{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 174b/1917-05-11/p029","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Years ago, I decided to accommodate the wishes of various members for personal meetings, to the youngest and oldest members in the broadest way. Only in recent years, when things were already so close, did I sometimes have to deviate sporadically from the old practice; but only sporadically, in exceptional cases. Despite the fact that it has been emphasized time and again that what is available in the literature and what is said here in the lectures contains plenty of material that the individual needs for his or her own development, so that personal consultations could only relate to an expression from person to person to person, it will happen time and again that the most outrageous lies — excuse the expression — are told within the Society in connection with the personal contact of members with me, and outsiders then seek ways to all kinds of defamation and slander. By this I mean that all too often within the Society people are quite inclined to use a nice-sounding little word for their own deep satisfaction when they have one. How good it does some people, for example, when they can say: I have become an esoteric disciple. — And how good it does some people when they can say: Yes, you know, that is something very mysterious, I am not allowed to tell you that; I am not allowed to tell you anything about it. — Putting oneself in the limelight, giving oneself a certain prestige, that is what is behind many an expression that is used and which is then often misused by outsiders in a quite malicious way. All these things, which are now being used with malicious intent, could never have happened if what was being put in a false light were not in line with legitimate desires and perhaps an equally legitimate accommodation of these desires, but which, in view of what the outside world is making of it, cannot be maintained, however difficult it may be for me, my dear friends. Of course, everyone can maintain friendly relations in society, but the iron necessity compels me to stop giving private audiences. I am particularly sorry for this because some will say: Why should the innocent suffer with the guilty? But if you are in a society, that is of course the karma of the society, and the matter cannot be done differently. All those private conversations that were sought out, in view of those malicious slanders, must simply stop.","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":415,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p029","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. 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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/p029","passage_number":29,"text":"Vor Jahren habe ich mich entschlossen, den Wünschen der verschiedenen Mitglieder nach persönlichen Besprechungen entgegenzukommen, den jüngsten und ältesten Mitgliedern gegenüber in der weitgehendsten Weise. Nur in den letzten Jahren, als die Sachen schon so herankamen, mußte von der alten Gepflogenheit manchmal sporadisch abgegangen werden; aber eben nur sporadisch, in Ausnahmen. Trotzdem öfter betont worden ist, daß in dem, was in der Literatur vorliegt, und in dem, was hier in den Vorträgen gesagt wird, reichlich vorhanden ist, was der einzelne gerade zu seiner selbständigen Entwickelung braucht, so daß persönliche Rücksprachen sich nur beziehen konnten auf ein Aussprechen eben von Mensch zu Mensch, wird es immer wieder vorkommen, daß an den persönlichen Verkehr der Mitglieder mit mir das tollste Geflunker — verzeihen Sie den Ausdruck — innerhalb der Gesellschaft sich angliedert, und von den Außenstehenden dann die Wege gesucht werden zu allerlei Verunglimpfungen und Verleumdungen. Mit dem Geflunker meine ich, daß nur allzuoft innerhalb des Kreises der Gesellschaft die Menschen recht geneigt sind, wenn sie so ein gut klingendes Wörtchen haben, dieses gutklingende Wörtchen zu ihrer eigenen tiefen Befriedigung zu brauchen. Wie wohl tut es zum Beispiel doch manchem, wenn er sagen kann: Ich bin ein esoterischer Schüler geworden. — Und wie wohl erst tut es manchem, wenn er sagen kann: Ja, weißt du, das ist etwas ganz Geheimnisvolles, das darf ich dir nicht sagen; darüber darf ich dir ja nichts sagen. — Sich in Szene zu setzen, sich ein gewisses Ansehen zu geben, das steckt hinter manchem Ausdruck, der gebraucht wird, und der dann von den Draußenstehenden oft in recht böswilliger Weise mißbraucht wird. Alle diese Dinge, die jetzt gerade in böswilliger Absicht gebraucht werden, hätten niemals sich abspielen können, wenn nicht in ein falsches Licht gerückt würde dasjenige, was zwar berechtigten Wünschen und vielleicht einem ebenso berechtigten Entgegenkommen dieser Wünsche entspricht, das aber nun angesichts dessen, was die Außenwelt daraus macht, nicht weiter aufrechterhalten werden kann, so schwer es mir auch wird, meine lieben Freunde. Selbstverständlich, in der Gesellschaft kann jeder freundschaftliche Verkehr bestehen, aber die eiserne Notwendigkeit zwingt mich dazu, Privataudienzen einzustellen. Mir tut das insbesondere deshalb leid, weil mancher sagen wird: Warum sollen denn die Unschuldigen mit den Schuldigen leiden? — Aber wenn man in einer Gesellschaft ist, so ist das selbstverständlich ein Karma der Gesellschaft, und es läßt sich die Sache gar nicht anders machen. Alles dasjenige, was sich abgespielt hat in Privatgesprächen, die gesucht worden sind, das ist etwas, was angesichts jener böswilligen Verleumdungen einfach aufhören muß.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":412,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p029"}],"english":["GA 174b/1917-05-11/p029"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":412,"en_words":415,"ratio":1.01,"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/p029"],"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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