{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 77b/1921-08-26/p013","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Once, when I was at a fair, a trader was selling huge amounts of soap. Now, ladies and gentlemen, an observation that really leads to social thinking must inspire the human mind to arrive at a point in life where soaps are offered that can be used for washing. But that was completely out of the question with the soaps offered by this trader. Those who tried it afterwards soon gave up the attempt to wash themselves with it permanently. But the trader did great business, and I will tell you how he did it. He had large bales of such soap next to him. He stood on a podium; he took a number of soaps from the first bundle. Now he was, in the best sense, what you might call a representative person. In the most wonderful phrases, he presented the excellence of his soap to his audience, and he called forth the opinion that this must be a particularly valuable soap, which one can pay well for, through everything he did there. And then he sold about ten soaps, piece by piece, for a very high price, the individual piece. This price was paid by those who happened to have the money in their pockets, and they were very happy to have received such good soaps; for they recognized the quality of the soap by the high price. Now they were standing there. The man had achieved as a representative personality what he wanted to achieve, and he was no longer interested in being this representative personality. Therefore, he said later: Oh, the way I've been selling the soaps up to now, they're much too expensive! These soaps are only worth half the price. I will sell them at half price from now on. And now he had the kind of customers again who would buy from him, and he was able to suggest to them that he was such a good man that he would sell the soap cheaper than the first buyers, who were still standing there, had received it. They didn't complain, but instead — excuse the harsh expression — opened their mouths wide. But then, when he still had a considerable number of bars of soap from the first bundle, he said: “But I'm a good man, I won't sell this last bar of soap at all, I'll throw it away.” And so he threw all the soap among the audience and they could pick it up for free.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"4. Anthroposophy as a Moral Impulse and a Creative Social Force","site_heading":null,"date":"1921-08-26","location":null,"word_count":415,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/77b/1921-08-26/p013","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Art and Anthroposophy The Goetheanum Impulse: Summer Art Course 1921","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA077b/English/SOL2024/19210826a01.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/77b/1921-08-26/p013"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/77b/1921-08-26/p013","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 77b/1921-08-26/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Ich war einmal auf einem Jahrmarkt, da bot ein Händler große Massen von Seifen an. Nun, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, eine wirklich zum sozialen Denken führende Anschauung, die muß anregen das menschliche Gemüt, im Leben dahin zu kommen, daß Seifen angeboten werden, mit denen man sich waschen kann. Aber das war ganz ausgeschlossen bei denjenigen Seifen, die von diesem Händler angeboten wurden. Die, die es nachher probierten, die gaben den Versuch, sich dauernd damit zu waschen, sehr bald auf. Aber der Händler hat große Geschäfte gemacht, und ich will Ihnen erzählen, wie er diese großen Geschäfte gemacht hat. Er hatte neben sich große Ballen mit solcher Seife stehen. Er stellte sich auf ein Podium; er entnahm zunächst dem ersten Bündel eine Anzahl von Seifen. Nun war er im besten Sinne, was man nennen könnte ein repräsentativer Mensch. In den wunderbarsten Redensarten stellte er die Vorzüglichkeit seiner Seife vor sein Publikum hin, und er rief durch alles das, was er da zunächst tat, die Meinung hervor, das müsse ganz besonders wertvolle Seife sein, die kann man schon gut bezahlen. Und dann verkaufte er etwa zehn Seifen Stück für Stück für einen sehr hohen Preis das einzelne Stück. Dieser Preis wurde eben von denjenigen bezahlt, die das Geld gerade in der Tasche hatten, und sie waren sehr froh, solche gute Seifen erhalten zu haben; denn sie erkannten die Güte der Seife an der Höhe des Preises. Nun standen sie da. Der Mann hatte als repräsentative Persönlichkeit dasjenige erreicht, was er erreichen wollte, und es interessierte ihn nicht weiter, diese repräsentative Persönlichkeit noch zu sein. Daher sagte er nachher: Ach, wie ich die Seifen bisher verkauft habe, das ist ja viel zu teuer! Diese Seifen sind ja nur den halben Preis wert. Ich werde sie von jetzt ab um den halben Preis verkaufen. - Und nun hatte er wiederum dasjenige Publikum zu seinen Käufern, dem er suggerieren konnte, daß er ein so guter Mann sei, daß er die Seife billiger verkaufe, als sie die ersten Käufer, die noch dabeistanden, bekommen haben. Die reklamierten nicht, sondern rissen — verzeihen Sie den harten Ausdruck — die Mäuler auf. Dann aber, als er vom ersten Bündel noch eine ziemliche Anzahl von Seifenstücken hatte, da sagte er: Aber ich bin ja ein guter Mensch, diese letzte Seife, die verkaufe ich überhaupt nicht mehr, die schmeiße ich weg. - Und da schmiß er diese ganze Seife unter das Publikum hinein und die konnten die Leute aufklauben umsonst.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":409,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/77b/1921-08-26/p013"}],"english":["GA 77b/1921-08-26/p013"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":409,"en_words":415,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.0,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6068,"original_word_count":6042,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Art and Anthroposophy The Goetheanum Impulse: Summer Art Course 1921","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA077b/English/SOL2024/19210826a01.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 77b/1921-08-26/p013"],"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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