the crises of recent years – social inequality, financial crisis, ecological crisis, climate crisis, Corona crisis – as an expression of this fact, or formulated positively: As a request to us humans, whether we can finally free ourselves from the prison of purely dead, reductionist consciousness. We have lost the connection, to ourselves, to each other and to nature – society is disintegrating more and more. How do we become able to reconnect with the world? It is really a question of whether we can supplement, transform, expand the materialistic, reductionist worldview to include a spiritualised one, an understanding of the living. That would mean that I experience the essence in everything, in the plant, in the animal, in the earth, in the other human being. And that I become capable of encountering, that I do not only see you as an object of my interests, but that I experience and understand you in your own personality – and that just as much with regard to nature. In former times this was still the case, people lived in this all-unity, all-connectedness, back then the tree was a personality, a being. To us it has become only wood, and the water only H2O. But we realise that we destroy the earth with this abstract consciousness. Can we develop another consciousness? Here anthroposophy can show the way. At present, a conflict is raging between those who want to prepare the new and those who want to hold on to the old at all costs. Corona is one example.

But the overcoming of this scientific world view must go forward and not backward, that means, the clarity of cognition and understanding must be taken along and expanded instead of leading into an unscientific murmuration. Because such a murmuration meets the widespread and justified fear of irrationality. At this point anthroposophy has a task: to take itself seriously as a rational way of expanding scientific knowledge: soul-spiritual knowledge according to scientific method. And not as a falling back behind this method.

That’s a culture war, actually, what’s roistering there.

And this fight is getting sharper and sharper, that’s very clear. But most of the public is not a party to this struggle, most people are trying to orient themselves somehow between the poles. The
article in “Die Zeit” that I mentioned is read by maybe 300,000 people. They’re reading these claims now. This is also connected with a request to us as anthroposophists. Many would now like to know how it really is: How do you stand on the question of scientificity, on the question of racism, where do you stand, dear anthroposophists? That’s where we have to communicate. So when I answer, I’m really not answering for the author, but for the readers. Otherwise I fall into the trap. I must not get caught in defensive battles at all, but I must actually speak offensively out of this newness. People must learn to experience how anthroposophical thinking, speaking and acting is done. That is actually the important thing. We have currently tried to do this, for example, with the Goetheanum TV project, where we put videos online with conversations about current questions. Can I understand illness differently? Can I understand the economy differently, understand money differently, understand democracy differently? Can I understand people and nature differently – and act on that?

 

Gerald Häfner, born in 1956, studied German philology, social sciences, philosophy and Waldorf-education in Munich, Bochum and Witten. He was co-founder of the Green Party, for many years spokesman of the board  of “Mehr Demokratie”, and a member of the German Bundestag and the European Parliament. Since 2015 he has been a member of the management of the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. He is responsible for its public relations and heads the Social Science Section.

 

On www.goetheanum.tv you can find numerous videos with talks and lectures on current topics in anthroposophy.

Als sei er mit und nicht gegen die Eindrücke

Als sei er mit und nicht gegen die Eindrücke 2692 1792 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften

Als sei er mit und nicht gegen die Eindrücke

Zum 100. Geburtstag wird Joseph Beuys im Goetheanum gefeiert. Zu Lebzeiten begegnete ihm der 35 Jahre jüngere Gerald Häfner in den politisch aktiven Kreisen in Achberg und in der Gründungsphase der Grünen. Nachtodlich bleibt das Goetheanum ein Ort ihrer Zusammenarbeit. Das Gespräch führten Franka Henn und Philipp Tok.
Das Interview kann in der Onlineausgabe von Das Goetheanum gelesen werden.
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Understanding History from the Future – Crisis as Opportunity

Understanding History from the Future – Crisis as Opportunity 150 150 Sektion Sozialwissenschaften
Section for Social Sciences

Understanding History from the Future – Crisis as Opportunity

The Societal Dimension of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Crises synchronize and at the same time individualize us. We all follow the same guidelines, we are all in the same boat – and yet we are suddenly monads, strictly separated from each other. There is something that is almost spooky when people stay in their homes day after day, as if controlled by a distant choreography; as public life dies, we no longer approach each other, but rather conscientiously avoid each other, no longer flock together, but instead keep the greatest possible distance from each other. What is being observed on the outside, finds its counterpart on the inside. Because what I do, I do for others – and they do for me. I do it alone, for myself, but it only makes sense if everyone else does the same.

It’s a strange thing about society. There are times when everything seems constant and unchanging, as if cast in concrete. Then there are times when everything changes, suddenly, from one day to the next. Just like that. Something we never imagined possible has happened: schools, kindergartens and theatres – closed, churches, museums, sports facilities, shops, hotels and restaurants, closed; playgrounds and parks, businesses and even borders – closed. People locked up in their apartments – and if they dare go outside, and at most alone or in pairs, then at a great distance and wearing face masks. Not for one day, not for a weekend, but in most cases for months.

Small, medium and large, globally operating companies, even those that are among the most successful, having lost almost all of their value, are on the brink of an abyss, having to file for bankruptcy or are becoming the helpless prey of greedy financial speculators. Aeroplanes remain on the ground, employees stay at home, trips, conferences, cultural and sporting events are all cancelled. Millions of people lose their jobs, many also lose their income, and not just a few also lose courage, their sense of purpose and contact to loved ones. The world has become a different place. And humanity is afraid!

The public is currently dominated by two closely related reflexes: fear and resistance. Governments around the world are targeting the virus as an enemy and are combatting it with war-like operations. In France, the president deliberately speaks of a war against the virus. The President of the USA even presents the whole thing as a foreign invasion, against which powerful America fights with all its might. The United States of America is therefore in battle against the ‘Chinese virus’ – and the government is even asking the United Nations to officially declare this. The patterns of reaction are not the same everywhere, there are nuances that tell a lot about the thinking and the character of certain politicians, about the culture of a country and about the maturity of its society. Nonetheless, aggressive, militant thinking prevails.

It reveals a pattern of thought and reaction that cultivates hostile relationships to the world, a way of behaving that is similar to combat mode – defensive, conquering or ruling behaviour. Anything that cannot be integrated into the framework of a trusted world view is faded out or destroyed. What is happening is the opposite of what could or should be done in a constructive way in dealing with the situation. Isolating people, excluding them from their creative activity, restricting them in their natural urge to move – all this massively weakens the human ability to deal with the possible threat of a virus in a healthy way. The exact opposite would in fact be helpful – social contact, warmth, closeness, social encounter, as well as movement, sun, fresh air, joy and a sense of purpose in life and in activity. In the interim, there has even been public debate about what ultimately has worse consequences – the infection of most people by the virus or the measures implemented to defend against it.

The Pandemic as an Awakening Experience for Humanity?

The view of the social dimensions of events is deliberately not directed here at denouncing or coming to terms with mistakes and omissions, nor is it an analysis of what has happened, but rather it is a cautious and tentative attempt to look from a future perspective for an understanding of what happened during the Corona pandemic.

In social life, having a completely abstract, neutral representation is an illusion. Rather, the way we look at, understand and describe something that is still happening is always simultaneously participation, which is itself having an effect. For the social is formed between people; everyone is involved. We are not neutral spectators but are jointly responsible for what develops from our interactions between each other. This article is written from this perspective – that of full co-responsibility.

Illness always comes at the wrong time. We have more important things to do than being ill. Nevertheless, sometimes there is no other choice. We have to give the illness time and space. Whoever then inwardly listens attentively to themselves will almost always find reasons why they have become ill. Every illness also has a reason – and a specific meaning.

Just as every illness has biographical significance for the individual person, could this not also apply to a pandemic – in this case, however, to the whole of humanity? Just as disease often strikes us individually because we have not mastered something specific in our biography and forces us to deal with it, so too could a pandemic be a kind of trick of nature to confront the whole of humanity with certain questions that have thus far been repressed, urging us to take steps that have not yet been taken. Most of the time, the patient has to understand that his previous way of life was unhealthy, and he has to change his lifestyle if he wants to get well again and live longer.

It is unmistakable that we human beings have been pushed further and further into a mode in which we are destroying the world; we are hostile to it, we try to exploit and dominate it – and a world in which we ourselves, in a nutshell, only know the price of things and know nothing of their value. Through these, we have increasingly lost our connection to our fellow human beings, to ourselves, but even more to nature and to all creatures that populate and enliven this world. Science and technology are materializations of our thinking and our will and both are moving at breakneck speed, holding the world in suspense. What is largely omitted are our relationships or connections to the world – the quality of our heart, our lungs, our centre. This virus has a particular effect on our centre: the human centre which enables our connection to the world, and between thinking and limbs. Right here, in my breath and in my heartbeat, I am with myself and at the same time completely connected to the world. With every breath, I take in the world and when I breathe out again, I pour a part of myself into the world. And it is precisely here that this virus unfolds its pathogenic effect.

Understanding not Backwards, but Forwards

Alone at home, and more and more dependent on the internet, we are increasingly losing our foothold in external reality. We are losing our sense of security and certainty, in our economic and social lives, but also in our spiritual and political ones. We know less and less what is true. There are an infinite number of narratives, stories and assessments of what lies behind it all. Does the virus really come from a species of bat that was traded in a wild animal market in Wuhan? Or was it released – intentionally or accidentally – by the nearby bio-laboratory where research is being conducted with just such viruses? This is not the only subject of a bitter dispute.

What’s more, the controversies are becoming more violent, and the narratives so different that it seems as if their representatives are living in different realities. What is striking here is the vehemence of the judgments. Today, many conversations are quickly over after an initial taste – one person’s world view seems too incompatible with that of the other. Personal conviction on the one hand and the inability to deal with another’s experiences on the other are alienating us from each other. An inner feeling of illusory grandeur towards this event arises, because everyone thinks they can explain it exactly and also solve it. This is almost always associated with thinking in categories of good and evil or black and white, which is no longer at all appropriate in this unfolding historical situation in which we find ourselves.

A ‘Celebration’ of Control and Surveillance

In fact, we are witnessing a marriage of surveillance and control, for example through blanket surveillance of public spaces as in China, or through digital surveillance apps and programmes. In many countries, people are not allowed to leave their homes for weeks or months at a time. In the meantime, there is also discussion about whether the exercise or restriction of civil rights can be made dependent on whether someone has been vaccinated or not. Fear is growing that what seems understandable in an acute emergency situation could become permanent or cause a dam to burst for other reasons as well.

Today, world affairs have multiple layers and are highly complex. However, the ordinary mind searches for the one explanation. There must be one cause, the one reason, from which everything else that follows can be deduced. With this kind of understanding, history’s causes and consequences run linearly from A to B. In reality, however, things are usually much more complex and multi-layered. Seldom is a single explanation sufficient to comprehensively understand and categorize a historical event. Most explanations apply to one layer only, one aspect of the whole. Simple, reductionist narratives, such as the conviction that the whole event was concocted as a plan by a certain person or place and then carried out worldwide, almost always prove false. Anthroposophical historical analysis therefore examines historical facts not only in their causal sequence but leaves them their peculiarities and unavailable partialities. It tries, rather, to understand them as symptoms: like condensations or reasonable expressions of a more comprehensive reality which does not elude understanding but does not fully reveal it either. If anything, it could be read more like a language through which we, depending on our ability and horizon, can still further develop the initially hidden levels of understanding.

For this reason, after the one just mentioned, another, equally true perspective of what is happening should at least be briefly hinted at here: If one could be reasonably confident in what can be followed in terms of political events and statements through the various media and personal contacts with people involved, then the central motive of the measures taken, at least in most countries, was not to implement control, surveillance and vaccination, but rather to protect people and save lives. If this is true, then it is a most remarkable fact that we as a society have now reached a point where we are no longer prepared to sacrifice a large number of human lives, but where a real attempt is being made to fight for every human life. This is a new stage in human development, a new experience. We are living through and practicing solidarity and taking responsibility for one another. Ute Hallaschka calls this: ‘Maintaining physical distance from inner closeness to the other’.1 We are all connected. ‘We are one organism. A body of humankind.’2

In this context, another thing seems to me to be important: Of course, one can investigate all the speculations, indications and evidence in order to identify the culprit(s) of historical events. However, in the end this leads to little or no solution. More often than not, it even works the other way round. If you feel you can point an accusatory finger at someone and say: ‘That’s the one’, you have not yet mastered the problem.

Let me put it this way: We are less and less able to understand the situations in which we live. We can only better grasp the situations in which we live if we look at them from a future perspective.

The riddles that history poses to us therefore cannot be solved by looking backwards, but only by looking forwards. Understanding and solving issues from the future means that the ‘stop the thief!’ mentality is no longer interesting or relevant for the great challenges that humanity is facing. For it does not help us to name the one (or many) culprit(s). It doesn’t help pointing fingers at others while feeling blameless oneself. Three fingers of my hand always point back to me. The question is not only, ‘how can I understand what is happening on as many levels and angles as possible, but also, what can I – what can we – contribute? What can I do differently in the future?

It is true. Crises always serve as an opportunity to push through political goals within the context of the supposed constraints, thereby avoiding fundamental public debate. On the other hand, it is also true that crises always contain the possibility of undoing wrong procedures and decisions, of not continuing them, and of seeking public discussion and support for new and better ways forward.

It is open to both sides. It is simply not predetermined what the outcome will be. What emerges from a crisis is in our hands. The way we understand a crisis and the decisions we make in the face of it are also decisive.

‘Follow the Science’

A striking characteristic of the crisis associated with the global appearance of the novel Coronavirus is that all political measures followed the guidelines of a comparatively limited number of scientists, essentially virologists and epidemiologists, who set the course. Their tools of the trade are models, diagrams, forecasts and probabilities. However, intensive care doctors, lung specialists or holistically oriented physicians often had different opinions. If people from other disciplines and professions, perhaps even a few parents and artists, had been incorporated, differentiated and more balanced results might have been possible. Yet the way it was done, the sometimes smiled upon dictates of the ‘ruling virologist’ led to a very narrow approach in politics. Under the pressure of the crisis, a form of rule imperceptibly emerged, one which has been asked for many times in the past – the rule of scientists, or technocracy. ‘Follow the science’ has become a buzzword of countless climate protection activists. Is it not correct? Is it not right to follow those who really ‘know’?

No! This demand ignores the essence of spiritual life and misjudges (or confuses) spiritual and legal life. The attitude or instruction of spiritual life is never uniform or clear. It does not speak with a single, uniform voice. It has no collective character. And no determining one. Rather, it is a place of permanent struggle – often also of conflict – to arrive at the right, the best possible insight. In every individual, every concept, every thought, every decision, every conscious action becomes cognition, spiritual life becomes present and effective, in and through us – the individual.

Yet when a particular view demands universal validation or even domination over everyone, when it thinks it can dictate what is right for people and what is wrong, what one may believe, think, say or do, it then becomes dangerous – or even evil. What applies to everyone in the form of law and legislation cannot (any longer) be unilaterally decreed today. It must rather be negotiated with one another and decided democratically. Otherwise, the law will be replaced by a dictator, and democracy by dictatorship.

The tendency towards technocracy or expertocracy represents an ever greater danger for democracies. Politics determined by scientific knowledge becomes blind to the very essence of politics, the people. It tends to fade out alternatives and immunizes itself against social contradictions. It suppresses and censors debates; after all, one cannot oppose science. Those who advocate such a policy fail to recognize that science itself is plural – at least, as long as it is science. Where it gives up its plurality, where it excludes new discoveries and other approaches, it has already lost this character and claim to legitimacy. For science is not a fixed content, but an open, plural procedure.

In a democracy, there can never be just one point of view. On the contrary, different views must be weighed against each other. Where this is not, or not sufficiently, the case, people rebel against it. This is understandable and justified. The unwillingness to accommodate other points of view is dangerous. This attitude increases on both sides. It is like a competition of reflecting opposites, both of which are trying to outbid the other through mistrust, because they refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the other view. Those who think in this way, poison and destroy democratic discourse. They are helping to build an undemocratic world built of unilateral world views by presenting distorted images of the ‘enemy’, a practice which more and more is dominating people.

What was initially seen as the ‘right thing to do’ to protect the population through acute and centrally imposed restrictions, in the face of the predicted danger of a dramatic pandemic that would have overstretched health systems, is beginning to be reversed in the minds of an increasing number of people. They complain about repression from above and protest against the restrictions of their freedom and civil rights. The root cause is a dramatic failure of politics – the people affected are not included, not heard, not consulted. They feel that they are not taken seriously. How different would it have been if after a short period of time of the prognoses and model calculations of some virologists (who almost solely determined political action), open dialogue and democratic procedures had been introduced? Round tables of doctors and nurses from different fields and perspectives, for example – or round tables on the subject of ‘children’ with educators, teachers, parents, youth and social services and other independent agencies? If, in the sense of functional structuring and democratic self-administration, more would have been discussed, agreed and decided upon with each other rather than for us?

Time Out – The Crisis as Opportunity

In sport, for example, ‘time out’ is the name given to an interruption in the game in which both teams can gather together, take time and reconsider how they want to play the game going forwards. Corona offers us the opportunity to look at our world and our lives from the interval created by enforced quarantine. We can listen inside ourselves and ask ourselves what really is important to us, how we will work and live in the years to come, where we will set our priorities and what we want to do differently in the future.

  • Can we, for example, find a different relationship to the earth?
  • Can we learn to treat animals differently?
  • Can we do business differently, more holistically, more sustainably and in cooperation rather than out of competition?
  • Can we shape society differently, more liberally, more democratically and with greater solidarity?
  • Can we make decisions differently, democratically and with, rather than against each other?

We are just learning that it is possible to think in new ways and do things completely differently than before. In this way, every crisis can become an opportunity for a thorough rethinking of our relationship to the earth, because the current pandemic has proven how capable we are of making major changes when it is deemed necessary. Then we will succeed in the shortest possible time in making changes that for years previously had seemed impossible. This is perhaps the most important experience of the last weeks and months. We should not forget it.

Drowning in a Sea of Debt?

I believe that the time after Corona will be the most political we will ever have experienced. ‘Political’ is what I mean here in the best sense. Because it’s about our polls, about the community. Fundamental decisions will have to be lined up and made. And I hope you will be part of it! Because the time is past when basic decisions for everything can be made behind closed doors by a handful of people. We need a transparent and public debate on all the issues at stake, the weighing up of different routes and, finally, the greatest possible participation of the people in the decisions themselves. This will not come about by itself. Rather, it must be fought for. You are encouraged to prepare yourself for it.

The big and difficult questions that will have to be resolved after the pandemic begin with the problem of debt itself. The consequent costs of the pandemic are becoming more incalculable every day. Just one example: the aid programme for the German economy set up by the German government alone amounts to 1.2 trillion euros (as of mid-May 2020). Added to this are further expenses for European and bilateral aid. It is the largest aid programme in German history. It is tearing deep holes in the already empty coffers. On top of this, tax revenues are expected to fall by a further 100 billion euros in 2020 alone.

Who is supposed to bear these debts? How – and by whom – will they ever be repaid? At the moment we are passing them, unasked for, on to future generations. In doing so, we are placing a heavy burden on their future. Besides which, these are not the only debts. Instead, they only increase the gigantic debt that already exists. Our monetary system today is already determined by permanently unacceptable disparities. The community, the public sector, states, regions and communities are sinking into a sea of debt, while the wealthy are accumulating excessive and senseless wealth. Independently of economic and political failures, which have undoubtedly exacerbated the problem here and there, these symptoms point to very fundamental defects in our monetary system.

The current crisis could be an occasion to raise public awareness of these and to reflect on fundamental monetary reform as the only permanent way to solve the problem. In the Section for Social Sciences and its affiliated working groups and institutions around the world, we have been working on approaches and building blocks for many years. One of the foundations for this is Rudolf Steiner’s World Economy course, in which he was one of the first to recognize and think through this problem and to develop ways to make money healthy.3 In Germany, GLS- Bank, which was inspired by the anthroposophical social impulse when it was founded, organizes an annual ‘Money Summit’ at which experts and interested parties discuss a contemporary concept of money and elements for its implementation.4 At the Goetheanum, the domicile of our School of Spiritual Science, we also devote ourselves to this topic – most recently in November 2019 at the conference ‘The Economy of Brotherhood – Money in the Light of Freedom and Karma’.5 Much work has already been done on this urgent and overdue reform of our monetary system. Not only on the basis of the work of Rudolf Steiner,6 but also by other methods. Yet many of those involved in this work are coming to very similar approaches. It would therefore be desirable that discussions on this matter should finally begin. What if, for example, instead of inviting governments to another ‘car summit’ with the dubious aim of rescuing an industry arrested in the past, they were now to issue a broad invitation to an official ‘money summit’ for the first time – with the aim of comprehensively reforming the monetary system in the sense of more sustainability, appropriateness, solidarity and liberty?

Democracy and Character

Corona has removed a veil, brought to light, concretized, made clear, what and how much has to change on this earth so that we do not stagger from one threatening crisis to the next. This crisis, if looked through a magnifying glass, has cracked wide open numerous spiritual, cultural, economic and political decisions that were made in a careless and unreasonable way over the last decades, with too little awareness of our responsibility for the whole of creation and the earth. Their often fatal consequences are becoming clearer than ever before. With the great Corona interruption of life, we have been granted an unexpected opportunity to reform and rebuild our economic, political and cultural systems. It is by no means clear how it will end – but it is most certainly in our hands.

In terms of democracy and law, the pandemic has transported most countries and societies back into the past as if with a kick in the teeth. From one day to the next, people have found themselves in conditions they thought had long since been overcome. Thoroughly discussed parliamentary decisions and laws were replaced by hastily written regulations. Fundamental rights – from the basic right of the individual to freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of occupation, guarantee of property rights and freedom of religious practice – were restricted to such an extent that would previously only have been possible in times of war.

The extent, path and form of this differed in the various countries. Thus, dealing with this challenge has also allowed a comparison of cultures and systems. It demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of those who govern us. For example, a look at New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Germany is interesting and instructive. These countries have thus far come through the pandemic relatively successfully. They have comparatively low infection rates and/or few deaths – and they are all governed by female heads of state! Given that for centuries governance was considered the dominion of men, we can see in this, too, an indication of new qualities that will become indispensable in politics and in the shaping of society in the future.

Conversely, we see with great concern and extreme pain that when a government is run by men who like to present themselves as particularly strong types, as invincible winners, as machos or as populists, there is currently usually not only fierce, often insurmountable confrontation and mutual apportionment of blame, but usually also shocking incompetence. The extent of the danger to citizens depends to a large extent on the system in which they live and the quality of their representatives. Denial, cover-up, self-dramatization, oppression, intimidation, state or police brutality; anti-democratic systems have become even more harsh during the Corona period – polarizing their society and having even worse outcomes. In such an uncertain, unprecedented situation, everything ultimately depends on the question: ‘Is it possible to trust the people who are currently making decisions? To whom are they accountable? What is it that drives them? In whose name and interests are they acting?’ These people are also constantly being debated and judged in Parliament, in public, in direct votes and finally in political elections. The tendency to call for the ‘strong man’ in a crisis or to replace democracy with technocracy is highly dangerous. Democracy is even more important than ever in situations of threat. In addition, the quality of a democracy is also measured by whether its procedures are open and flexible enough to arrive at appropriate and moderate decisions in a democratically legitimate way, even in extreme circumstances.

Turn Politics Upside Down

Even if the situation varies from country to country, it can be said that in the beginning almost everywhere people agreed to act in solidarity for the sake of the most vulnerable, supporting the mandatory measures. Now this is changing. For in the beginning, when the danger seemed immense and there was still little reliable information and experience in dealing with this type of crisis, the state could not have acted other than with massive restrictions and blanket decrees from the highest level. In the meantime, however, things have changed. We now have a better, more differentiated picture and a much more precise knowledge of the situation. Now, a different, far less massive and blanket approach is needed. Those responsible, however, find this difficult. And just as it was a virtue at the beginning to follow the directives precisely in order to avoid endangering others, months later it is downright alarming, even frightening, if a society in ‘a state of emergency’ simply continues to follow the authorities like sheep. Differences of opinion, discussion and, in justified cases, resistance are among the essential conditions and necessities of a democracy. We are not subjects, but free, self-determining individuals.

It is undeniable that certain high-turnover companies and powerful associations have a great influence on politics. If I take Germany as an example, there are the car manufacturers, Lufthansa or the German Football Association. They were listened to very early on and generously supported, or had their restrictions eased. Yet other groups and individuals, who perhaps need the ear and attention of politicians much more urgently, have found it more difficult. For example, current policies completely ignore the realities of life for parents, children, kindergartens and schools. Locking up children – who are at least risk and need most air and light, play, movement and social encounter – in cramped apartments and houses for months on end achieves little and is pedagogically and socially indefensible.

The fact that these restrictions are among the last to be lifted shows how little child-appropriate and child-friendly our societies still are. The scientific body that has been very involved in Germany in addressing this issue, ‘die Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften’ (the National Academy of Sciences), is itself made up of academics, none of whom are under fifty and only two of its twenty-four members are female.

I’m taking this as an example of how our state and community must change. For humanity itself has changed and will continue to change. We are on a path of decisive transition from being led by others to leading ourselves. Rudolf Steiner, in the so-called ‘sociological basic law’, wrote:

At the beginning of cultural life, humanity created social unions; to which the interests of the individual were initially subordinated. Further development leads to the liberation of the individual from these collectives to the free unfolding of the needs and strengths of the individual.7

In the Middle Ages, for example, humanity still experienced law as something that came from outside and above. It was in the hands of a few – kings, sovereigns, princes. Today, people’s consciousness and the individual’s relationship to law has changed. We have become freer and thus more individual. This also implies more responsibility. The ‘sovereign’ is no longer the prince or king, but the community of free and equal citizens. We humans create justice together. That everyone be given the opportunity to participate is a right that could only be conceivable today. The authoritarian state must be replaced by a constitutional democratic state, which is designed by and accountable to all citizens.

Local Government and Citizens’ Councils

This requires new forms of democracy. The more diverse the opinions and perspectives that flow into political decisions, the better the final decisions themselves will be. Especially now, as a consequence of contradictory experiences during the Corona pandemic, it is important to create new forms of participation and decision-making. It must be possible to include all the important voices. Decisions on how to respond to a pandemic are by no means just about medical issues. The involvement of the social sciences, ethics, economics, law and political science, for example, are equally indispensable. They should be adequately represented in the relevant advisory bodies of governments.

Even more important is to involve not only experts, but those affected, i.e. the citizens themselves. One way of doing this would be to establish round tables at various levels, where people representing different frames of reference meet and work out a balanced approach. Another possibility would be to establish representative citizens’ councils. Such participatory committees could be created at all levels, in the district or municipality, at city, county, regional and state level, during such a difficult period. The result would be a policy relevant to citizens. I am sure that as soon as people themselves begin to talk to each other about how they want to organize life with children or care of the elderly, the lonely and the at-risk groups in their neighbourhoods, far more practical and realistic approaches would emerge than if this is done by a remote authority.

This step can be further thought through. For we need a really strong and efficient, self-determined, democratic and supportive community for the great tasks that lie ahead. Currently, one and the same government decides centrally from above on the most diverse issues imaginable – from theatre and school closures or the restriction of church services to purchase premiums for automobile customers or strategic decisions on the future operation of an airline. Wouldn’t this alternative approach also be better, more informed, closer to the people and more democratic? Let us imagine, then, that we do not have a government that makes decisions down to the smallest detail across all areas of society, no matter how diverse they may be, but rather a form of politics in which the tasks are discussed and solved in a self-governing, decentralized manner and closer to the people.

Disempowerment and Structuring of Society

Let’s take another more specific example, the schools. They have recently been closed for months by centralized state injunction, completely and without exception, as have playgrounds and parks, kindergartens and other counselling and care facilities. Parents have subsequently found themselves stuck at home with their children. Children were sometimes left to themselves in dark, cramped rooms for endless periods, or sometimes at the mercy of drunken, desperate and unruly adults. The youth welfare officers, the carers and teachers knew of these cases. They could not, indeed were not, allowed to do anything! Meanwhile, huge school grounds stood gapingly empty. This was a regulation conceived by virologists, not by educators or affected parents. I am sure that if a framework had been made clear and the responsibility handed to the self- government of the people involved in schools and education, rather than to a bureaucracy advised by virologists, much more sensible and better solutions would have been found.

The state need only say: These are the issues you shouldn’t lose sight of – and now see if you can find a way of dealing with your children that does justice to both protection against infection and the children’s need for play and exercise. Then some schools might have remained closed, but other schools might have opened – just differently, in movement, dispersed, outdoors or in forms that no one had thought of before. It is about the power of self-organization, in finding the right way together, taking into account knowledge of the issues, the respective sectors and the actual children.

This could gradually lead to self-government in other areas as well. In addition to the aspect of self-administration itself, it would make sense to divide the different social, functional areas of culture (including education, art, science and religion), the legal-political and the economy into separate categories.

The time in which society is uniformly and centrally ordered and governed, from top to bottom, is over. A new era has dawned. People do not want to be overlooked or bypassed; they want to be asked, heard and involved. They want to experience that their word and voice counts. If governments ignore this call and continue to keep people ignorant, then the indignation and rejection of the existing forms and their protagonists, something already being observed worldwide, will increase even more. This rejection has its origin in the sometimes-unconscious inner desire to be taken seriously as a human being – even if it expresses itself in accusation, rage and indignation.

Where this force does not find meaningful action and appropriate expression, it threatens to become destructive. Rudolf Steiner pointed out that if we do not decide to reorganize society accordingly and build a ‘social order’ on the capacity for self-government by the people, the rising strength of the individuality increasingly leads to egoism, isolation and destruction. Through new forms of functional structuring and self- administration, however, a new ability and vigour will unfold. It develops out of concrete experiences of active participation from two directions at the same time: inwardly as an experience of self-effectiveness and self- determination that strengthens the individual, and outwardly as a growing ability to appreciate and consider others, to understanding and to the inclusion of larger perspectives and contexts, and finally to feeling a sense of responsibility for the whole of society.

From Domination to Relationship

For a long time we have looked at the earth like any other arbitrary object. We have trampled, pillaged, poisoned and destroyed it. We have acted very similarly towards animals. What we still do to these wonderful creatures on a daily basis – for example, in industrial mass animal husbandry or by destroying their habitats and exterminating countless species – is almost unbearable and fills us with guilt and shame. We have also turned human beings into objects and continue to do so. We have exploited them, persecuted them, subjugated them, enslaved them. Now, a dramatic succession of crises is pointing out to us that this is no longer possible. We have to build a different relationship to people: those who lived before us, who live with and around us, and who will live after us – those who are connected to us and are there for us, just as we are there for them. We have to find a different relationship to the plants to which we owe infinitely so much, not least of which is their beauty, our life and our health. We have to find a different relationship to animals, who are our companions and fellow travellers. And we have to find a different relationship to the earth, which supports and endures us – and without which we would not be here!

All these paths are at the same time paths to the spiritual. We transcend the narrow boundaries of our intellectual consciousness towards the spiritual when it comes to a new relationship to the animal world, the plant world or the earth. For this relationship means connection, a bonding to something that I can only experience if I consciously and actively transcend the narrow limits of abstract thinking and body-bound experience. It is exactly the same with the establishment of a new economy, which does not primarily focus on profit, on material, monetary income, but on what we can do for the earth and for other people. And we are also in the spiritual when we no longer think politically in terms of decrees, orders and execution, but when we try together to solve the questions posed to us by our times and destiny through conversation, dialogue and joint decision making. It is always a matter of transcending one’s own limitations and opening up to the other being. This – and no longer power and domination – is the new archetypal gesture for the social.

Gerald Häfner

 


1) Ute Hallaschka, ‘Menschheit’, in: Gegenwart – Zeitschrift für Kultur, Politik, Wirtschaft, Nr. 2/2020, 26   (German only. ‘Humanity, in the Present’).

2) Loc. cit.

3) Rudolf Steiner, Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics, (GA 340) (Rudolf Steiner, Nationalökonomischer Kurs, Aufgaben einer neuen Wirtschaftswissenschaft I, Dornach                  2002).

4) https://www.glsbankstiftung.de/besucherinnen/geldgipfel/geldgipfel-2020/

5) Tagung zur Ökonomie der Brüderlichkeit (Conference, The Economy of Brotherhood)                   https://www.confoedera.ch/assets/uploads/images/confoedera/ 2019_ÖB_Tagungsprogramm.pdf

6) Rudolf Steiner, Basic Issues of the Social Question, (Also published as The Threefold Social Order), (GA 23) (Rudolf Steiner, Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage in den Lebensnotwendigkeiten der Gegenwart und Zukunft, Dornach 1976).

7) Rudolf Steiner: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte 1887 – 1901 (GA 31), Dornach 1966, p. 255, first published in: Rudolf Steiner: Freiheit und Gesellschaft, Magazin für Literatur 1898, 67. Jg., Nr. 29 and 30. (Note for English readers: This ‘the sociological basic law’ (GA 31), written in 1898 in the Magazin für Literatur, was an early rendering of what later became known as Rudolf Steiner’s ‘fundamental social law’ in the form we have come to know so well, which was written in an essay known as ‘Reordering of Society. The Fundamental Social Law, Chapter 7 in Anthroposophy and   the Social Question, 1919, (GA 34).)

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The School of Spiritual Science is responsible for research in the spiritual field, for stimulating and dealing with practical questions and for continuing education in anthroposophically oriented fields of work. Today the university is divided into one general anthroposophical section and ten specialist sections. The work is based on the course in the humanities held by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 for the members of the university as part of their first class. The university has its headquarters and coordination centre at the Goetheanum and its work takes place worldwide in the contexts in which members of the university are active.

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