{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 174b/1917-05-11/p021","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"But all these things are no obstacle for the honest seeker of truth in the present day; he may be longing for spiritual science. Many of you know this, my dear friends. But for most people in today's world, it is an obstacle to recognize this spiritual science, to do anything other than to drill this spiritual science to the ground. They do not approach it, and since it does not come from them, it must be drilled to the ground. You cannot do that in a matter-of-fact way; today, the facts already show that. For those who have tried to approach spiritual science have not, as a rule, become opponents; they have certainly not become blind followers, but they have not become opponents either. There are those too. But a large part of our contemporaries simply have a personal interest in extinguishing this spiritual science, in making it impossible in the present. If they try to do this through honest literary debate, using whatever arguments they have against it, whatever arguments someone else has, then of course there is nothing to be said against it. But that is just what they do not want, it is too inconvenient. It is much more convenient to play the whole thing over into the personal sphere, not to talk about what is said in spiritual science, but to talk about all kinds of other things. And that, you see, is precisely what is being attempted in our immediate present today and will be attempted more and more in the near future, and to which I would like to draw your attention. Because this will lead to a situation in which numerous dissatisfied people, who become dissatisfied for personal reasons within our society, can easily be turned into tools for those who want to eliminate anthroposophy from the world, but do not strive for it in an honest way – they would not achieve their goal by honest means either – they do not strive for scientific discussion, but avoid the honest path, and instead seek to attach some kind of scandal to the spiritual science movement and to personalize everything.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Ninth Lecture","site_heading":"Soul's Independence and Spiritual Science's Defense Against Slander","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1917-05-11","location":null,"word_count":358,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p021","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Spiritual Background of Human History","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA174b/English/SOL2024/19170511p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p021"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p021","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1917-05-11/p021","passage_number":21,"text":"Aber alle diese Dinge sind für den ehrlich Suchenden, nach Wahrheit Strebenden der Gegenwart kein Hindernis; er lechzt vielleicht gerade nach Geisteswissenschaft. Viele von Ihnen wissen das, meine lieben Freunde. Aber sie sind ein Hindernis für die meisten, die heute im gewohnheitsmäßigen Leben stehen, diese Geisteswissenschaft anzuerkennen, irgendwie etwas anderes zu tun, als diese Geisteswissenschaft in Grund und Boden zu bohren. Sie geht nicht von ihnen aus, und da sie nicht von ihnen kommt, muß sie in Grund und Boden gebohrt werden. In sachlicher Weise kann man das nicht tun; das zeigen heute schon die Tatsachen. Denn diejenigen, die es versucht haben, an die Geisteswissenschaft heranzukommen, sind in der Regel nicht Gegner geworden, sind gewiß keine blinden Anhänger geworden, aber auch keine Gegner. Es gibt ja solche auch. Aber ein großer Teil unserer Zeitgenossen hat eben einfach das persönliche Interesse, diese Geisteswissenschaft auszutilgen, ihr zunächst das Leben in der Gegenwart unmöglich zu machen. Wird er es auf dem Wege versuchen, den man selbstverständlich, wenn man auf dem Boden der Geisteswissenschaft steht, voll anerkennen kann, wird er es versuchen, auf dem Wege des ehrlichen literarischen Kampfes das ins Feld zu führen, was man dagegen zu sagen hat, was ein anderer zu sagen hat, so ist selbstverständlich gar nichts dagegen einzuwenden. Allein das will man eben nicht, das ist zu unbequem. Viel bequemer ist es, die ganze Sache auf das persönliche Gebiet hinüberzuspielen, nicht über dasjenige zu sprechen, was in der Geisteswissenschaft gesagt wird, sondern über allerlei anderes zu sprechen. Und das, sehen Sie, ist es gerade, was in unserer unmittelbaren Gegenwart heute versucht wird und in den nächsten Zeiten immer mehr versucht werden wird, und worauf ich einmal doch Ihre Aufmerksamkeit hinlenken möchte. Denn das wird dazu führen, daß zahlreiche Unzufriedene, die immer wiederum aus persönlichen Gründen unzufrieden werden innerhalb unserer Gesellschaft, leicht zu Werkzeugen gemacht werden können für diejenigen, die Anthroposophie aus der Welt schaffen wollen, aber es nicht auf dem ehrlichen Wege anstreben — sie würden auch nicht ans Ziel gelangen auf dem ehrlichen Wege -, die nicht wissenschaftliche Diskussionen anstreben, sondern den ehrlichen Weg meiden, dafür aber danach streben, der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung irgendeinen Skandal anzuhängen und alles ins Persönliche zu übersetzen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":363,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p021"}],"english":["GA 174b/1917-05-11/p021"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":363,"en_words":358,"ratio":0.99,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":9678,"original_word_count":9444,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Spiritual Background of Human History","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA174b/English/SOL2024/19170511p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1917-05-11/p021"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. 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