Rudolf Steiner, the Prophet

Last month, Rudolf Steiner, the leader of the anthroposophists, died at the age of 63. We would not be dwelling on this representative of capitalist decadence any longer if he had not succeeded at times in rallying large masses of workers behind him, especially in Württemberg (his main work, “The Key Points of the Social Question in the Necessities of Life in the Present and Future”, achieved a circulation of 80,000 within two years) and if his ideas and teachings were not the most classic proof of how far the process of decomposition and decay in the bourgeois world has already progressed.

Rudolf Steiner underwent the typical development of an intellectual who was thrown into the labor movement and thus came into contact with the core issues of social questions. Born in Hungary as the son of a small railroad official, he joined social democracy after moving to Germany. Like so many intellectuals, the “proletarian man” appeared to him as the ideal, but only in his hopes and goals, not in his hardships and struggles. The emaciated, worn-out proletarian, smelling of work sweat, was obviously repulsive to him; he wanted him to be “more refined”, “more spiritualized”. And in accordance with his own spiritual attitude, he had to come to an exploitation of the economy as the driving force of events, to a rejection of the idea of class struggle and to see in the “spiritual” the motor for the higher development of humanity, to hope for economic transformation through the “insight” of the capitalists. Steiner's guest appearance with the Social Democrats did not last long. He went among the “seekers of truth”, was extensively inspired by Indian mysticism, especially that of the theosophists, and then gave birth to his “anthroposophy” as the “final insight”.

Since Steiner's anthroposophy is only a variety of theosophy, we must deal with the latter in order to understand the origin of the former.

Theosophy is a flower from the wonderland of India. There, where a high culture already existed when Europe still remained in a state of savagery and barbarism, the higher development instinct had to turn to the psychic side with the fossilization of this culture, especially since man's food instinct was easily and quickly satisfied by the abundant gifts of nature there. To develop the psychic and psychological knowledge and abilities became the main goal of the Indian sages and was partly achieved in a way incomprehensible and impossible for Europeans. As a result, Indian religion and Indian philosophy have a great appeal to the mystical. India thus also became the country that decisively influenced all other religions, both the Christian and Mohammedan religions, as well as the religion and philosophy of a Confu-tse and a Lao-tse. (Nevertheless, the Indian religion stands towering above the others; the Christian and Mohammedan religions today still appear to Buddhism like the way of thinking and the world of a savage compared to poetry).

Theosophy also emerged from this atmosphere. The “Theosophical Society” was founded in 1875 with its headquarters in Adyar (India) by the Russian Mrs. Blavatzky, a hysterical swindler, but at the same time of fascinating appearance. She was succeeded as spiritus rector of the Theosophical Society by Mrs. Annie Besant. She too is a person who has herself, her ability, her thinking, her will, firmly in her own hands and as a result exerts a tremendous influence on the people who come into contact with her. She spread Theosophy through lecture tours to Europe, where it gained a firm foothold, especially in England (and from there in America). In Germany, Rudolf Steiner became her disciple.

Theosophy wants to be more than philosophy, it wants to be wisdom, the wisdom of God; it wants to see the secrets of the universe, to open up higher knowledge before which the barriers of space and time sink, to grant insight into the past and the future. These abilities are to be acquired through concentration and contemplation exercises. Theosophy is closely related to New Buddhism, from which it has also adopted the doctrine of rebirth, or incarnation.

Rudolf Steiner's “anthroposophy” has exactly the same foundations. He, too, claimed to have found wisdom; he, the “leader of German mysticism”, as he called himself, and the “Master of Germany”, the “Great Master”, as his followers called him. No one can convince themselves of the correctness of his views by thinking or believing, but by experiencing them. And you can only come to this experience through - your own conviction. And this conviction can only be gained by studying Steiner's revelations. Before Steiner, no one would have thought that the prerequisite for being convinced of the rightness of something is this conviction itself. In order to prove something, you take the thing to be proven as a prerequisite! A discussion about Steiner's teachings is therefore impossible, because you can't get to the problems through thought processes! It is therefore impossible to prove the nonsense of an anthroposophist's view. Driven into a corner, he will simply say: “The proof to the contrary may be quite logical and quite correct, but it proves nothing, because things cannot be understood with the mind!” However, this logic must be rejected and it is better to leave the anthroposophists without reason among themselves and stay with the people who believe that they can still use their minds.

With Steiner's teachings, a distinction must be made between the spiritual and the social reform attempts. There is no discussion about the former; the anthroposophist may still discuss the latter. Steiner divides the social organism into three parts: spiritual, general human-legal (state, democratic) and economic relationships; all three parts of an organism are interdependent. The fact that the capitalist economy is on the brink of the abyss is due to the lack of “leaders” and moral qualities. The entrepreneur has “egoistic aims”, the broad masses “destructive will”; “The entrepreneur only asks for his profit; the workers demand the full yield of their labor, thus the national economic whole had to become a complete nonsense.” Producers and consumers must therefore unite to form “associations”. This will increase productivity and the workers' desire to work”. At the head of these associations must be people who know how to manage money well, are “leaders” and have “morals” in their bodies. And these are only found among anthroposophists. It is therefore necessary to find understanding trust among people who realize that it no longer makes sense to invest money in old-style ventures. What is important is to find far-sighted people who are financially and economically discerning and who realize that the only way to look after one's money today is to put it at the service of promising ventures that alone are capable of withstanding the devastating forces that are now at work everywhere.” (quoted verbatim!) This is the social program of Rudolf Steiner. Through these begging letters, the anthroposophists succeeded in attracting large amounts of money, which they used to build the “Goetheanum” in Dornach, the theosophical monastery “Johannisbräu” (which alone cost 10 million marks) and much more. They also founded the desired “Associations”, in Germany “Der Kommende Tag A.-G.” (with the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory at its core, as well as 2 machine factories, 1 printing works, 1 chemical factory, 1 slate works, 3 cardboard factories, 1 bank, 1 boarding house, 1 grain and oil mill, 1 sawmill, 4 farms, 1 school, 1 clinic, etc.), in Switzerland “Futurum A.-G.”, in Norway “Futurum A.-G.”. Despite the fact that these “associations” were headed by “moral leaders”, they have since gone bankrupt.

If Steiner divided the social organism into three, he wanted to divide the human organism into four. In his attempts at spiritual reform, he closely follows the Theosophists. According to Steiner, the human being firstly has a normal body, the “physical body”, which we all know. Secondly, however, he also has a “life or etheric body”, which is still of a spatial nature and can be seen through “clairvoyance”. Thirdly, he still has a “sensory or astral body”, the carrier of pain and pleasure, desire, drive and passion etc., and fourthly, he still has an “ego body”, which has the shape of an elongated egg, encloses all the other bodies and can of course only be perceived by Steiner and those gifted by Steiner. Telepathy, spirit apparitions, spiritualism, all these are a matter of course for the anthroposophist; his goal is the attainment of higher knowledge. Clairvoyance through space and time. Steiner could do it, of course. But he can only reveal something if it is asked in the right form; if the revelation is wrong, it is only because the questioning was wrong; and besides, he and his friends may only reproduce those revelations that are adapted to the state of development of humanity! Let us now listen to some of his “revelations”:

Steiner not only knows how the earth came into being, he even knows how the solar system came into being. According to him, man was formed on a continent between India and Australia. Before humans, there were powerful spiritual beings on earth; the apes are vestigial humans. Angelic spirits make the movements of the stars; at the beginning of mankind there was once a Christ who raised seven wise men who became the teachers of India and so on.

Such “revelations” seem like feverish fantasies, and one can only be unclear as to whether a fraud or a mentally ill person is speaking to us here. However, based on the medical principle that there are no genuine malingerers among the mentally ill, but that every malingerer has a stitch away, one can only assume the latter. And finally, in the exercises of concentration, regardless of whether they are done by staring at the navel, as with the Indian fakirs, or by staring at a drawn rosette, as with the anthroposophists, one must ultimately become stupid. It is not without reason that many anthroposophists end up in a lunatic asylum. Brain softening is always harmful for the person concerned, but it can heighten his creativity to the highest level, as was the case with Nietzsche, for example (his brilliant achievement, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, can only be attributed to his progressive paralysis); in Steiner's case, however, it only led to feverish fantasies. However, the business acumen he demonstrated in the “Threefold Structure” and in the collection of money also testifies to the fact that he also knew how to shepherd his sheep.

Steiner did not want to get to grips with capitalism; he only wanted innocent reforms. And with the success he had with the decadent bourgeoisie, which translated into hard cash and further propaganda opportunities, it was inevitable that large masses of indifferent proletarians, who, because they were too cowardly to fight for the class goal, would grasp at any straw that would save them, would join Steiner.

That is the secret of Rudolf Steiner's success.