Neale Donald Walsch · 381,747 like this 41 minutes ago · Will the upheaval in which the world finds itself ever come to an end? The answer is Yes!, as youll see in these continuing excerpts from The Storm Before the Calm, in which youll discover the role you can play in the times just ahead.... Anything here you can agree with? Let me repeat that, because you may have glossed over it. Rudolf Steiner was predicting a hundred years ago that a collapse of traditional social forms (shall we call this our Old Cultural Story?) was imminent, and that every aspect of society would soon have to be built up consciously (shall we call this the Overhaul of Humanity?) rather than relying on the inheritance of the past (shall we call this the need to write a New Cultural Story?). Now a hundred years, as weve just learned, is but the blink of an eye in cosmic terms. So Steiner’s prediction that the overhaul was “imminent” was not that far off. (And, of course, the stock market crash and the economic collapse of 1929, producing The Great Depression, came breaths after his writings appeared, and was a harbinger of things to come just 75 years later.) Taken from the Wikipedia article virtually verbatim, here’s a rundown of Steiner’s main points about Social Threefolding, upon which he suggested modern society be based. (I’m presenting this Wikipedia article here because I believe what Steiner offered deserves our particular attention in these days just ahead as we consider how we might write our own new story.) See if you agree with Steiner’s contention that we should create: SEPARATION BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE ECONOMY (STAKEHOLDER ECONOMICS)… Examples: A rich man should be prevented from buying politicians and laws. A politician shouldnt be able to parlay his political position into riches earned by doing favors for businessmen. Slavery is unjust, because it takes something political, a person’s inalienable rights, and absorbs them into the economic process of buying and selling. Steiner said, “In the old days, there were slaves. The entire man was sold as commodity.... Today, capitalism is the power through which still a remnant of the human being—his labor power—is stamped with the character of a commodity.” Steiner also advocated more cooperatively organized forms of capitalism (what might today be called stakeholder capitalism) precisely because conventional shareholder capitalism tends to absorb the State and human rights into the economic process and transform them into mere commodities. SEPARATION BETWEEN THE STATE AND CULTURAL LIFE… Examples: A government should not be able to control culture; i.e., how people think, learn, or worship. A particular religion or ideology should not control the levers of the State. Steiner held that pluralism and freedom were the ideal for education and cultural life.… Examples: The fact that churches, temples, and mosques do not make the ability to enter and participate depend on the ability to pay, and that libraries and some museums are open to all free of charge, is in tune with Steiner’s notion of a separation between cultural and economic life. In a similar spirit, Steiner held that all families, not just rich ones, should have freedom of choice in education and access to independent, nongovernment schools for their children. Steiner’s view of education’s social position called for separation of the cultural sphere from the political and economic spheres, and meant that education should be available to all children regardless of the ability of families to pay for it and, on the elementary and secondary level, should be provided for by private and/or state scholarships that a family could direct to the school of its choice. Steiner was a supporter of educational freedom, but was flexible, and understood that a few legal restrictions on schools (such as health and safety laws), provided they were kept to an absolute minimum, would be necessary and justified.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:42:33 +0000
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