The Genoa Conference: A 'Necessity'
Even those who consider the Genoa conference a 'necessity' do not expect too much of it. For in view of the profound confusion of European public affairs, they feel that what needs to be done for the recovery of the world must come about in a completely different way than at conferences. They feel this, even if they think that conferences to bring about this recovery are a “necessity”.
This is rooted in the profound contradiction that exists today between what has been established in the minds of certain people from the relationships between state structures and the real interests of the people inhabiting these state structures. People think based on the results of political events in the last few decades, and they have interests that have long since outgrown these results. These interests demand an understanding of life that has yet to be found. And people talk about an understanding that they have grown accustomed to. The spiritual, legal and economic problems that are shaking the world today are not being grasped by ideas that have a chance of being discussed at a conference.
An illustration of this truth, which is significant for the present, is the expectation in Europe regarding the Americans' participation in the Genoa conference. This is illustrated by the fact that voices are being heard across the Atlantic that they do not want to interfere in European affairs until the Europeans have first brought some order to their own house. Europe does not know what to do with itself; and America will know what to do for Europe when Europe itself will know.
Everything will depend on the realization that the world has fallen into a one-sidedness by focusing only on economic issues. This is done because they are the most pressing issues. Millions of people in the East are starving. From Russia, civilization is threatened by a disease for which words are too weak to express. Of course, in the face of such human suffering, any discussion seems at first to be a cheap means of gathering information; only direct help is appropriate. But it is simply the case in human life that help for the great evils cannot take place without the recognition of their causes. And the causes of the present world misery lie in the spiritual condition of people. |
(In order to avoid being misunderstood, one must say things that are taken for granted today. Therefore, I hasten to add that I am, of course, not speaking of the spiritual condition of those who are starving in Russia.)
No unbiased person will claim that the cause of the present world crisis can be attributed to nature. It lies in the way people treat what nature gives them. It lies in the relationship between people. And this relationship is the result of the way people think and feel. It rests on the content of the human mind. How people work for each other ultimately depends on how they experience the world in the depths of their souls.
A purely economic orientation in world affairs will always overlook this significant truth. The economic questions of the present are at the same time social in the sense that they are general human. You cannot manage without having a heart for what is truly human. But again and again, we fall back into this “heartlessness.” The economists have become accustomed to a way of thinking that calculates production, circulation of goods, and consumption as if all of this were carried out by a mechanism that can be directed. But living, feeling human beings are involved in all of this. In theory, everyone admits this as a matter of course. In practice, however, which is not true practice but only routine, when he starts or runs a business, he calculates by excluding real human life. He adds up the numbers, which should ultimately show the purely numerical profitability of the business.
But how should it be done differently? This is how the question will always be formulated by those who confuse routine with practice. But they should get the answer from the results that their way of thinking has in human life. They do not want to get it as long as their numbers appear justified by the next successes. They then no longer associate further failures in human life with their way of thinking. That is why the striving for a healthy public life finds no support in the people of the economic world.
This can be seen in small matters; but it has spread to the treatment of the great world affairs. One calculates at conferences; and the calculations are not related to what people feel and experience. That is why the accounting results do not become reality. That is why Europe does not know what to do with itself. That is why America is waiting until Europe comes to terms with itself, because for the time being it does not know how to intervene in Europe either. However, once Europe has done what America is waiting for, the question will take on a different complexion. And this complexion should become reality, because Europe should find the strength to help itself.
Conferences cannot be the birthplace of ideas that will bring happiness to all nations, but at most a means of reaching an understanding on existing ideas that differ somewhat from one another. The quality of a conference depends on what the participants bring with them. Because if they don't bring anything, they can't bring anything home. Today it is first necessary to see what is missing at home. If this is achieved, then progress towards understanding will follow.
Before this is realized, the “necessities” will play a major role; but these “necessities” will be unrealistic. This insight will have to come not only to those who are directly involved in intellectual life, but also to economic circles. At present, the striving for recovery in economic life in particular is also rebounding on them. Such thoughts must occur to anyone who looks at the expectations that many people are now associating with Genoa, just as they have done with the now impressive number of conferences that preceded Genoa. The discussions about whether and when to meet in Genoa do not bode well. They suggest that people either have nothing to bring to the table or do not want to bring anything. —