{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 191/1919-10-12/p022","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"As you know, I have often said here that one of the most significant phenomena in latter-day history is that for the ruling types it is the selection of the *wor* *st* that takes place. You know that for years past I have taken occasion to tell you so repeatedly. Those who are, in reality, the rulers, the governors, are a selection of *not* the best. It has come about with the times that those who are really the best in this modern age have remained below, and those who have been selected for the top, for the leading positions, that is, are not infrequently anything but the best. Very often it has been a selection of the least fitted. And this selection of the least fitted has been founded, in so far as relates to their human nature, in the fact that they were fulfilling an earth-life which had only a very short space of time between the last life on earth and this one. It is a fact which one finds stamped upon many of the leading personages of modern times, that they have had a quick return to earth after a brief life in the spirit. In their preceding life between death and new birth they have received into them but little of spiritual impulse; but they are all the more impregnated with that which this earth alone can give. The Economic type, especially, have been men whose preceding spiritual life was a short one, who were permeated through and through with what the earth, as such, alone can give. I do not mean to say that there have not also In modern times been people who have passed a fairly long stage of time between death and birth and who are notable in modern times; but they have been thrust into the background. So the course of man's historic evolution fated it to be; such was the common karma of mankind.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"III. Fundamental Impulses in History","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-10-12","location":null,"word_count":325,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-12/p022","alignment_confidence":"medium","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/LA1963/19191012p01.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/191/1919-10-12/p022"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/191/1919-10-12/p022","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":"1919-10-12","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 191/1919-10-12/p021","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-12/p021"},{"locus":"GA 191/1919-10-12/p022","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-12/p022"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 191/1919-10-12/p021","GA 191/1919-10-12/p022"],"reader_part":true,"length_check":{"de_words":494,"en_words":583,"ratio":1.18,"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 191/1919-10-12/p021","passage_number":21,"text":"Der ökonomische Typus Mensch, der mit der Reformation heraufgekommen ist, der sah eigentlich seine Aufgabe darin, alle Intellektualität zu einer bloßen Leibessache zu machen. Dieser ökonomische Typus Mensch, der riß sich eigentlich in der Zeit der Reformation rasch los von der spirituellen Grundlage des Menschenwesens auf Erden. Man kann das geradezu an einzelnen Beispielen zeigen. Im Beginne und in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts lebte in England ein Mann, Thomas Cromwell -— zum Unterschiede von Oliver Cromwell -, Thomas Cromwell, der eine große Bedeutung hat für die Einführung des reformatorischen Prinzips in England. Jakob I. war ja diejenige Persönlichkeit, die noch retten wollte die alte Priesterherrschaft, und man versteht Jakob I. am besten, wenn man ihn als den Konservator, als den, der konservieren wollte die alte Priesterherrschaft, auffaßt. Aber diese Pläne wurden ja durchkreuzt von anderen. Und unter denjenigen, die da heraufkamen, die sozusagen die ersten Typen waren des ökonomischen Menschen, ist Thomas Cromwell. Thomas Cromwell kann nun nur verstanden werden, wenn man weiß: er gehört zu denjenigen Menschen, welche nach sehr kurzem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt wiederum auf der Erde hier verkörpert werden. Die Menschen sind gerade unter den Herrschertypen, die da heraufkommen in der neueren Zeit, außerordentlich häufig, die vor ihrem jetzigen Erdenleben nur ein kurzes Leben in der geistigen Welt gehabt haben. Sie wissen ja, ich habe oftmals hier davon gesprochen, daß eine der bedeutsamsten Erscheinungen in der neueren Geschichte die ist, daß für die Herrschertypen die Auslese der Schlechtesten nach oben sich vollzogen hat. Durch Jahre hindurch habe ich Ihnen das immer wieder bei verschiedenen Anlässen gesagt. Diejenigen, die eigentlich die Herrschenden, die Regierenden sind, sind eine Auslese nicht der Besten; die Zeiten bringen es so mit sich, daß die Besten gerade in der neueren Zeit unten geblieben sind, die nach oben ausgelesenen, namentlich die in Führerstellung, sind eben vielfach nicht die Besten. Es ist die Selektion oftmals der Minderwertigen gewesen. Und diese Selektion der Minderwertigen beruhte ihrer menschlichen Wesenheit nach darauf, daß sie ein Erdenleben entfalteten, das nur eine schr kurze vorhergehende Zeit zwischen dem letzten Erdenleben und diesem Erdenleben hatte. Bei vielen führenden Persönlichkeiten der neueren Zeit findet man eben diese Tatsache ausgeprägt, daß sie nach kurzem geistigem Leben schon wiederum auf die Erde zurückkehren. Dadurch sind sie wenig imprägniert vom Geistigen. Sie haben wenig geistige Impulse in sich aufgenommen in ihrem vorhergehenden Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Sie sind aber um so mehr imprägniert mit alldem, was nur von der Erde hier gegeben werden kann.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":417,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-12/p021"},{"locus":"GA 191/1919-10-12/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Das waren insbesondere die ökonomischen Menschentypen, jene mit kurzen vorhergehenden geistigen Leben, die ganz durchdrungen waren von dem, was nur die Erde als solche geben kann. Nicht, als ob es nicht auch Menschen in der neueren Zeit gegeben hätte, die längere Zeiträume durchgemacht haben zwischen dem Tod und der Geburt, die für die neuere Zeit in Betracht kamen; aber sie wurden zurückgedrängt. Das brachte so das Schicksal der historischen Entwickelung der Menschheit mit sich, das allgemeine Menschheitskarma.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":77,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/191/1919-10-12/p022"}],"english":["GA 191/1919-10-12/p021","GA 191/1919-10-12/p022"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":494,"en_words":583,"ratio":1.18,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 191/1919-10-12/p021","GA 191/1919-10-12/p022"],"reader_part":true},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.17,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8353,"original_word_count":7159,"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/LA1963/19191012p01.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 191/1919-10-12/p021","GA 191/1919-10-12/p022"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","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. 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