Planting the Seeds of Threefolding
A Threefolder's Almanack
Even in the broken, blood stained wake of World War I, as Rudolf Steiner presented his threefold social idea, he emphasized that the war had changed nothing ; that the same forces were at work, the same powers in charge, the same inadequate thinking dominant in public affairs ; and that a next, greater and still bloodier World War would inevitably follow. Besides lectures, articles and books on the threefold idea, he worked tirelessly until his death to bring it to reality, with advice to businesses, educational, medical, agricultural and other initiatives hoping to incorporate its principles in their work ; and in public life too, where significant discussion was generated, and attempts made to bring threefold forms and thinking even into whole geographical areas (Baden-Wuerttenberg in Germany ; Silesia in (at that time) Poland). The threefold idea - with proposals - was presented privately to leading figures in German public and political life - but although met with some degree of understanding and acknowledgment, there was not the will or courage to do more.
Crippling inflation in Germany in the 1920s - and the eventual second war - put crushing burdens on more local and organic initiatives, and prevented their further unfolding. In the time since, the trespass of one realm of social life on another, the rivalries of political factions and declines of social mindset in society, have brought no better conditions for change, but rather more obstacles.
The goal of this series has been to give an overview of Rudolf Steiner's threefold understanding of society ; a concept still quite new historically, but offered as phenomenological scientific insight, to be tested from all sides - beginning with one's own experience of life and the world. Further resources we can share will also of an introductory kind ; but if they produce a first working grasp of the matter, they will already have succeeded.
Should you continue to the work of Rudolf Steiner himself (resources, bottom of page), you'll discover two things : first, his astonishing knowledge of history, in this case of the last four to five centuries ; and secondly, his powerful ability to discern patterns in the events of these times. Not only did Steiner see the certainty of a next world war, already in 1918 ; but the likelihood of a still further great war, unfolding from a continuation of the same dynamics - a war that could yet break out, even in our own times.
Have we already gone too far, down too many wrong paths ; are our thinking too inadequate, our habits too ingrained to avoid harsh, even shocking consequences in the coming years ? Is there any real way forward - any way out for us at this point ? If so, what is it, and how do we proceed ? And should the worse come to worst, how do we build back ?
Planting the Seeds of Threefolding
Besides advisory and advocacy work for a "threefold social order", Steiner saw instinctive yearning for it, even in the hearts and feelings of quite ordinary people, in needs they felt, but couldn't yet raise into words or consciousness. A clear case for him in his own times was the widespread, public resentment against social and economic injustice, which Marxism sought so fiercely to harness. During his 1919 public lectures on the threefold idea, in fact, of all groups he addressed, no one responded more enthusiastically than the factory workers - and they wanted as soon as possible to do something.
What lacks in society generally, he observed, is that people don't yet fully understand the forces at work, either in ourselves or in society. Once they do however, he asserted, they'll start to apply these insights spontaneously and immediately, beginning with the smallest actions and decisions in their lives. The threefold idea can is in this sense be understood as a seed - not something to be installed or "implemented" in society, but rather "grown", by anyone who understands it ; and be it ever so humble, acts.
Values and Methods : "Moral Imagination"
Having grasped the "what" of Rudolf Steiner's threefold idea, we can begin to ask how it might best be cultivated - and how we ourselves can help. The following "points to ponder" draw on my own experience of Rudolf Steiner's work, gained in the course of almost 50 years. Please feel welcome to share your own thoughts and questions in the contact form below.
Points to Ponder 1
It's been said of the human being that we can never lose our ability to recognize goodness, beauty and truth ; that we can lose touch with this capacity in us for a time, ignore or even resist it ; but that it always emerges again, even if to our shame ; and that, effectively, it's hardwired in us.
This sense or organ for the good, the beautiful and the true is what comes to life when we meet any person or phenomenon in which we experience these qualities ; and lacking which, we tend to reject or avoid them.
As noted, we can lose touch with this capacity in ourselves ; but it's the process by which people will form relationship to the threefold idea, if they do, to us as its carriers, and to our presentation of it. These are things we can count on, found our hope and our efforts on.
Points to Ponder 2
The threefold idea, as outlined by Steiner, is a set of scientific insights ; and though not utterly simple, it can be understood by any thinking person of goodwill. A threefold social ordering of society, however, can only come about when enough people do understand it.
Points to Ponder 3
Like other science, the threefold idea can be confirmed by our own observation and thinking - manifestations of its principles are in fact everywhere. Without these principles, however, even the most obvious manifestations go unnoticed. To be of real use, therefore, our grasp of these concepts must be explicit - exact. This is a subtle point, perhaps, but important. A small example :
In the 1990s in San Francisco, I belonged to a group that had studied Rudolf Steiner's work for almost thirty years. We'd read and discussed his writings on many subjects, and now came to his threefold idea, with the core book "Towards Social Renewal".
The group had worked through all Steiner's "basic" books (resource) over the years - but on this one we floundered. We did what's often done in such groups - namely, read the text aloud, with space for discussion when someone felt the need. This might also take the form that we shared thoughts from other Steiner works, from other writers altogether, or simply associations and experiences from our own lives.
In this case, however, in the course of several weeks everyone shared their thoughts and associations - and we got nowhere ; to the point even, that some questioned whether the book was even too much for us, and that we should read something different. This went on with vacillations, and some did lean towards changing books. But at this point one friend called us to order (and a vote), with a simple statement : "What are we here for, anyway, if not to learn something new ? I think we should continue !"
The agreement we reached was to read each passage through as many times as necessary until everyone understood - guided by the simple question
"What does he actually say here ?" - until we could each put it in our own words, and there was agreement.
Like a change of key in music, or of seasons one to the next, there was a turning point. We shifted from "free association" if we didn't understand, to doubling down on the text until we did. Through this crisis and process we broke through to a new level.
Points to Ponder 4
Ideas, as noted earlier, are like seeds, and carry their own forces of growth and transformation. With the right conditions and care, they grow into forms and colors almost beyond imagining.
We know from our own lives how unclear or mistaken thoughts can affect our feelings ; and how strong or confused feelings can impel us to actions - including ones harmful to us or others.
We also know that when we test and clarify our thoughts, gather the best available facts on any matter, insights as to the best, right and needed actions can spring to mind, "as if from nowhere" - and with surprising force of will and enthusiasm. Such also can be the animating, motivating effects of the threefold idea in our own thoughts and observations, our own experiences of life and the world. Thoughts, ideas have astonishing power to motivate ; and the best thoughts most of all.
Points to Ponder 5
Over time some institutions in society, even large ones, may be impossible to save ; but should not simply be torn down - the collateral damage for millions, even billions pf people would just be too great. What retains life can and should, where possible, be transformed organically. For safety's sake, parallel institutions can also evolve, that take over certain functions in society ; and that can in time grow robust, even from it ruins.
Points to Ponder 6
This is a large and important point and will need its own space. Continue from here to Point 6 :
Keeping Our Own Side of the Street Clean : The Futility of Hatred
A Threefolder's Almanack
Even in the broken, blood stained wake of World War I, as Rudolf Steiner presented his threefold social idea, he emphasized that the war had changed nothing ; that the same forces were at work, the same powers in charge, the same inadequate thinking dominant in public affairs ; and that a next, greater and still bloodier World War would inevitably follow. Besides lectures, articles and books on the threefold idea, he worked tirelessly until his death to bring it to reality, with advice to businesses, educational, medical, agricultural and other initiatives hoping to incorporate its principles in their work ; and in public life too, where significant discussion was generated, and attempts made to bring threefold forms and thinking even into whole geographical areas (Baden-Wuerttenberg in Germany ; Silesia in (at that time) Poland). The threefold idea - with proposals - was presented privately to leading figures in German public and political life - but although met with some degree of understanding and acknowledgment, there was not the will or courage to do more.
Crippling inflation in Germany in the 1920s - and the eventual second war - put crushing burdens on more local and organic initiatives, and prevented their further unfolding. In the time since, the trespass of one realm of social life on another, the rivalries of political factions and declines of social mindset in society, have brought no better conditions for change, but rather more obstacles.
The goal of this series has been to give an overview of Rudolf Steiner's threefold understanding of society ; a concept still quite new historically, but offered as phenomenological scientific insight, to be tested from all sides - beginning with one's own experience of life and the world. Further resources we can share will also of an introductory kind ; but if they produce a first working grasp of the matter, they will already have succeeded.
Should you continue to the work of Rudolf Steiner himself (resources, bottom of page), you'll discover two things : first, his astonishing knowledge of history, in this case of the last four to five centuries ; and secondly, his powerful ability to discern patterns in the events of these times. Not only did Steiner see the certainty of a next world war, already in 1918 ; but the likelihood of a still further great war, unfolding from a continuation of the same dynamics - a war that could yet break out, even in our own times.
Have we already gone too far, down too many wrong paths ; are our thinking too inadequate, our habits too ingrained to avoid harsh, even shocking consequences in the coming years ? Is there any real way forward - any way out for us at this point ? If so, what is it, and how do we proceed ? And should the worse come to worst, how do we build back ?
Planting the Seeds of Threefolding
Besides advisory and advocacy work for a "threefold social order", Steiner saw instinctive yearning for it, even in the hearts and feelings of quite ordinary people, in needs they felt, but couldn't yet raise into words or consciousness. A clear case for him in his own times was the widespread, public resentment against social and economic injustice, which Marxism sought so fiercely to harness. During his 1919 public lectures on the threefold idea, in fact, of all groups he addressed, no one responded more enthusiastically than the factory workers - and they wanted as soon as possible to do something.
What lacks in society generally, he observed, is that people don't yet fully understand the forces at work, either in ourselves or in society. Once they do however, he asserted, they'll start to apply these insights spontaneously and immediately, beginning with the smallest actions and decisions in their lives. The threefold idea can is in this sense be understood as a seed - not something to be installed or "implemented" in society, but rather "grown", by anyone who understands it ; and be it ever so humble, acts.
Values and Methods : "Moral Imagination"
Having grasped the "what" of Rudolf Steiner's threefold idea, we can begin to ask how it might best be cultivated - and how we ourselves can help. The following "points to ponder" draw on my own experience of Rudolf Steiner's work, gained in the course of almost 50 years. Please feel welcome to share your own thoughts and questions in the contact form below.
Points to Ponder 1
It's been said of the human being that we can never lose our ability to recognize goodness, beauty and truth ; that we can lose touch with this capacity in us for a time, ignore or even resist it ; but that it always emerges again, even if to our shame ; and that, effectively, it's hardwired in us.
This sense or organ for the good, the beautiful and the true is what comes to life when we meet any person or phenomenon in which we experience these qualities ; and lacking which, we tend to reject or avoid them.
As noted, we can lose touch with this capacity in ourselves ; but it's the process by which people will form relationship to the threefold idea, if they do, to us as its carriers, and to our presentation of it. These are things we can count on, found our hope and our efforts on.
Points to Ponder 2
The threefold idea, as outlined by Steiner, is a set of scientific insights ; and though not utterly simple, it can be understood by any thinking person of goodwill. A threefold social ordering of society, however, can only come about when enough people do understand it.
Points to Ponder 3
Like other science, the threefold idea can be confirmed by our own observation and thinking - manifestations of its principles are in fact everywhere. Without these principles, however, even the most obvious manifestations go unnoticed. To be of real use, therefore, our grasp of these concepts must be explicit - exact. This is a subtle point, perhaps, but important. A small example :
In the 1990s in San Francisco, I belonged to a group that had studied Rudolf Steiner's work for almost thirty years. We'd read and discussed his writings on many subjects, and now came to his threefold idea, with the core book "Towards Social Renewal".
The group had worked through all Steiner's "basic" books (resource) over the years - but on this one we floundered. We did what's often done in such groups - namely, read the text aloud, with space for discussion when someone felt the need. This might also take the form that we shared thoughts from other Steiner works, from other writers altogether, or simply associations and experiences from our own lives.
In this case, however, in the course of several weeks everyone shared their thoughts and associations - and we got nowhere ; to the point even, that some questioned whether the book was even too much for us, and that we should read something different. This went on with vacillations, and some did lean towards changing books. But at this point one friend called us to order (and a vote), with a simple statement : "What are we here for, anyway, if not to learn something new ? I think we should continue !"
The agreement we reached was to read each passage through as many times as necessary until everyone understood - guided by the simple question
"What does he actually say here ?" - until we could each put it in our own words, and there was agreement.
Like a change of key in music, or of seasons one to the next, there was a turning point. We shifted from "free association" if we didn't understand, to doubling down on the text until we did. Through this crisis and process we broke through to a new level.
Points to Ponder 4
Ideas, as noted earlier, are like seeds, and carry their own forces of growth and transformation. With the right conditions and care, they grow into forms and colors almost beyond imagining.
We know from our own lives how unclear or mistaken thoughts can affect our feelings ; and how strong or confused feelings can impel us to actions - including ones harmful to us or others.
We also know that when we test and clarify our thoughts, gather the best available facts on any matter, insights as to the best, right and needed actions can spring to mind, "as if from nowhere" - and with surprising force of will and enthusiasm. Such also can be the animating, motivating effects of the threefold idea in our own thoughts and observations, our own experiences of life and the world. Thoughts, ideas have astonishing power to motivate ; and the best thoughts most of all.
Points to Ponder 5
Over time some institutions in society, even large ones, may be impossible to save ; but should not simply be torn down - the collateral damage for millions, even billions pf people would just be too great. What retains life can and should, where possible, be transformed organically. For safety's sake, parallel institutions can also evolve, that take over certain functions in society ; and that can in time grow robust, even from it ruins.
Points to Ponder 6
This is a large and important point and will need its own space. Continue from here to Point 6 :
Keeping Our Own Side of the Street Clean : The Futility of Hatred
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