How Can We Work for the Impulse of the Threefold Social Order?

GA 338 — 2 January 1921, Stuttgart

Training course for Upper Silesians II

I regret that we cannot negotiate for a longer period of time. I can only give you a few suggestions from a variety of points of view regarding our specific problem. This afternoon, we will then address the individual questions that our friends have to ask.

Yesterday, more out of a certain historical context, I tried to make it clear to you the futility that exists under present-day conditions in a vote such as that on the Upper Silesian question. But this futility can still confront us from various other sides. It is already the case that all people who think today in terms of the old conditions have terrible illusions about the future of European life. Today, one actually lives only on illusions. And those of our friends who now propose to work for an improvement of conditions must realize that we can only make progress to the extent that we succeed in creating enlightenment relatively quickly, and not only enlightenment out of the small circumstances, but enlightenment out of the very comprehensive world circumstances, which today actually also play a role in the circumstances of the smallest territory. We will hardly be able to tie in with existing institutions and the like. We will only have to approach people who are inclined to take up our ideas, so that we have more and more such people and can then do something with them. And we must try to make it clear to these people that they must behave in such a way, even within the present circumstances, as is in line with our ideas. For, you see, if we have established yesterday that basically both the German and the Polish side actually have no future within the old and also the desired state structures, then on the other hand we can also realize that this hopelessness also exists for other reasons. Of course, Upper Silesia is part of the whole European situation. The special situation is only this, that in a certain sense it has to decide its fate today. This must be taken into account. Wherever there are decisions to be made, the big issues must be brought into play.

Let us look at the situation in Europe today from a different point of view than we did yesterday. You see, the economic situation in Europe is such that Central and Eastern Europe are heading for rapid decline in relation to everything that has developed from their old conditions. The old economic foundations, but above all the state and intellectual foundations, cannot be used as a basis for further work in Europe. Those who are concerned with public affairs today may have some idea of the horror of this decline, but they have illusions. One of the main illusions, especially among the people of Central Europe, and it is no different for those in Eastern Europe, is the belief that an understanding with the Anglo-Saxon world or with the Western countries in general is possible under the old conditions. Such an understanding is simply not possible, and such an understanding must also trip up a vote like the one on the Upper Silesian question. It must trip up this impossibility. You cannot simply vote on the conditions that are now being created by, let's say, the statesmen and economists of the former Entente. What ideas can a person, who basically thinks half-way - after all, people hardly ever think in black and white - what ideas can such a person have about a possible restoration of the economic and other European conditions? He can say: the first thing that is possible would be a large foreign currency loan to be obtained through America, that would be large advances. As you know, such things are being discussed today. Large advances, loans, which could only come from America, would be given to the Europeans, perhaps guaranteed by the individual states that want to consolidate in this way, and economic life would be able to be revived through such a valuta loan. Europe would again be supplied with raw materials and foodstuffs, and it might be possible to improve the economic conditions in Europe over a period of 30, 40 or 50 years. This idea is the result of superficial thinking. No government in America will be able to overcome the resistance that is rooted in the conditions in Europe. The states of Europe are not in a position to offer sufficient guarantees, even if small-scale measures are taken. But such measures cannot be taken under these circumstances. It is inconceivable that anything could be achieved in this way. One could still imagine that, on a smaller scale, individual people in neutral or Entente countries or in America would be approached, who, on the basis of trust, would in turn grant individual loans to individual economic figures in European countries. But such action would be possible only on a very small scale under the existing conditions, for the people who could be found in the neutral or in the Entente countries to grant such loans would be so few that an improvement of the European situation through this smaller of the two means could not be considered at all. So people fall prey to all kinds of illusions. They virtually omit intermediate steps and think of organizing a kind of world economic federation, which is to develop from the idea of the League of Nations. They think that in a kind of world state, all economic life would be nationalized, so that the individual liabilities in the defeated countries would not come into consideration. Now, of course, that is a terrible utopia, because it has been shown, of course, by what has happened with regard to the effectiveness of the League of Nations, as uncovered by the assembly in Geneva. And to pin one's hopes on such a League of Nations, oriented as it is towards the economic side, is something quite utopian today. What is at issue today is to look more deeply into the forces that are driving the development of humanity and to try to arrive at measures that can really help and must work. Such measures can only be derived from the threefold social order, and as soon as we entertain illusions that something can be done without it, we are simply collaborating in our own destruction. Just consider what it means if, for example, the population of Upper Silesia votes to join Prussia-Germany. This means nothing other than that this population surrenders itself and its territory to a larger area, which, if it continues to work as it has done so far, must inevitably fall back into barbarism. It cannot be a matter of joining a territory that has not already shown that it has overcome the old conditions. This is certainly not yet evident in the influential circles in Prussia-Germany, but the opposite is the case. So let us look at the facts quite objectively: joining Prussia-Germany means completely surrendering to impossible conditions.

For you see, here we come to the other illusion which the best people on the Entente side have - and we want to look into this. There are people like Keynes, who has a certain following, or Norman Angell, who also has a certain, even very large following. What do these people think? They think that the Treaty of Versailles must be revised, that it cannot continue on the basis of the existing treaty. But why do they think that? They think this: Europe has so far been in economic contact with the rest of the world. If Europe falls back into barbarism and its economic life disintegrates, then, so these people think, especially Norman Angell, the economic life of not only the Entente states, which of course will disintegrate, but also of America, will disintegrate, because the European markets will no longer exist. They say that the countries of Europe are needed on both sides of the Entente and in America in order to engage in fruitful economic relations with them. You see, the best minds of the Entente are judging from these foundations. It can be said that very significant things have been said in this direction in recent months, and that the number of people who are convinced of the impossibility of the Versailles Treaty and all that it entails is increasing. But they are wrong, they live in an illusion, they also judge from existing habits of thought and feeling. One must not retreat from cruel truths in a sensitive way. It is simply not true that the Anglo-Saxon population depends on economic relations with Central and Eastern Europe. At most, it depends only on reorganizing its entire economic life, making it a self-contained economic entity, and then it can continue to exist quite well, even if so many people die of hunger in Europe. These are well-intentioned statements, but they are not true. It would perhaps take fifteen to thirty years before the economic life in the countries outside Central and Eastern Europe could be reorganized in such a way that it could exist in itself; the real possibility of such a reorganization certainly exists. If one were to proceed as these people imagine, then whatever anyone in Central or Eastern Europe does, based on the old assumptions, would ultimately lead to the Western world being supported by way of a detour through barbarism. There is basically no other way to see it from the old assumptions.

One could imagine that a majority, particularly in America, would work towards simply abandoning Europe to its fate and turning the western part of the world into a closed economic area. But one would absolutely surrender to this state of affairs if one were to join the existing conditions in Central Europe by voting. By joining Poland, one would not be doing anything different. The prospect has already been anticipated with what has just been said. One would also do nothing other than surrender oneself to the thinking of the Entente. Poland may be the Entente's protégé, but that would not help it in any decisive case; it would be at the mercy of the ruin of European conditions, or it would be drawn into the catastrophic events that I am about to mention.

So, a plebiscite that goes both ways is an absurdity. We must first of all keep this sentence very clearly in mind: such a plebiscite is an absurdity. We will discuss the conditions under which it could take place in one case or the other later on. We must be quite clear about the fact that we cannot keep up the world of the past with the ideas of the past. This is particularly evident from the things I tried to describe yesterday. Poland, I said, has retained what the rest of Europe has in a sense overcome: a kind of aristocracy. Under this aristocratic rule, the lower classes developed, drawing their impulses for their cleverness and energy, I would say, from a threefold structure: namely, from Russia, the spiritual; from Prussia-Germany, the economic; and from Austria, through Galicia, the political and state-related. This lower class has, so to speak, worked its way into the bourgeois currents that had the upper hand in Europe for a time, so that what had developed in Poland from the lower class, together with that of the rest of Europe, has worked its way into the bourgeoisie. But today it is blunt in its effectiveness, just as the bourgeoisie is blunt in general.

Now, there is simply the broader background today, and this broader background confronts us today in an illusion, in a real illusion. It confronts us in the West more as a bourgeois labor movement, in the center of Europe as more or less social democracy nuanced in this or that way, and the further east we go, the more it confronts us in the form of Bolshevism. We must be clear about the living conditions of Bolshevism in Russia. Incidentally, the Silesian voting area is very close to these living conditions of Bolshevism, and we must be completely clear about them.

You see, Bolshevism stems from the fact that the upper classes, be it the nobility or the bourgeoisie, have not found any way in modern times to expand their thinking to the same areas where labor has been expanded and where, above all, human will has been expanded. They continued to work with the old ideas, expanded the commercial and economic aspects, and involved the broad masses of the population, but they took no steps to meet the needs of this broad mass of humanity in any way other than through the old state relationships. And unfortunately it must be said that even today this is not happening, because it is not happening in the only way it could happen. This must be our main concern. For it is a characteristic example of how leading personalities have been brought to what is actually stirring and moving in the broad masses of humanity. It has not happened in a reasonable way. Ludendorff himself says in his memoirs that he provided the leaders of Bolshevism in Russia; he says it was a military necessity for him, and the politicians would have been obliged to avert the dire consequences of this necessity. So he does not deny that he provided Bolshevism in Russia with its leaders; he only says that the politicians were not clever enough to make up for the great folly he committed. Such things are possible today and are accepted. Thus, the leading personalities were supplied to Bolshevism, not from the most ancient state conditions, as Ludendorff thought, but from a rational cooperation of people who know something about the course of humanity and of those people who want to be led, but do not want to be led within the old conditions, but want to be led to new conditions. This is something that must be thoroughly recognized. Since the world war, it is no longer true that only the old proletarians make up this broad lower class. Members of all former classes belong to this broad lower class. And this fact is still not taken into account today either. They do not yet realize that those people who have retained something of their pre-war intelligence must be approached primarily with sensible ideas, so that more and more of the leading intelligentsia can be introduced into the world in a reasonable way. That is the most important question today: that the eyes of those people who have retained some of their intelligence be opened so that they become the right leaders. Without this we shall make no headway. You see, two things are impending. One has already been hinted at earlier: the reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe is impossible on any other foundations than those of the threefold social order; it is impossible for the people of Central and Eastern Europe, but also impossible for the people of the Entente. The people of the Entente and America could only do something if there was a significant reduction in wages in Europe compared to America. But the American proletariat would immediately oppose this, and perhaps the English proletariat would not allow it either. Any action in this direction would itself promote the revolution in the Western countries. And that is what must be held out to humanity: that the Bolshevik revolution will also take hold in the Western world, coming from the broadest lower classes, not from outside but from within. No matter how many blockades the leading personalities in the West of today erect against the Bolshevik contamination of the West, what comes from the East through the transmission of Bolshevism is not the main thing for these Western countries, but what rises from below is the main thing; that is the essential.

Now there are already a number of people today – and their number will grow rapidly – who realize that it is quite impossible to avoid revolution if one continues to work in the old way. And just as they told the people in the old sense: we have to make a war to defeat the revolution in our own country, it means nothing else, but that it must be worked towards, especially among the people of the West who understand in the old sense, the Second World War. There is no other way than to work towards the Second World War in order to avert internal Bolshevism in the West. This Second World War is all the more certain as, in the East, as soon as things are taken to extremes, understanding can never be gained for the economic measures of the West. In the East, the way of thinking that is emerging today in Russia will even combine with the religious ideas of the East, and an atmosphere will arise over the whole of Asia, to which the Japanese population and their rulers are extraordinarily suited, so that the East-West tension will fall into the economic turmoil of the future. The Second World War, which must develop between Asia and America and what lies in between, must develop out of economic reasons. You hear how the call sounds from the lower classes: world revolution! This idea of world revolution can only be shrouded in a fog by unleashing this second world war catastrophe. There is no other way.

Now we are living towards such a time when the conflict between America and Asia will become stronger and stronger. Of course, the nations that lie in between will be drawn into this conflict. You can be quite sure that Asia, with the Japanese in the lead, will be in the same position as Central Europe was in relation to the Entente, with regard to what comes from the West. The East may indulge in a great confidence of victory for a time, but just as America was decisive in Europe, it will also be decisive in Asia. But the Ludendorff will be found in the East, which will send the necessary leaders to the West to contaminate the West with Bolshevism, that is, in this case, with Asia. It will also be found among the Japanese. And then you have the one thing for which the mood exists in the broadest sections of society, you have simply created that through the Second World War. The America in which a Lenin is at work, as Lenin is now at work in Russia, must be before one's eyes. One must not close one's mind to these perspectives, one must realize that the causes of the present plight lie in economic decline, that the effects lie in the barbarization of humanity. There is only one fact that can be set against this, and that is this, which may perhaps be said in our context here, but which should permeate all our work. However, it should perhaps not be made into a subject of agitation, because the moment it is made into one, it will be immediately killed off in this world-historical moment.

You see, there are people all over the world who, simply because they have come to an end with current economic, state and spiritual thinking, are beginning to seriously consider this threefold order. The fact that, for example, the translation of the “Key Points of the Social Question” into English has been met with a strong reaction is full proof of this. And if we were strong enough to work with the necessary momentum, then, if we could take advantage of the fact that the “Key Points of the Social Question” have been discussed in the English newspapers, we would be able to develop a very effective agitation while the mood is still warm. But what we lack are personalities, a sufficiently large number of personalities who could work effectively for our cause. This led me to point out as early as the spring of 1920 that we would first need fifty people here in Stuttgart to discuss among themselves and with me everything that is necessary to bring to the people. That is what it is about today. There is no other way to educate a sufficient number of people. But for that we need a sufficiently large number of enlighteners who speak out of the underground. Because you can be sure: if you educate in what we have discussed here today and yesterday, it works; it just needs to be brought to the people on a sufficiently large scale. It is not enough for us to spread it with a group of ten; we have to be able to spread it with hundreds of agitators. It is necessary that we have more and more such personalities.

Thus, as I said, in the lower classes there is growing understanding of the whole world, which is moving towards barbarism; but there must be leaders, leaders who, through their inner quality, can thoroughly understand what is contained in the threefold order; these leaders can only come into existence in Central Europe. That is the paradox that stands before humanity today: that in those areas that are most oppressed, most defeated, there live the people who can most understand the way out of the turmoil of humanity. In this respect, we in Central Europe have been sorely tried enough. Consider this: since the first half of the 19th century, the idea of an initially idealistic organization of the German people arose from the best qualities of the German people. What has asserted itself as the striving for unity, especially since 1848, arose from the finest qualities of the German people in Central Europe, which was absolutely precious in the cultural development of humanity. And that has a certain quality in itself to which one must appeal. It has the quality in itself that it is not despised or hated by any people on earth, but on the contrary is accepted by everyone, even by the Poles, when it appears in the quality in which it appeared in Germany at the time as a political idea. For there were some among those people, who were later ridiculed in so-called realistic Germany as the forty-eight idealists, who expressed certain qualities best of all. On the other hand, there is everything that has happened in Central Europe in recent decades, both in Austria and in Germany. There, things have developed that fundamentally contradict the German essence, and it is these that are hated and reviled throughout the world. As long as people in Central Europe do not realize that Central Europe must work from those foundations that lie in the spiritual, that Central Europe, by virtue of its entire historical mission, cannot rely on power relations but only on spiritual ones, as long as that remains the case, the impulse is not given for some developed Central Europe, but only for the downfall of the entire civilized world. In this respect, we can actually look back to Fichte. I will draw your attention to just two points in Fichte, to the last words he uttered in his “Speeches to the German Nation”, in which he calls on the Germans to reflect on their own qualities, to work from within, because by doing so they will look up to the world above. And on the other hand, he admonished the Germans to renounce naval supremacy. Read in the “Speeches to the German Nation” how strongly Fichte advised against striving for any kind of naval supremacy. Fichte scorns the so-called freedom of the seas. That was based on a deep instinct.

And you see, the moment you touch on these things, you also have to point out that this is where the lever for change lies. Read the important hint that was not understood at the time, like the whole writing was not understood, the important hint that I tried to give in my “Thoughts During the Time of War,” namely that the German people are innocent of the war. Read this important note and read the title on the cover, that the writing is addressed to Germans and to those who do not believe they have to hate; because I knew very well: only such people can understand it. But such people did not come forward at the time, although I was urged to organize a second edition of this writing. Of course I refrained from doing so, because basically only those people who believed they had to hate the Germans responded to it. In Germany, people kept quiet about these things. The book would only have gained significance if it had been fully taken in its factual basis. That is why it had to be removed from the book trade. I wanted to evoke a certain mood among those who are German and believe that they do not have to hate Germans, a certain mood that is present in the depths of the soul. If this hatred, as it was meant at the time, had really come to the fore, it would have created an 'atmosphere' at the time; that is, if it had been seen from the outside that such a mood existed, then fortunately it would have had no impact. If such a mood were perceived today, it would still have a favorable effect. Let me say the following, whereby I ask you to consider the words I am about to read to you, especially in the context in which we now find ourselves: “The Germans did not push their government to enter the war. They knew nothing about it beforehand and did not agree. We do not want to hold the German people responsible, who themselves have gone through all the suffering in this war that they did not cause themselves.”

I ask you, is this not completely in line with what I said in the booklet “Thoughts During the Time of War”? But who said these words under pressure from certain people on June 14, 1917? - That was Woodrow Wilson. If you look at it that way, there is the possibility of understanding across the world. We must bear in mind this turn of events, and continue to do so today, that in the moment when something asserts itself in Europe that shows that it has only to do with the factual development of humanity and has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with a connection with old things, that in that moment an understanding can be found with the world from Central Europe. The moment that the self-determination of the people of Central Europe can be invoked, even if only to a limited extent and in relation to a single point, it must become clear that, by the very nature of things, the German people want nothing to do with anyone who with the old rulers, regardless of whether they are old statesmen or industrialists who have sought their profit, regardless of whether they are on the side of Helfferich or Erzberger or on the side of German democracy. Everything that has any connection with what first sailed into the Wilhelmine era must be eliminated. And from the real essence of the German character, to which the Austrian also belongs, that which can be said must be found. For then it will correspond with what those who still reflect on the truth are saying all over the world. Therefore, the greatest impression can be made in the whole international world when some small group says: We want nothing to do with the Prussia that has emerged, we want nothing to do with that which stands under the protection of the Entente, we know that quite different forces can arise from the subsoil we want to take the position of threefold social order, we do not want only a sham autonomy, as it would emerge, we want a real, true autonomy and will provisionally establish ourselves within this true, real autonomy, we make the vote a protest against the fact of the vote. This is the necessary consequence that arises from the facts of history, as well as from those of current international relations.

Of course, one can say in response: Such a thing today only results in sitting on the ground between two stools. It would not have that effect if it could be sufficiently popularized, and so quickly that it would at least emerge as something clearly audible by the time of the vote in Upper Silesia. It is only by such means that we can advance our movement. The only thing we are faced with is that we are not in a position to get to the point, by the day of the vote, where what would arise as a protest against the facts of the vote itself could somehow be realized. Then, in the first place, working in this area would become extremely difficult. For those who propagate our ideas will find just as little support in Prussian Germany as in Poland. So they have nothing to lose that they would not lose anyway, whether one or the other comes about. It is only possible if a sufficiently large number of people hurl this protest into the world. Then this protest would be just as effective today as if Kühlmann had simply stood up in the German Reichstag at the right time and presented the whole threefolding prospectus against Wilson's ideas. For in the future, it will not be compromise victories that are important, but standing firm on something that one brings out of the matter itself. And if only a relatively small number of people – thousands, of course, would be needed – were to call out to the world: We, as Upper Silesians, see the connection between the one and the other as nonsense – that would be heard throughout the world and would become a factor throughout the world, because it would be favored by the fact that it occurs in connection with the plebiscite. We must endeavor to ensure that what we have to say is not only published week after week in the Dreigliederungs-Zeitung, where it can be as spirited as possible, but only spreads out in decreasing waves, but we must ensure that wherever important things happen in the world, threefolding has a voice, so that it is not always standing aside from events, but really seeks out the moments when something can be done, because humanity is simply hypnotized by the things that happen. Do you think that the Entente will look favourably on the threefold social order if we spread the word about it here? No, their eyes are hypnotized by something like the Silesian voting question. What a few thousand people say, they will see in it what they would otherwise overlook.

These are the things we must take into account here in the present moment. Of course, if it is not possible to get a sufficiently large number of people to vote for it, then under certain circumstances our friends might have no choice but to say: Threefolding will eventually come out of its birth pangs and into effectiveness , and out of necessity the German people might yet develop an understanding for the threefold order; so we will provisionally vote in favor of annexation to Prussia-Germany, but in the hope that this Prussia will sink. But that is only a substitute; with it we would resign ourselves to what we are suffering. What we have to do is win people who can be active in our movement, who can be active in the sense of our threefold social order. And in this direction – it must not be concealed – we have not been effective enough.

Wherever we need supporters who can work, we lack them today. The people we do have are certainly energetic workers, but they are actually needed everywhere. For them, the day should perhaps have not 36, but 64 hours or more. The few people who are really working effectively within our ranks are also aware of this. We need more and more personalities, and if we succeed in attracting more and more such personalities, then we will indeed come to a propagation of the threefold order in Central Europe, so that something can be done. But we should not let such a favorable moment pass by unused, when we could show the world what threefolding means. The world would then take an interest. If what the Upper Silesian appeal is on our part were to become known, the world would take an enormous interest in the threefold order, and we must bring this about; it cannot be taken further at present.

This is what really needs to be emphasized, what those who have now set out to work among the Upper Silesian population for the propagation of our cause must write into their hearts. You cannot say that you should spread the threefold order in general; that has not been possible from the start. You see, I once managed, with threefolding in the background, to get someone to work extremely hard to establish a proper press service in Zurich during the so-called World War I. I was able to make it clear to someone that nothing can be achieved from the old press conditions. The matter had progressed so far that one Tuesday - I have to tell this story over and over again - I was told that there was every prospect of my being able to move to Zurich in the next few days to set up the press service there. The next day came the refusal from the great headquarters, which was, of course, almighty, with the information that there were so many people within Germany waiting for such a position that an Austrian could not be chosen. Well, one need only reflect on such things to get a sense of how, since all the words that have been coined earlier by the idealism of our time no longer have any meaning, how one must look at things when they become clear from the threefold order. If only once the call can sound in the appropriate way somewhere, then it will work.

You see, you must be clear about this: until now, the obstacles to human progress have consisted in the fact that the spiritual movement has been tied to external power relations and external constellations for centuries. Just think that all bourgeois progress, and connected with it everything we have achieved in the arts and sciences, is simply connected with the development of cities, and that it is because cities have become leading that the whole upsurge of the last centuries has come about. In the end, people were no longer able to have the leading coming from the cities. They turned to the old state, which was now supposed to take the lead. This will always fail, regardless of whether it is undertaken by social democracy or by Bolsheviks or undertaken by any intellectual people, it will always fail because of the world's peasantry. In this direction, for example, particularly interesting studies can be made in Switzerland. When the people in Switzerland came very close to a kind of revolution, it was the peasantry that opposed it. Switzerland owes it entirely to the peasantry that the threatened revolution did not break out. Here one can clearly see the contrast between the broad peasantry and what stands out in individual cultural layers: these were the cities, the state and so on. Only in Russia did things turn out differently. The 600,000 people who are now truly steeped in Bolshevik labor in Russia are not what makes the difference; rather, what makes the difference is that the entire broad mass of the peasantry is attached to Lenin and that this entire broad mass believes it has a prospect of getting land. The peasantry believes that only if Lenin remains can it be treated in such a way. If Lenin falls, they will not get the land.

What is the only solution to the great cultural question of the future of humanity? Of course, this culture depends on the existence of spiritual leaders. These spiritual leaders had to, one could say, had to withdraw until now due to special power constellations, withdraw into castles, then withdraw into the cities, had to withdraw into the state, because there was no mood to create an organization that is leading as such through its recognition. And the only way to create such an organization, one that is independent of all other social institutions, is to have the source of higher cultures recognized by itself. And between this spiritual organism and the broad economic organism, the state-legal organization will then stand in, just as the rhythmic system stands in between the head and metabolism systems. The only solution to the questions of the future is an institution of spiritual life that works directly through it. You can see how I have worked towards this in my “Key Points of the Social Question”. The moment one allows oneself to be pushed back by the objection that one wants to create a spiritual aristocracy, one does not understand the matter. The creation of this spiritual organization alone leads forward. After all, such an organization is, in keeping with the old conditions, the Catholic Church. It is independent of urban development and so on, but today it no longer has a mission, that is over. The fact that it can be organized into a great sham power is because it has such an institution, which is independent of external power relations. Therefore, such a spiritual organization must be created that is simply not dependent on anything other than itself. Understanding must be awakened for this. And if we find the right ways, this understanding can be awakened; for it is no longer the pre-war proletariat that makes up the broad layer, but other classes have already been pushed down, and our task today is to win them over, regardless of their class position, not only by preaching these ideas, but also, when it comes to concrete things, by acting on them.