Current Social and Economic Issues
GA 332b — 13 October 1920, Dornach
Address at the Orientation Meeting on “Futurum” and “The Coming Day”
Rudolf Steiner: Dearly beloved! Allow me to say a few words in advance of our discussion this evening. The subject today will be to speak very specifically about the foundations that can be seen as absolutely practical outpourings of our anthroposophical movement: “Futurum” on the one hand, “The Coming Day” on the other. It may perhaps be recalled that these two foundations did not arise out of nothing, because we have just found that something like this had to happen now in this time of extreme need. It is true that it had to happen now; but on the other hand, it is also true that something like this would have been realized long ago if the possibility had existed. And it is a pity that it had to wait so long until the hardship taught people a few things about these things and until the difficulties that face such things have actually become almost insurmountable. My friends in Basel will remember a remark that I made in a lecture in Basel that now lies far behind us, which may have seemed grotesque to them at the time. I was speaking about the origins of our mystery plays. And I said at the time – of course, it was a thought that was not meant to be quite so paradoxical, paradoxical, accusing – that I would much rather found an anthroposophical bank than stage mystery plays at the highest level, that is, in the realm of purely artistic appearance. At that time, we were still living in a time when it was extremely difficult to make it understood that such a straight line leads from the highest spiritual healing processes into the most practical life. But I think the Basel friends who heard the lecture back then will remember how long it has been since I spoke of such a very practical foundation.
Now, however, it is a matter of the fact that we, having to go to such a foundation, needed the courage to really make something out of the whole anthroposophical way of thinking and attitude and also to make it understandable to the world that something like this must arise today out of the anthroposophical attitude, and in particular out of the education of thinking - including the most practical thinking - that arises out of observing anthroposophical feeling and imagining.
Now, however, things are such that, on the one hand, the facts speak a very eloquent language – for many countries, an all too eloquent language, because the decline is already so far advanced that people simply do not want to admit it. And of course – since not everything is coming to an end at once – it is impossible to admit the decline for a while. Right? Even if a person who used to have something to wear hardly has the opportunity to buy a suit anymore, he can still wear the old suits until they are shabby. And so you can believe that the decline is not yet here. You just wait until the evidence is provided by the suit you are still wearing becoming shabby. This is already the case with much of our economic life and even more so with our intellectual life – not to mention public life.
Now the task is to create something that is so well founded and so well thought out that it can be maintained through its very essence, through the will. But the matter is very difficult, and the work of those who want to devote themselves to these things is truly one that demands all possible dedication. And I would like to say this in advance because I would like to say something in particular that seems important to me.
I just want to add here that for the “Futurum” we have won Mr. Ith right from the start, who is trying with all his dedication to achieve through the “Futurum” what is to be achieved through this “Futurum”. And he will report to you this evening about the “Futurum” from precisely this point of view, and about the intentions and goals, about the next goals, from the point of view from which, at this moment, that is, I would like to say, on October 13, 1920, it must be spoken.
It is self-evident that such a report is only valuable when it comes from the person who is doing the work. A report as such, or even a brochure that is sent around, is only a small part of what is important; a brochure has only one meaning as an expression of what is being done. That is why we wanted to give you the report today, from the very person who heads “Futurum” here.
But there is one thing I would like to emphasize in particular. You see, we had to have the courage to base the whole reasoning of both “Futurum” and “The Day to Come” on anthroposophical principles, if I may put it that way. We must be able to make the world understand that the old economic thinking has been run down because this old economic thinking was only capable of carrying out its calculations to the extent that the approaches and results ranged from production to bringing the goods to market , and because the factor that belongs in these calculations has never been included – that is, what goes on in the minds of the people who work on producing the marketable goods, from the raw product to the finished product that was brought to market. That is what is going on in people's souls. And what is going on there, that was not so much looked at that it really, I would say, is just as much in an accounting context as the numbers that are in the books, in the accounting. But that was left out of the calculations. Our industrial economy only went as far as the completion of the market goods and ignored what was to be included, ignored the people.
And if today it were only a matter of getting the calculation right, which goes from raw products to market goods, then it would be possible to reach some kind of end relatively much faster.
All it would take is to bring the state fanatics [...] to their senses, and so on. But the one thing that has always been left out of the calculation is now making itself felt as a real factor in the turmoil throughout the civilized world and will continue to make itself felt if we refuse to include this factor, despite the fact that people do not want to admit it, who again and again overlook the language of facts that is so loud today.
It is important to keep pointing out the way in which the leading circles slept during the 19th century. What did the leading circles do after all? Statistics, and in a particularly ineffective way. What did they do, these leading circles? Let's say, for example, that they were concerned with founding pansophies, speaking theoretically of the supernatural worlds, all by themselves; they sat together, sometimes even in salons with mirrored windows. They were well heated. But where did the coal come from? As early as the 1940s, the British government established how this coal was mined, of course through statistics, which then revealed it. They published some very strange things, for example, in figures, but these were simply left out of the calculations. The figures showed, for example, that children as young as nine, ten, or eleven were were let down into the coal shafts in the morning before the sun rose, and were brought up in the evening after the sun had set; how men and women sat together by the coals that were thus brought to light, while the others conferred about general moral and lofty ideals. Down below, the naked men and naked women, which did not exactly contribute to the improvement of morality, were standing in the shafts; the children did not see sunlight at all during the whole week except for Sunday!
Now, these things have improved to a certain extent. But what needs to be done in this regard has not been done by those who could do it, and it still needs to be done. But the matter is being ignored. Worldviews are being forged by the stoves that are heated with the coals that are unearthed in this way, and people have no idea of the discrepancy that this creates in the world; they have no idea how the factor that is now rumbling in the world has been left out. The moral and spiritual aspects have been eliminated, but in reality they form a unity with the other.
Therefore, it is not just a matter of founding financial enterprises with a healthy way of thinking and perhaps thinking through how one can apply anthroposophy to practical life, but rather it is a matter of ensuring that such enterprises have a basis. And this support is only possible if those who are able to go with the anthroposophical movement form this support; the support must be in all those personalities who belong to the anthroposophical movement. We must work to ensure that something like the “Futurum” becomes well known in terms of its tendencies, in terms of its goals, that it is maintained by what is disseminated for the understanding of its principles by those who want to profess anthroposophy. Because anthroposophy is not just some theory, but anthroposophy means precisely the force that transforms the whole person and can prepare him to bear life as it must be borne if we want to move towards a possible future, not the barbarization of our entire civilization.
That is why we would like you to hear what is meant by the “Futurum”. Because it depends as much on the response it receives from the world as it does on the sensible attitude and sensible management of the “Futurum” affairs, whether something thrives.
That is why we wanted to ask Mr. Ith to enlighten us this evening about the next goals and the whole essence of “Futurum”.
[The following contributions are made: by Arnold Ich on the “Futurum”, Carl Unger on the “Kommenden Tag” and its operations, Pieter de Haan on experiences in Holland, Francke Fadum from Norway (notes illegible), Eugen Benkendörfer on the drawing of shares. As no questions are asked, Roman Boos closes the meeting with the words:]
Roman Boos: It seems that no more questions will be asked. I assume, therefore, that everyone knows what he has to do with his money.