# 10. Willfulness is Needed

When the Central Powers made their peace offer to the Entente in December 1916, it contained nothing that expressed the war aims in a specific way. And even in the period that followed, the Central European statesmen did not allow themselves to express a clear will to the world. They only wanted to create the opportunity to "sit down at the assembly table". Then, they probably thought, they would find what they could or should want. Anyone who reads the publications of these statesmen today, which have swollen to such large numbers, can see why this was the case. These men could not develop anything out of the thoughts that moved in their heads while they occupied leadership positions that could have shed light on the chaos they saw breaking in. And so they waited for a future in which they would find what they needed to think.

The sad circumstances of the present teach us how far we have come with this waiting. But they have taught very few people that this kind of behavior must finally be broken with. That it is necessary for a specific, clearly outlined objective to emerge, especially in hard-tested Central Europe, if the confusion is not to become even greater.

Just look at the international consequences of this lack of an objective. It is becoming increasingly clear that leading figures in the Western powers are gripped by a real fear of what may yet become of the countries they have defeated. It causes them nightmares when they think about all the things that could still come to the surface in Germany. For this Germany seems to them like a great unknown. They fear that it could become something that shakes the foundations of their own countries, after they have had the opportunity through victory to enforce a "peace" that has given them the "safeguards" that one can imagine according to the old art of statecraft.

Imagine what could happen in this international situation if, at least now, something were to come to the fore in Germany that did not amount to waiting and letting events take their course, but rather revealed a clear will. The historical development of the German people justifies the belief that understanding can be awakened in this people for impulses that aim at the reconstruction of the devastated Europe, if the thoughts that speak of such impulses are not shouted down by those who are incapable of recognizing the developmental necessities of humanity.

Everything that presents itself to the world as a movement for the threefolding of the social organism is based on this belief. The first step was the appeal "To the German people and the cultural world!" published in the spring of 1919. This appeal was based on the belief in the power of the German people's forces. It could not have been written without it. But it could even be argued that the content of this appeal offended German sensibilities. It could be seen as an insult to the German people. Others, who were less short-sighted, found it "incomprehensible". But that meant nothing more than that they had read it superficially and then asked themselves whether it agreed with what they were used to thinking about spiritual, national and economic conditions. They found that he said something different. Then they answered: "Incomprehensible". No one wanted to consider that the old familiar thoughts had ultimately driven Europe into the most terrible struggle and that within this struggle there was nothing but "waiting" and "letting oneself be driven" by events.

This terrible war has brought chaos to Europe. In the chaos are unions of nations that now want to live on. But they want to do so with the forces of ideas that led to the chaos. Before the war, an economic life developed in this Europe that was led by the state powers, which had formed themselves from national-spiritual and all kinds of legal foundations. These formations have proved and are proving anew every day that they cannot lead the economy of Europe. But the spiritual and legal conditions cannot develop if the economic life they lead collapses under their influence. The devastating events speak the clearest possible language: give economic life to the forces growing out of it! Create a legal life whose content is not determined by the economic powers! Free the administration of spiritual affairs from the shackles of the economy and the state so that, left to their own devices, they can fertilize the other branches of life! People shout "utopia" and call reality what, for anyone who wants to see, is driving them to their own destruction.

Those who want to be leaders now are the faithful disciples of those who, with the beginning of the twentieth century, drifted into an impossible world situation. They saw the "upswing" and thought that it could continue; and their disciples see the destruction and want to work against it with the thoughts that brought the "upswing", that is, drove it into destruction.

How often has the writer of this essay emphasized that there is no presumption that the ideas of threefolding presented to the world are meant to be something that does not require improvement. The more experienced people work on this improvement, the better it will become. What is meant, however, is that the idea of the threefold organization of the social organism is based on the real necessities of life in the public existence of the present. And that these necessities of life can only be seen by those who see through how the traditional ways of thinking have actually been refuted by the horrors of the present. What matters today is the will to gain such insight. All "waiting" can bring nothing but events that refute anew what has already been refuted enough. But every new refutation will be accompanied by a new wave of impoverishment.

The construction of Europe must be based on healthy ideas. Healthy ideas, if they are to be effective in public life, require a sufficient number of people who understand them to such an extent that their will is transformed into a real life force. Without this there can be no progress. Negotiations lead to nothing if the necessary will is not at work in the negotiations. Where human will is at work, there are no utopias, for everything that has developed in human existence is ultimately the result of human will. Such results are the spiritual communities that have ever arisen, the states, and the economic relations of production. As long as people who do not have the strength to see through this are shouting down ideas based on this insight, we will not make any progress in overcoming Europe's confusion.