{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 176/1917-07-31/p029","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Just imagine the situation: we see external events run their course and we see human beings, active in the midst of these events, who think quite differently. Human beings with sensible ideas are active in these events but are overwhelmed by them. Why are they overwhelmed? Because of the failure to relate concepts and ideas to spiritual reality. Thoughts are powerless unless they are united with the spiritual element of the world. According to the general opinion held nowadays it is a drawback for someone, active in social or political life, to be a thinker. A thinker is regarded as unpractical, incapable of understanding the realities of life. Yet the truth is that those who are usually regarded as practical have only the kind of abstract thoughts which cannot lay hold of reality. One must ask if it really is sensible to select for high political office someone who is more renowned for fly-fishing than his thinking ability? “Fly-fishing” is the title of a book written by Sir Edward Grey[^5] and fly-fishing is what fills his mind. A ministerial colleague once said about him, not without justification: “The reason Grey has such excellent concentration is because he simply repeats what others put into his mind; no thought of his own ever disturbs his concentration.”—That colleague hit the nail on the head. So you see, according to modern opinion, someone who understands fly-fishing must also understand politics for it would be a drawback if he had any real thoughts. However, as I have said, so often it is just such opinions which at present reveal their futility for they have brought about the disastrous conditions we are in.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"1. Forgotten Aspects of Cultural Life","site_heading":null,"date":"1917-07-31","location":null,"word_count":277,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/176/1917-07-31/p029","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length+anchor_constrained","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Rita Stebbing","identified_edition":"AP1985","book_title":"The Karma of Materialism","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA176/English/AP1985/19170731p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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/176/1917-07-31/p029"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/176/1917-07-31/p029","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},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1917-07-31","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 176/1917-07-31/p024","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/176/1917-07-31/p024"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":368,"en_words":351,"ratio":0.95,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 176/1917-07-31/p024","passage_number":24,"text":"Denken Sie sich, vor welchem Ereignis wir da stehen! Wir sehen die äußeren Ereignisses sich abspielen, und wir sehen Menschen mitten drinnen handelnd stehen, die ganz anders denken! Menschen stehen in diesen Ereignissen drinnen, die ganz vernünftig denken, aber die Ereignisse wachsen ihnen über den Kopf. Warum wachsen ihnen diese Ereignisse über den Kopf? Weil versäumt worden ist, die Gedanken mit dem geistigen Element zu verbinden. Diejenigen Gedanken, die nicht mit dem geistigen Element verbunden sind, die sind nicht wirksam in der Welt. Nur diejenigen Gedanken sind wirksam in der Welt, die mit dem Geistigen in der Welt verbunden sind. Ist es denn nicht heute geradezu ein Dogma — wenn es auch nicht in der Form ausgesprochen wird —, daß derjenige, der sich im äußeren sozial-politischen Leben betätigt, ja nicht zu den Denkern gehören darf! Es ist ein Fehler, wenn er Gedanken entwickeln kann. Denn ein Mensch, der Gedanken entwickelt, den hält man für einen unpraktischen Menschen, der nichts von der Wirklichkeit versteht. Während nur die wirklichen Gedanken in die Wirklichkeit eingreifen können, und niemals diejenigen Gedanken, die von denen kommen, die man heute als der Wirklichkeit gewachsen hält. Oder sollte es denn wirklich vernünftig sein, daß für einen großen Politiker ein Mensch ausersehen wird, der sich besonders gut aufs Angeln versteht, mehr als einer, der denken kann? «Flyfishing» heißt das Buch, das über das Angeln Sir Edward Grey geschrieben hat, «Flyfishing», das Angeln mit der Fliege, und das war im Grunde genommen dasjenige, was seine ganze Seele ausfüllte. Ich habe schon einmal erwähnt: Ein Ministerkollege von ihm hat einmal nicht mit Unrecht gesagt: Der Grey ist so furchtbar konzentriert, weil er niemals einen eigenen Gedanken hat, der ihn von der Konzentration abhalten kann, sondern immer dasjenige aufnimmt, was ihm die anderen eingeben. — Dieser Ministerkollege hat wohl das Richtige getroffen. Also diejenigen Menschen, die sich gut verstehen auf das Flyfishing, die sollen sich nach den Auffassungen unserer Zeit auf die Politik verstehen; aber ein Fehler soll es sein, wenn jemand Gedanken hat. Aber gerade diese Anschauung ist diejenige, die in unseren Tagen Schiffbruch gelitten, die sich als die unmögliche erwiesen hat. Denn sie hat zu alle dem geführt, was ich wiederholt und auch heute wiederum auseinandergesetzt habe.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":368,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/176/1917-07-31/p024"}],"english":["GA 176/1917-07-31/p029","GA 176/1917-07-31/p030"],"method":"length+anchor_constrained","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":368,"en_words":351,"ratio":0.95,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.92,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6890,"original_word_count":7508,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Rita Stebbing","identified_edition":"AP1985","book_title":"The Karma of Materialism","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA176/English/AP1985/19170731p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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 176/1917-07-31/p024"],"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. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}