{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 191/1919-10-10/p012","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The question then arises:—How are we going to surmount these signs of our civilisation's decline and fall? To plaster over such signs of decline in our civilisation, my dear friends, is quite impossible. There is nothing for it but to recognise the facts as they have just been stated, to regard them dispassionately and without reservations, and to harbour no illusions. One must say to oneself: There they are, these forces of decline and fall, and one must not imagine that one can in any way turn them in another direction, or anything of that sort. No, they are very powerful forces of decline, and it is necessary to give them their proper name, and to speak of them as we are doing now. This being so, what we have got to do is to turn to where forces can be found for the re-ascent. That is not to be done by theorising, People in the present day may invent the most beautiful theories, may have the most beautiful principles, but with theories one can do nothing. To do anything in life, it must be by means of the forces that are actually present in the world; and one must summon them up. If our civilisation were through and through as I have been describing it,—I mean, if it were like that through and through,—then there would be nothing for it but to say to ourselves: “There is nothing for it, but just to let our civilisation go to pieces, and ourselves go to pieces along with it.” For to attempt in any way to redress the signs of the times by mere theories or conceptions would be an utter absurdity.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. Social Impulses for the Healing of Modern Civilization","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-10-10","location":null,"word_count":281,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-10/p012","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LA1963","book_title":"Cosmogony, Freedom, Altruism","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA191/English/LA1963/19191010p02.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"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/191/1919-10-10/p012"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-10/p012","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":"1919-10-10","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 191/1919-10-10/p010","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-10/p010"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":205,"en_words":281,"ratio":1.37,"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 191/1919-10-10/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"So entsteht die Frage: Wie können wir hinauskommen über diese Niedergangserscheinungen unserer Zivilisation? — Überkleistern kann man dasjenige, was Niedergangserscheinung in unserer Zivilisation ist, nicht. Dem Gesagten gegenüber handelt es sich darum, daß man es unbefangen und rückhaltlos ins Auge faßt, daß man sich keinen Illusionen hingibt. Man muß sich sagen: Es ist da, was an Niedergangskräften sich zeigt, und man muß nicht glauben, man könne es irgendwie korrigieren oder dergleichen; sondern es sind starke Niedergangskräfte da, die sich so charakterisieren lassen, wie wir das eben ausgesprochen haben. Dagegen handelt es sich darum, sich nun zu wenden zu dem, woraus Kräfte zum Aufstieg zu gewinnen sind. Das kann man nicht durch Theorien; es können in der heutigen Zeit die Menschen die allerschönsten Theorien erfinden, die allerschönsten Grundsätze haben - mit bloßen Theorien ist nichts anzufangen. Etwas anzufangen im Leben ist nur mit den Kräften, die wirklich auf dieser Erde vorhanden sind, die man aufrufen muß. Wäre unsere Zivilisation durch und durch so, wie ich sie geschildert habe, dann könnten wir nichts anderes tun, als uns sagen: Diese Zivilisation müssen wir zugrunde gehen lassen und an dem Zugrundegehen teilnehmen. Denn jeder Versuch einer Korrektur dieser Erscheinung aus irgendwelchen bloßen Ideen oder Vorstellungen heraus ist ein Unding.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":205,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-10/p010"}],"english":["GA 191/1919-10-10/p012"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":205,"en_words":281,"ratio":1.37,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.17,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7938,"original_word_count":6808,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LA1963","book_title":"Cosmogony, Freedom, Altruism","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA191/English/LA1963/19191010p02.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 191/1919-10-10/p010"],"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."}}