{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 68a/1907-12-19/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"But we see even more. Those who understand the signs of the times see a bleak picture of the future. Humanity today lives in darkness and chaos in many ways; they judge life without knowledge of the driving forces of life, which have arisen solely as a result of human attitudes. Those who believe that attitudes have no effect on life do not know what real facts of thought are. They have an effect on life right down to the health of a nation. Anyone who is aware that materialism has held sway in the innermost depths of humanity for so long, at a time when great contemporary issues were being worked out, knows that it has produced something that is often wrongly judged. One admires many a writer who gives a dazzling account of many a discussion on the most varied areas of life; and one does not know that he speaks or writes empty phrases. The knowledgeable person could show in many cases what is behind this cleverness. Sometimes there is really something behind it that could be called idiocy. Today you can be idiotic and still be a clever writer. Decades ago, someone said that it is no longer considered special for someone to write long, beautiful poems, because today our language is so advanced that it thinks for people. The general level of education today is such that someone who has perhaps studied it since the age of sixteen and absorbed all the judgments that are bandied about can write wittily and yet be weak-minded. This is a seemingly paradoxical assertion, but factually it is true. This should be seen only as a symptom of how superficially life is lived today; how little there is in-depth power of judgment; how little they are able to grasp the forces that stand behind life. These are the leading spirits! And what about those who are the led? If we judge the state of mind of those who often experience this confrontation with what Theosophy gives, we have to say: if they had remained within their previous lives, they might have remained reasonably intelligent people; but now they come to Theosophy, and it is as if a mighty light shines into a room where there is much impurity.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"37. The Dangers of Initiation","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-12-19","location":null,"word_count":379,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p009","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071219p01.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/68a/1907-12-19/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p009","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":"1907-12-19","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 68a/1907-12-19/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p009"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"],"length_check":{"de_words":371,"en_words":379,"ratio":1.02,"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 68a/1907-12-19/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Wir sehen noch mehr. Wer die Zeichen der Zeit zu deuten versteht, der sieht ein trübes Bild der Zukunft. Die Menschheit lebt heute vielfach im Dunkel und im Chaos; sie beurteilt das Leben ohne die Kenntnis der treibenden Kräfte des Lebens, die sich einzig und allein ergeben haben als Folge der menschlichen Gesinnungen. Wer da glaubt, Gesinnungen haben keine Wirkungen auf das Leben, der weiß nicht, was Gedanken für reale Tatsachen sind. Sie haben eine Wirkung auf das Leben bis hinein auf die Volksgesundung. Wer da weiß, dass der Materialismus so lange Zeit hindurch im tiefsten Innern der Menschheit auf seiner Höhe stand da, wo große Zeitfragen ausgearbeitet wurden, der weiß, dass der etwas gezeitigt hat, das vielfach falsch beurteilt wird. Man bewundert so manchen Schriftsteller, der in blendender Weise manche Auseinandersetzung über die mannigfaltigsten Gebiete des Lebens gibt; und man weiß nicht, dass er Phrasen redet oder schreibt. Der Sachkundige könnte bei manchem zeigen, was hinter dieser Geistreichheit steckt. Zuweilen steckt wirklich etwas dahinter, was man Schwachsinn nennen könnte. Man kann heute schwachsinnig und doch ein geistreicher Schriftsteller sein. Schon vor Jahrzehnten sagte ein Mensch, es sei heute gar nichts Besonderes, wenn einer schöne lange Gedichte mache, denn heute sei unsere Sprache so weit, dass sie für den Menschen dächte. Die allgemeine Bildung ist heute so, dass jemand, der sich vielleicht seit dem sechzehnten Jahre damit befasst hat und alle die Urteile, die herumschwirren, in sich aufnimmt, geistreich schreiben und dennoch schwachsinnig sein kann. Das ist eine scheinbar paradoxe Behauptung, doch sachlich ist sie wahr. Das soll nur angesehen werden als ein Symptom, wie oberflächlich heute das Leben gelebt wird; wie wenig in die Tiefe gehende Urteilskräfte es gibt; wie wenig sie imstande sind, die Kräfte, die hinter dem Leben stehen, zu erfassen. Das sind die führenden Geister! Und wie mag es da stehen mit denen, die die Geführten sind? Wenn wir die Geistesverfassung derjenigen beurteilen, die vielfach diesen Zusammenstoß erleben mit dem, was die Theosophie gibt, so müssen wir sagen: Wären sie innerhalb ihres bisherigen Lebens geblieben, dann wären sie vielleicht leidlich gescheite Menschen verblieben; nun kommen sie aber zur Theosophie, und das ist so, als wenn ein mächtiges Licht hineinleuchtet in einen Raum, in dem viel Unreinigkeit ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":371,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p009"}],"english":["GA 68a/1907-12-19/p009"],"method":"identity","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":371,"en_words":379,"ratio":1.02,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4964,"original_word_count":4825,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071219p01.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 68a/1907-12-19/p009"],"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. 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."}}