What Can Counteract the Divisive Aspects of Contemporary Life?

A sense of weariness pervades the soul in the face of public life. People are only torn out of this mood when an event takes them by surprise, allowing them to avert their gaze from the political disharmony and the economic processes of decomposition. For Germany, such an event occurred in the assassination of Archberger. Beyond party opinion, beyond personal or class identity, one had to feel purely humanly in the face of what had happened. Opponents and supporters of the murdered man are essentially united in their feelings.

It is symptomatic that such a meeting of souls should take place in the present life. Today, when the old party and class spirit, the interests of the old economic system, have disastrously preserved themselves, there is a need for a general humanity in which people can understand each other.

Can only the prospect of death bring human souls together in this way? It would certainly be impossible for the present time to produce the forces of an awakening in the face of decline if the answer to this question were “yes”. The sight of life must also be able to lead to this feeling in the universal human being.

From deep within the soul, man senses that death confronts him with a higher responsibility than that which he imposes on himself by thinking politically or economically out of the current habits of thought. This can be felt in the agitation that resulted from the assassination of Archberger. Something that comes from spiritual life stirs instinctively when the dispute of material interests blows away the general human.

What needs to be done is indicated by such signs. The paths to the spirit must be sought from life itself. The weariness of souls stems from the disbelief of the broadest circles in the old party and class opinions. These form the great disappointment of humanity. People used to devote themselves to them with enthusiasm or out of interest. They were attributed an effectiveness. One sees that events pass over them. One has lost faith in them.

Nevertheless, they still appear everywhere as the sole foundations of public judgment and action. Those who want something look for this or that idea to which one professed one's faith before the catastrophic events. And they try to win over the members of these old party groups for this idea. And in this striving it becomes clear to him how unreceptive the people he wants to inspire are, because disappointment paralyzes their feelings.

Only one thing can lead out of this state of emergency. In a sufficiently large number of people, this spiritual life must be stimulated by what has been discussed in the previous numbers of this weekly publication. Tiredness in the face of bitter disappointment will be a good seedbed for the germination of this spiritual life. But for that to happen, it is necessary to avoid the thought of how to tie in with what this or that group of people has meant so far. It is precisely this tying in that confuses people. It is considered wise to tie in with what people are accustomed to. But it is precisely this that makes them suspicious in their innermost souls. For they themselves basically no longer believe in this habit; they only hold on to it because the actual circumstances of their party grouping bind them. But one needs ideas that work out of the power of the spirit in such a way that individuals gather around them by virtue of their common humanity. Whether or not the way out of the present chaos can be found will depend on the purity with which such ideas are brought to the people. It is certainly difficult at present to work for the purity of ideas. But only the insight that these difficulties must be overcome can help.

Today one can already find a number of people who are more or less inclined towards the spiritual life as characterized in this weekly. But many of them believe that one can only speak to this or that person in a certain way. One will have to get away from that. Because by doing so, the other person only hears something that he thinks corresponds to this or that that he knows well. And he thinks that you can't do anything with that. He then only listens half way and soon returns to his old tired mood.

One must have the courage to wait until the power that lies in the life-filled spirit takes hold of the person. One will then find that one has to wait less long than if one waits until the “maturity” of the people whose entry one postpones to a preferably indefinite future.

In the spirit of life, if it is only properly emphasized, human souls will have to find each other as they can find each other when the shadow of the spirit, death, steps before them. The jagged forces can also fall silent before the living spirit; and, what is the main thing, they will not just have an arousing effect on the feelings; they will pour into the will; they will become deeds. And that is what the present needs.