agreement and disagreement 1
From:
Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:16 pm
Subject: agreement and disagreement
Hello anthroposophy tomorrow list,
I've just joined your list today after following some of the
exchanges for the past couple months via the public list archive.
I hope that my participation here will be seen as an opportunity
for discussion and debate rather than a provocation. I should
be able to remain on the list for six weeks or so.
I'd like to outline what I see as some of the major areas of
agreement and disagreement between myself and several of you
on the topics of race and antisemitism and their relevance to
Rudolf Steiner's work. In general, I think that the relationship
between Steiner's racial theories, on the one hand, and other
race doctrines prevalent in German-speaking Europe in the early
twentieth century (including Nazi race theories and their precursors),
on the other hand, is a good deal more complex than several of
you seem to think. It is quite possible, indeed likely, that
I have misunderstood the stance that other anthroposophy tomorrow
list members have staked out on some of these questions, and
I invite clarification and correction if anybody thinks that
is the case. I'm going to divide my initial comments into general
statements about looking at racial and ethnic doctrines in a
historical context, and specific statements about Steiner's work.
General themes: I agree that the best way to understand what
a historical figure believed and taught is to consult primary
sources directly when possible. I agree that racist belief systems
involve a hierarchical arrangement of different racial groups.
I agree that racist doctrines do not invalidate their authors'
other achievements. I agree that empathy, in the specific sense
of trying to get inside the mental world of another person, is
necessary for historical comprehension.
I disagree that contesting other people's self-conceptions involves
arrogance. I disagree that adequate understanding of historical
figures requires empathy in the specific sense of sympathizing
with them. I disagree that external analysts should adopt the
internal perspectives of the worldviews they study. I disagree
that critical examination of century-old racial theories involves
imposing current standards of political correctness.
Specific themes: I agree that it is important to take the wide
breadth of Steiner's statements on race and ethnicity into account.
I agree that Steiner combined anti-racist and racist doctrines,
and philosemitic and antisemitic doctrines. I agree that in his
theosophical/anthroposophical period Steiner saw his own stance
as consistently anti-nationalist and did not consider himself
an antisemite. I agree that Steiner recognized his own fallibility.
I agree that many Jews, both in Steiner's era and today, have
found Steiner's teachings appealing and valuable.
I disagree that Steiner's central emphasis on love, on the Christ
impulse, and on the Universal Human neutralize the racist and
judeophobic strands within his work. I disagree that Steiner's
version of the Aryan myth, along with other non-Nazi versions,
were not recognizably racist until after 1945. I disagree that
Steiner's insistence on assimilation was incompatible with antisemitism.
Since Steiner's view on Jews have been a hot topic here lately,
it might make sense for me to focus on them initially. I also
think this is a good topic for discussion because it offers ample
evidence of both the 'good' and 'bad' sides of Steiner's teachings,
so to speak. I will very briefly explain my perspective on this
question, and I invite responses.
I think that Steiner went through several phases in his assessment
of Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness. My basic periodization is as
follows: an early phase of cultural antisemitism during his pan-German
period in the 1880's; a middle phase of individualist philosemitism
around the turn of the century; and a late phase of esoteric
antisemitism during his theosophical/anthroposophical period
after 1902.
In the writings
and lectures that I consider tendentially antisemitic, Steiner
did not espouse the kind of racial antisemitism that was becoming
increasingly prominent during his era; instead his stance remained
emphatically assimilationist throughout his life. I do think,
however, that his mature views on Jews can only be understood
in conjunction with his broader racial doctrines. In Steiner's
opinion, the best response to what was then known as the 'Jewish
question' was for "Jewry as a people" to disappear
by blending into other peoples. He viewed this disappearance
of Jewishness as the solution to aggressively antisemitic agitation
and hatred, as well as to the ostensibly closed and anachronistic
nature of Jews themselves.
In closing, for now I would like to offer several quotes from
Steiner's published works on the topic, chosen from the three
phases I outlined above:
"It certainly cannot
be denied that Jewry today still behaves as a closed totality,
and that it has frequently intervened in the development of our
current state of affairs in a way that is anything but favorable
to European ideas of culture. But Jewry as such has long since
outlived its time; it has no more justification within the modern
life of peoples, and the fact that it continues to exist is a
mistake of world history whose consequences are unavoidable.
We do not mean the forms of the Jewish religion alone, but above
all the spirit of Jewry, the Jewish way of thinking."
(Steiner in 1888: Gesammelte
Aufsätze zur Literatur 1884-1902 p. 152)
"For me there has never been a Jewish question. My course
of development was such that when part of the nationalist student
movement in Austria became antisemitic, this seemed to me a mockery
of all the educational achievements of modern times. I have never
been able to judge people by anything other than their individual,
personal character traits. Whether someone was a Jew or not was
always a matter of complete indifference to me. I can say that
this remains my opinion today. And I have never been able to
see anything in antisemitism other than intellectual inferiority,
poor ethical judgement, and lack of taste."
(Steiner in 1900: Gesammelte
Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte 1887-1901 pp. 378-9)
"Antisemitism makes a mockery of all faith in ideas. Above
all it flies in the face of the idea that humanity stands higher
than any single form (people, race, nation) in which humankind
appears. [. . .] Antisemitism is a danger not only for the Jews,
it is a danger for non-Jews as well. It results from a mindset
which does not take sound and honest judgement seriously. It
promotes this sort of mindset. And those who think philosophically
should not quietly stand by in the face of this. Faith in ideas
will only be restored if we combat the opposing lack of such
faith in all areas as energetically as possible."
(Steiner in 1901: Gesammelte
Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte 1887-1901 pp. 412-413.)
"People who listen to the great leaders of humankind, and
preserve their soul with its eternal essence, reincarnate in
an advanced race; in the same way he who ignores the great teacher,
who rejects the great leader of humankind, will always reincarnate
in the same race, because he was only able to develop the one
form. This is the deeper meaning of Ahasver, who must always
reappear in the same form because he rejected the hand of the
greatest leader, Christ. Thus each person has the opportunity
to become caught up in the essence of one incarnation, to push
away the leader of humankind, or instead to undergo the transformation
into higher races, toward ever higher perfection. Races would
never become decadent, never decline, if there weren't souls
that are unable to move up and unwilling to move up to a higher
racial form. Look at the races that have survived from earlier
eras: they only exist because some souls could not climb higher."
(Steiner in 1908: Das
Hereinwirken geistiger Wesenheiten in den Menschen p. 174.)
"This
discussion that I have just described to you took place before
the Great War of 1914 to 1918, you see. The fact that people
no longer want the great universal-human principles, but prefer
to segregate themselves and develop national forces, that is
exactly what lead to the great war! Thus the greatest tragedy
of this 20th century has come from what the Jews are also striving
for. And one can say that since everything the Jews have done
can now be done consciously by all people, the best thing that
the Jews could do would be to disappear into the rest of humankind,
to blend in with the rest of humankind, so that Jewry as a people
would simply cease to exist. That is what would be ideal. This
ideal is still opposed, even today, by many Jewish habits –
and above all by the hatred of other people. That is what must
be overcome."
(Steiner in 1924: Die
Geschichte der Menschheit und die Weltanschauungen der Kulturvölker
p. 189)
"Today all aspects of the Jews are dominated by racial qualities.
Above all they marry among themselves. They see the racial qualities,
not the spiritual. And this is what must be said in reply to
the question: has the Jewish people fulfilled its mission within
the evolution of human knowledge? It has fulfilled it; for in
earlier times one single people was needed to bring about a certain
monotheism. But today spiritual insight itself is necessary.
Therefore this mission has been fulfilled. And therefore this
Jewish mission as such, as a Jewish mission, is no longer necessary
in evolution; instead the only proper thing would be for the
Jews to blend in with the other peoples and disappear into the
other peoples."
(Steiner in 1924: Die
Geschichte der Menschheit und die Weltanschauungen der Kulturvölker
p. 190)
I encourage other list members to offer their
own comments on these passages and to offer alternative readings
to my own. I'd rather avoid pointless wrangling over whether
these quotes have been taken out of context, since many anthroposophists
appear to have a very different understanding of that phrase
from my own, but if anybody thinks there is anything fishy about
any of the above passages, I encourage you to say so. I also
encourage further quotations from Steiner related to this topic,
and viewpoints on their relevance for anthroposophists today.
Peter Staudenmaier
Continued:
Crucial
mistake in Steiner translation!
Translation of Steiner's 1924 stance on Zionism
...................................................................................................................................
From: holderlin66
Date: Sat Feb 21, 2004 2:30 pm
Subject: Re: agreement and disagreement
--- In anthroposophy_tomorrow@yahoogroups.com,
Peter Staudenmaier wrote:
Hello anthroposophy tomorrow list,
I disagree that Steiner's central emphasis
on love, on the Christ impulse, and on the Universal Human neutralize
the racist and judeophobic strands within his work. I disagree
that Steiner's version of the Aryan myth, along with other non-Nazi
versions, were not recognizably racist until after 1945. I disagree
that Steiner's insistence on assimilation was incompatible with
antisemitism.
Bradford comments;
Well that is a fine list of qualifiers Mr.
Staudenmaier. Pardon me if I don't stand and salute. Your entrance
is strange irony and gladly welcomed. It shows some spine and
courage. I'm glad you announced your likes and dislikes, your
list of agreements and disagreements. Welcome to warm fellowhip,
if you so desire.
Your entrance reminds me of this particular
white flag code:
"Pirates of the Caribbean
Script ... "I invoke the right of parley. According to the
Code of the brethren, set down by the pirates Morgan and Bartholomew."
Welcome aboard AT.
However, just for the record, my own record,
is there something you really, really admire about Dr. Steiner?
It's not that we shouldn't be picky eaters or, choose carefully
what we like and dislike, it is just that I have heard so much
about you that I wonder if there is something that really interests
you about Spiritual Science?
There are many list members who can walk through
your white flag parley of terms and agreements and disagreements,
and meet you there. I would like to meet you in a fresher area
of unknowns. "Is there something you really, really admire
about Dr. Steiner and Spiritual Science?"
If there is nothing or something that strikes
you or doesn't strike you, it is okay by me. I don't wish to
put you on the defensive or have pre-erected or pre-fabricated
arguments or agreements or disagreements stand between us. So
far we are starting off on the right foot, as it were. Hopefully
it will stay that way.
Anyways Good to meet you on the electronic
fence!
Bradford
Continued in
another thread
...................................................................................................................................
From: golden3000997
Date: Sat Feb 21, 2004 2:38 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Dear Mr. Staudemeier,
Thank you for your clear and, to my reading,
well balanced outlining of your understanding of Rudolf Steiner's
thoughts. I cannot be the one to make a real contribution to
the discussion, as it is not an aspect of Rudolf Steiner's work
that I have spent a great deal of time thinking about or studying
in a scholarly way. His work is, as you know, very extensive
and I hope that one can be excused for limited experience in
some areas.
But I do have two questions (multi-faceted
ones) that are sincere on my part, if you would be so kind as
to continue your presentation.
First, what is your personal conclusion about
Rudolf Steiner and racism? Have you concluded that Rudolf Steiner
in the final development was truly "racist"? What exactly
is this defined as? Is the idea of the "Jewish people"
assimilating into society at large a racist idea? Why? Wouldn't
the ideas of separation, "purity of blood", segregation
(as exemplified in the United States with "people of color"
be more "racist"?
I always thought they were. It could be a
deficiency in my American cultural upbringing.
Also, with the creation of Israel and the
intense devotion to Jewish nationalism, do we not see just the
kind of continued antipathy and violence as a result of that
antipathy between "races" - specifically in the Middle
East? And is this a result of "blood" or "religion"
or "culture"? I don't know.
The second (multi faceted) question is: what
is your expressed purpose in bringing this discussion into the
arena of the appropriateness of Waldorf Education in 1. public
schools and 2. society at large? While your scholarship on the
issue is profound and has involved many hours of research and
thought, do you think that you have presented it in a way and
through a medium that would keep the discussion in an academic
and objective realm? Or, do you not think that any association
with the word "Nazi" may call up an emotional response
in great numbers of people who do not have the time or inclination
to do such scholarly work on their own?
A third question arises in me. Please forgive
me if you have illucidated this elsewhere - I do not have the
time to search all of the archives of the past five or more years
of discussion on other forums - have you seen examples of overt
or covert racism in the practice of Waldorf Education. If so,
would you please discuss these examples?
In my personal experience, I have not encountered
any such examples. And in my perspective, I have been supposing
that the effort to get Waldorf Education accepted into the public
school system was, in part, motivated by making what we think
is a really good system more available to people from all walks
of life so that the choice to participate could be made as individuals
and not be defined by culture or what is still perceived by American
society although not named so, class.
I would appreciate your honest answers. I
hope that you will understand that I may not have "answers"
to give to you on the question of Rudolf Steiner's relationship
to ideas of race or "racism" other than my own life
experiences so far. In this, I have to say that I have never
connected anything that I have read by or about Rudolf Steiner
with "racism" as defined by my common, everyday experience
with that concept in American society since 1955 (the year I
was born).
My own father (no connection with Steiner
- White Anglo Saxon Protestant all the way - military/industrial
complex) was horribly racist and I fought him bitterly about
it. If I had ever encountered an idea or practice within Waldorf
Education or Anthroposophy at large that even hinted at such
an attitude, I would have turned my back on it without hesitation.
The "races" that Steiner speaks
of in Occult Science, to the best of my understanding are streams
of development over long "epochs" of time and, especially
taking into consideration the basic tenets of reincarnation,
include every one of us as individuals. I fully believe that
I have been Jewish, Catholic, African or possibly a slave in
the United States, maybe Moslem, (but I don't think so yet) -
Ancient Persian, yes definitely. I have been male and female
and have lived in times and places completely
unlike the one I am in now. I also believe that I will be all
of these things again and live in times and places still more
unlike this one or any past ones. I believe that whereever there
is "antipathy" toward any kind of person, creed or
system of thought within myself, there will I be drawn primarily
so that I can "live through" it from the "other"'s point of view. I believe that
evolution is not racial, but individual and that all the differences
that exist in the physical realm have their purpose and meaning
and can only be understood as part of a "puzzle" or
"tapestry" of interlocking pieces or threads. I believe
that in every moment of antipathy lives a seed of love - one
that will be watered and brought to blossom in a future place
and time.
I cannot tell you what Rudolf Steiner "believed"
in a scholarly way. I can only tell you that my beliefs have
lived in me from before I came into contact with Rudolf Steiner,
Anthropsophy and Waldorf Education and that if I had found in
word or in experience any ideology that contradicted the teachings
of my own heart, I would have rejected it and if necessary, any
or all of the "teachings" of Rudolf Steiner.
Sincerely,
Christine Natale
Continued in
another thread
...................................................................................................................................
From: Mike Helsher
Date: Sat Feb 21, 2004 5:39 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Peter:
Hello anthroposophy tomorrow list,
I've just joined your list today after following some of the
exchanges for the past couple months via the public list archive.
I hope that my participation here will be seen as an opportunity
for discussion and debate rather than a provocation. I should
be able to remain on the list for six weeks or so.
Mike:
Well hello there Peter. Welcome to the good
ship anthro-pop.
How ironic that you would show up just when I was thinking of
writing an open challenge for you to do so - with full blown
rhetoric complete with insults, insinuation, and inuendo. But
here you are.
I must say I'm impressed; you've got more balls that I thought.
I don't have the Ammo to discuss much about racism with you.
But I will try to get around to our old discussion about Empathy,
as well as your personal motive and intent, and why you might
feel that your personal interprataton of Steiner might not be
affected by your life experience; And if it indeed is, I would
like for you to tell us a little about your personal history.
As you said "our ideas are always formed wthin social contexts."
A history of your personal social context might enlighten me
and others as to why you believe and don't believe the things
that you do.
That's all the time I've got right now.
Humble apologies for ripping you up while you weren't here.
Truth and Love
Mike
...................................................................................................................................
From: Tarjei Straume
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 1:58 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
At 22:16 21.02.2004, Peter S wrote:
In general, I think that the relationship
between Steiner's racial theories, on the one hand, and other
race doctrines prevalent in German-speaking Europe in the early
twentieth century (including Nazi race theories and their precursors),
on the other hand, is a good deal more complex than several of
you seem to think.
Your point would be clarified considerably
if you could tell us who you're referring to here and cite some
examples that illustrate how the people in question express a
lack of comprehension regarding the complexity of the relationship
you're talking about.
I'm going to divide my initial comments
into general statements about looking at racial and ethnic doctrines
in a historical context, and specific statements about Steiner's
work.
How would you define an "ethnic doctrine"
or a "racial doctrine"?
I agree that racist doctrines do not invalidate
their authors' other achievements.
If the achievements in question relate to
natural-scientific research, I agree that they are not affected
by the morality of doctrines adhered to. If the achievements
are of an occult-spiritual and/or moral-ethical nature, I disagree
however.
I disagree that contesting other people's
self-conceptions involves arrogance.
Claiming insight regarding other people's
perceptions of themselves requires intimate knowledge of the
individuals in question. Otherwise, such claims are not only
arrogant, but extremely presumptious and conceited as well.
I agree that in his theosophical/anthroposophical
period Steiner saw his own stance as consistently anti-nationalist
and did not consider himself an antisemite.
What do you mean by Steiner's "theosophical/anthroposophical
period", and what do you call his other periods? I seem
to recall a claim by you that Steiner was an atheist in
the 1890's, which would make him a liar when he wrote in his
autobiography thirty years later that the spiritual world had
been wide open to him since childhood. Someone accustomed to
communicate with the souls of the departed cannot be called an
atheist. RS also made it clear that what later became Anthroposophy
was evolving within him long before the turn of the century.
For this reason, Steiner's "theosophical/anthroposophical
period" can be said to have started with his work on Goethe
in the 1880's.
I disagree that Steiner's central emphasis
on love, on the Christ impulse, and on the Universal Human neutralize
the racist and judeophobic strands within his work. I disagree
that Steiner's version of the Aryan myth, along with other non-Nazi
versions, were not recognizably racist until after 1945.
By using the expression "Aryan myth",
you seem to indicate that no Aryans have ever existed. You also
seem to imply that stating that Aryans have existed, and still
exist, is a racist statement.
Your reference to the Christ impulse not "neutralizing"
so-called "racist and judeophobic strands" indicates
that you have not studied the significant historical relationship
between the Christ Event and the expedience of race-mixing in
human evolution. I have pointed this particular topic out in
the article, "Steiner, Christ, and Racial Intermarriage",
where I quote from "The Gospel of St. John And Its Relation
to the Other Gospels" ("Das Johannes-Evangelium im
Verhaltnis zu den drei anderen Evangelien, besonders zu dem Lukas-Evangelium",
GA 112), lecture IX. It's where Steiner speaks about the wedding
in Cana, where Christ performed his first 'sign':
http://www.uncletaz.com/steinchrmar.html
Says Steiner:
"Nowhere else but in
Galilee could Christ have found just those people whose presence
was indispensable. As I said, an influence implies not only the
one who exerts it, but the others as well who are appropriately
fitted to receive it. Christ's first appearance would not have
been possible within the Jewish community proper, but it was
possible in Galilee with its mixture of many different tribes
and groups."
"Even though the old
state of consciousness was gradually on the wane, still He found
in Galilee a medley of peoples that stood at the beginning of
the era in which blood became mixed. From all quarters tribes
assembled here that had previously been governed solely by the
forces of the old blood ties. They were on the point of finding
the transition."
The significance of Christ's first sign, and
of the RS lecture quoted here, is that Anthroposophy is a New
Christ-Proclamation that seeks to lead humanity behond the old
ties of blood, soil, nationality, tribe, and race. You have previously
claimed that Steiner spoke in favor of glorifying "blood
and soil" and race like the Nazis did, and that this was
his "doctrine", but that is a lie. With the above in
mind, I found a very appropriate verse in Matthew that sums up
the necessity for race-mixing:
"Neither do men put new
wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth
out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles,
and both are preserved. " - Matthew
9:17
I disagree that Steiner's insistence on
assimilation was incompatible with antisemitism.
Steiner did not insist on assimilation;
he recommended it. (Please notice the difference.) There are
orthodox Jews who share your misgivings about assimilation, which
has
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/12/30/LatestNews/LatestNews.40814.html
"The Jerusalem Post,
Sunday December 30, 2001 - Health minister compares assimilation
to Holocaust - Assimilation was a greater catastrophe for the
Jewish people than the Holocaust, Health Minister Nissim Dahan
said this morning."
In a case like this, the concept of race is
elevated above life itself. It means that Larry King, for instance,
who is of Jewish heritage and is married to a Mormon girl, letting
her raise their kids in the Mormon faith because he himself is
an agnostic, is annihilating himself or something? And there
are so many Jewish poets who have been unfaithful to their heritage
- Christian mystics like Dylan and Cohen and Buddhists like the
late Ginsburg. Assimilation is worse than the holocaust? Come
on. Earlier assimilation could have prevented the present unsolvable
crisis in the Middle East. Arab assimilation in the West today
could have eliminated a lot of social ills.
Since Steiner's view on Jews have been
a hot topic here lately,
Nonsense. There was just a discussion about
Mel Gibson and anti-Semitism after your arrival here, because
you and nobody else is endeavoring to make a "hot topic"
of Steiner's view on the Jews. For further comment, see "Steiner
and Antisemitism" http://southerncrossreview.org/Ebooks/ebooks.html
it might make sense for me to focus on
them initially. I also think this is a good topic for discussion
because it offers ample evidence of both the 'good' and 'bad'
sides of Steiner's teachings, so to speak. I will very briefly
explain my perspective on this question, and I invite responses.
I think that Steiner went through several phases in his assessment
of Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness. My basic periodization is as
follows: an early phase of cultural antisemitism during his pan-German
period in the 1880's;
Here is another piece of blatant falsehood.
Rudolf Steiner never had a "pan-German period." That
is another lie.
a middle phase of individualist philosemitism
around the turn of the century; and a late phase of esoteric
antisemitism during his theosophical/anthroposophical period
after 1902.
"Esoteric antisemitism"? One would
have to cultivate a proper understanding of esotericism
to be able to say anything about such a thing.
In the writings and lectures that I consider
tendentially antisemitic, Steiner did not espouse the kind of
racial antisemitism that was becoming increasingly prominent
during his era; instead his stance remained emphatically assimilationist
throughout his life. I do think, however, that his mature views
on Jews can only be understood in conjunction with his broader
racial doctrines.
As previously mentioned, Rudolf Steiner held
the view that all racial ties should disappear, for the simple
reason that racial ideals lead mankind into decadence. The Jews
were no exception. This view is aparently what you refer to as
Steiner's "broader racial doctrines."
Tarjei
http://uncletaz.com/
...................................................................................................................................
From: VALENTINA BRUNETTI
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 1:40 am
Subject: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Hi Bradford and all_
concerning myself: I don't wanna waste my
precious time discussing with a guy like this, who, among lots
of other features, is unable to distinguish not only between
"antisemtism" or "judeophoby" and the objective
results of a spiritual research but also about the link between
individual I AM and Nation's Souls. ( Knowing myself: I'd end
up throwing on him the worst of Italian or Roman slang bad words
!!) Moreover he is just remembering me that "Starmann"
guy who call me (1)) "antisemitic" since I have been
talking about Hagana's terrorist murders between 1937 and 1948
! PS's operation is just like the same if me or you should sign
on a "Evola's" or "Guènon's" list
(there are a lot on the web) trying to bother those good people
via some "anthro" bla bla.-
Ad majora
Andrea the Italian
( 1) (ancient Spain's jewish ancestors). My
surname "Franco" was inside the "list" of
Italian Race Laws (1938)
----- Original Message -----
From: holderlin66
To: <anthroposophy_tomorrow@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 11:30 PM
Subject: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
--- In anthroposophy_tomorrow@yahoogroups.com,
Peter Staudenmaier wrote:
Hello anthroposophy tomorrow list,
I disagree that Steiner's central emphasis
on love, on the Christ impulse, and on the Universal Human neutralize
the racist and judeophobic strands within his work. I disagree
that Steiner's version of the Aryan myth, along with other non-Nazi
versions, were not recognizably racist until after 1945. I disagree
that Steiner's insistence on assimilation was incompatible with
antisemitism.
Bradford comments;
Well that is a fine list of qualifiers
Mr. Staudenmaier. Pardon me if I don't stand and salute. Your
entrance is strange irony and gladly welcomed. It shows some
spine and courage. I'm glad you announced your likes and dislikes,
your list of agreements and disagreements. Welcome to warm fellowhip,
if you so desire.
Your entrance reminds me of this particular
white flag code:
"Pirates of the Caribbean
Script ... "I invoke the right of parley. According to the
Code of the brethren, set down by the pirates Morgan and Bartholomew."
Welcome aboard AT.
However, just for the record, my own record,
is there something you really, really admire about Dr. Steiner?
It's not that we shouldn't be picky eaters or, choose carefully
what we like and dislike, it is just that I have heard so much
about you that I wonder if there is something that really interests
you about Spiritual Science?
There are many list members who can walk
through your white flag parley of terms and agreements and disagreements,
and meet you there. I would like to meet you in a fresher area
of unknowns. "Is there something you really, really admire
about Dr. Steiner and Spiritual Science?"
If there is nothing or something that strikes
you or doesn't strike you, it is okay by me. I don't wish to
put you on the defensive or have pre-erected or pre-fabricated
arguments or agreements or disagreements stand between us. So
far we are starting off on the right foot, as it were. Hopefully
it will stay that way.
Anyways Good to meet you on the electronic
fence!
Bradford
...................................................................................................................................
From: VALENTINA BRUNETTI
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 2:53 am
Subject: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Addendum-
It seems to me pardoxical that while this
guy is jumping into the list trying to bother us by the means
of his twisted elucubrations we all know that the anthro-guy
who probably is - as I am able to see - today's spiritually most
gifted one, Mr.JB Aharon , is a jew of birth!
A.
...................................................................................................................................
From: Tarjei Straume
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 2:50 am
Subject: Re: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
At 11:53 22.02.2004, Andrea wrote:
Addendum-
It seems to me pardoxical that while this
guy is jumping into the list trying to bother us by the means
of his twisted elucubrations we all know that the anthro-guy
who probably is - as I am able to see - today's spiritually most
gifted one, Mr.JB Aharon , is a jew of birth!
If assimilation is regarded as something anti-Semitic,
all Jews who embrace religions and philosophies and worldviews
that differ from Judaism, and Jews who marry non-Jews, are anti-Semites
according to such a definition. It's a semantic quicksand.
Tarjei
http://uncletaz.com/
...................................................................................................................................
From: Sophia
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 2:52 am
Subject: Re: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Dear Andrea,
You wrote:
It seems to me pardoxical that while this
guy is jumping into the list trying to bother us by the means
of his twisted elucubrations
Every subscriber to this list initially jumps
in, sometimes trying to "bother" the others. Everyone
is welcome here, including critics. Free speech reigns and any
topic goes.
Faithfully,
Sophia (moderator)
http://www.geocities.com/anarchosophia/
...................................................................................................................................
From: at
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:53 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
I have a rather simple question, that I have
been wondering about recently. Since you are researching the
area, perhaps you can answer it for me.
Was there anyone at all in Austria or Germany between 1870 and
1930 who publicly held a view of the Jews that you would not
consider anti-Semitic by the standards of today?
Thanks.
Daniel Hindes
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:42 am
Subject: Re: agreement and disagreement
(Since subscribing I apparently haven't received
all the messages yet, including several replies to my post, from
Bradford, Christine, and Mike. So I'm gonna try to paste in their
messages here and then respond; my apologies if that screws up
the formatting.)
Hi Bradford, thanks for your reply. You wrote:
However, just for the record, my own record, is there something
you really, really admire about Dr. Steiner?
Yes, there are several things I admire about Steiner, though
they aren't very closely related to the aspects of his work that
my research focuses on. I respect the way he combined ideas with
practical endeavors; he usually didn't just teach principles,
but stressed the importance of putting them into practice in
very concrete ways. I know that might sound odd, since I disagree
with so many of his ideas, but I think this practical emphasis
sets Steiner apart from many of the other spiritual renewers
of his time. I also respect his evident indifference toward many
of the more worldly temptations that so many other popular spiritual
leaders succumb to; as far as I can tell, he wasn't particularly
interested in financial gain, or a docile group of adoring followers,
and so forth. Among the variety of "barefoot prophets"
of his generation, Steiner's personal comportment was pretty
honorable, in my view.
It's not that we shouldn't be picky eaters or, choose carefully
what we like and dislike, it is just that I have heard so much
about you that I wonder if there is something that really interests
you about Spiritual Science?
The things that really interest me about anthroposophy are rather
removed from the things that I admire about Steiner. I'm mostly
interested in Steiner's teachings about race and ethnicity and
the ways these teachings have been incorporated into the work
of his students, as well as the political affiliations of the
first generation of anthroposophists. I wandered into this complex
of themes by way of studying the German right wing, particularly
those late nineteenth and early twentieth century rightists who
showed a powerful interest in environmentalist and ecological
issues. Much of my work (which mostly focuses on fascists, not
on anthroposophists) concentrates on the kind of left-right crossover
that was so prominent within alternative spiritual and cultural
currents in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at that time. I
see Steiner, along with many of the first generation of anthroposophists,
as exemplary figures in this respect; to my mind, they combined
more or less progressive notions with more or less reactionary
notions in a highly interesting way. That is largely what has
kept my attention over the several years that I've been examining
the history of anthroposophy. My own politics are quite far to
the left, and are strongly ecologically oriented, and I find
this sort of material fascinating in its own right, as well as
very relevant to current issues. I hope that gives a better sense
of why I spend so much of my time on critical assessments of
anthroposophy.
Peter Staudenmaier
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter
Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:54 am
Subject: Re: agreement and disagreement
Hi Christine, I was glad to get such a thorough
reply from you. You wrote:
First, what is your personal conclusion about Rudolf Steiner
and racism? Have you concluded that Rudolf Steiner in the final
development was truly "racist"?
Yes, that is part of my conclusion, though what seems important
to me is not whether Steiner was racist as a person, but whether
his teachings contain important racist elements. But I do, as
it happens, think it legitimate to describe Steiner as a racist.
I think that several of my relatives are racists (kind of like
your dad, maybe), and a number of very significant philosophers
whose work I treasure were racists, and one of the great composers
of all time, Richard Wagner, was an ardent racist and a raving
antisemite. I think it is both possible and necessary to recognize
the racist facets of figures like these, without using that as
an excuse to dismiss the rest of their work.
What exactly is this defined as?
I think the most sensible definition of racist belief is something
along these lines: a way of thinking that sorts human groups
into racial categories, accords essential meaning to these categories,
delineates specific differences between them, associates these
differences with significant cultural, spiritual, or intellectual
traits, and ranks the resulting constellation of categories in
some hierarchical order of higher and lower.
Is the idea of the "Jewish people" assimilating
into society at large a racist idea?
No, definitely not. Most German Jews during Steiner's lifetime
were assimilationists. In fact the majority of them had already
achieved a considerable measure of integration into "society
at large". What they had not done, and what most of them
quite reasonably declined to do, was abandon their Jewish identity
in the process. In contrast to these pro-assimilationist Jews,
assimilationist antisemites demanded a complete dissolution of
Jewishness as such. I think that Steiner, in several stages of
his career, fit into this latter pattern. But this sort of antisemitism
was by no means racist, at least not necessarily so, and in several
crucial respects it was fundamentally different from the racial
versions of antisemitism that were also current at the time.
Wouldn't the ideas of separation, "purity of blood",
segregation (as exemplified in the United States with "people
of color" be more "racist"?
Yes, segregation and purity of "blood" generally belong
to the arsenal of racial antisemites, not of assimilationist
antisemites. In fact one of the best scholars on this issue,
Donald Niewyk, distinguishes between "integrationist"
and "segregationist" antisemites, whereas I tend to
use the terms "assimilationist" and "dissimilationist".
Most of the integrationist/assimilationist antisemites -- a group
which included several of the most infamous and influential antisemites
of the time -- were not racial antisemites, though they were
typically racists in other respects.
Also, with the creation of Israel and the intense devotion
to Jewish nationalism, do we not see just the kind of continued
antipathy and violence as a result of that antipathy between
"races" - specifically in the Middle East? And is this
a result of "blood" or "religion" or "culture"?
I don't know.
I think the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has
more to do with struggles over land and security than it does
with blood, religion, or culture. But in any case, I don't see
a fundamental difference, at this level, between Jewish nationalism
and Ukrainian nationalism or Puerto Rican nationalism or Tibetan
nationalism and so forth.
The second (multi faceted) question is: what is your expressed
purpose in bringing this discussion into the arena of the appropriateness
of Waldorf Education in 1. public schools and 2. society at large?
I have very little to say on that topic. I don't know enough
about Waldorf education to make an interesting case either way,
and I don't have strong feelings about Waldorf as such. I get
the sense that Waldorf schools, especially in North America,
comprise a very wide range of beliefs and practices, some of
which have relatively little to do with the aspects of anthroposophy
that I study. As far as the public schools part of your question
goes, it seems to me that the PLANS folks have a very good point
about the establishment clause, and I generally come down on
the side of secularism as the safest option in a society like
the contemporary US.
While your scholarship on the issue is profound and has involved
many hours of research and thought, do you think that you have
presented it in a way and through a medium that would keep the
discussion in an academic and objective realm?
I hope not! I am very critical of the academic realm and the
stultifying conception of objectivity that is so often associated
with it. That is one of the main reasons I have avoided an academic
career so far and remained an independent scholar (though I must
confess that I am currently in the midst of throwing in that
particular towel); one of my goals is to move historical discussions
out of the academic realm so that non-academics can participate
in them. My published work on anthroposophy is not objective
in the sense I think you mean, and no competent reader could
mistake it for such; I am very up front about my own skeptical
stance. Much of what I write on anthroposophy is a mixture of
scholarship and polemic, addressed to a non-specialist audience.
It is not a neutral reflection on the pros and cons of Steiner's
various doctrines.
Or, do you not think that any association with the word "Nazi"
may call up an emotional response in great numbers of people
who do not have the time or inclination to do such scholarly
work on their own?
No, I definitely disagree with you on that point, as I tried
to spell out in one of my replies to you on the waldorf critics
list. I think that terms like "racist" and "Nazi"
have specific meanings that can and should be used responsibly,
not as terms of abuse but as analytical descriptions. I spend
an enormous chunk of my time reading documents written by Nazis
(actual Nazis, the kind who proudly call themselves Nazis), and
I pay close attention to what distinguishes their perspectives
from those of other authoritarian right-wingers. Rudolf Steiner
was certainly not a Nazi, but a number of his followers were,
and there was a significant strand within the Nazi movement that
looked favorably on various aspects of Steiner's work. The point
of exploring these historical connections is not to call up an
emotional response but to prompt informed consideration of the
ambiguous record of alternative spiritual movements and their
wide-ranging political affiliations.
A third question arises in me. Please forgive me if you have
illucidated this elsewhere - I do not have the time to search
all of the archives of the past five or more years of discussion
on other forums - have you seen examples of overt or covert racism
in the practice of Waldorf Education. If so, would you please
discuss these examples?
The most important example, in my view, is the one I mentioned
to you recently on the waldorf critics list, namely the "racial
ethnography" curriculum in Dutch Waldorf schools, which
was not discontinued until well into the 1990's. I hope it's
okay with you if I simply quote some of what I wrote on the topic
last year at the openwaldorf site (where you can also find vigorous
discussion of this and related themes). Very briefly: Until the
mid-1990's, Dutch Waldorf schools continued to teach courses
on "racial ethnography" to 7th and 8th grade pupils.
These courses were based squarely on Steiner's racial theories,
and their role in the Waldorf curriculum was discussed extensively
in the journal of the Dutch Waldorf movement. This longstanding
practice changed only after the mother of a Waldorf student went
to the press with her child's class notebooks about racial characteristics.
The resulting media attention spurred the Dutch Anthroposophical
Society and the Waldorf federation to review the "racial
ethnography" curriculum, which they eventually decided to
abandon. Public schools in the Netherlands had nothing remotely
similar to these courses on "racial ethnography"; the
only schools where such material was taught were Waldorf schools.
This incident was the origin of the much-discussed "Dutch
report" on anthroposophy and race.
The "races" that
Steiner speaks of in Occult Science, to the best of my understanding
are streams of development over long "epochs" of time
and, especially taking into consideration the basic tenets of
reincarnation, include every one of us as individuals. I fully
believe that I have been Jewish, Catholic, African or possibly
a slave in the United States, maybe Moslem, (but I don't think
so yet) - Ancient Persian, yes definitely. I have been male and
female and have lived in times and places completely unlike the
one I am in now. I also believe that I will be all of these things
again and live in times and places still more unlike this one
or any past ones. I believe that whereever there is "antipathy"
toward any kind of person, creed or system of thought within
myself, there will I be drawn primarily so that I can "live
through" it from the "other"'s point of view.
I believe that evolution is not racial, but individual and that
all the differences that exist in the physical realm have their
purpose and meaning and can only be understood as part of a "puzzle"
or "tapestry" of interlocking pieces or threads. I
believe that in every moment of antipathy lives a seed of love
- one that will be watered and brought to blossom in a future
place and time.
Much of what you write above sounds to me
perfectly compatible with Steiner's version of reincarnation.
The crucial difference is that by my reading, Steiner considered
evolution to be both individual and racial. He sometimes taught
that some racial forms are higher than others, and that spiritual
progress is correlated to racial progress. Here is a passage
that might show you what I have in mind:
"Everyone who works in
this way prepares the ground for the human bodies of the future,
for the bodies that souls will later need. There is a word that
beautifully expresses this work toward the future, which we will
understand when we clarify the difference between soul development
and racial development. All of you were once Atlanteans, and
these Atlantean bodies looked very different, as I have already
described. The same soul that was once in an Atlantean body somewhere
is now in your body. But not all bodies have been prepared, in
the way yours have been, by a small number of colonists who long
ago migrated from the West to the East. Those who remained behind,
who bound themselves up with their race, they degenerated, while
the advanced ones founded new civilizations. The last stragglers
on the way to the east, the Mongols, still retain something of
the culture of the Atlanteans. In the same way, the bodies of
those people who do not develop themselves in a progressive fashion
will continue into the next era and will constitute the Chinese
of the future. There will once again be decadent peoples. After
all, the souls that inhabit Chinese bodies are those that will
once again have to incarnate in such races, because they had
too strong an attraction to that race. The souls that are today
within you will later incarnate in bodies that come from people
who work in the way I have indicated, and who beget the bodies
of the future, just as the first colonists from Atlantis once
did. And those who cling to the ordinary, who do not want to
join with the movement toward the future, they will become fused
with their race. There are people who want to stick to the familiar,
who want nothing to do with progress; they refuse to listen to
those who lead the way beyond the race to newer and newer forms
of humanity. The myths have preserved this intention in a wonderful
manner. The best way they could portray this is by pointing to
one of the greatest ones, who spoke the words: “Whosoever
does not leave father and mother, wife and child, brother and
sister, cannot be my disciple”; and by depicting, in contrast,
the tragedy of the person who says, I want nothing to do with
such a leader, and rejects him. How could one express this more
clearly than in the image of the person who rejects the leader,
and who is incapable of advancing! That is the legend of Ahasver,
the Eternal Jew, who sat there and pushed away the greatest leader,
Christ Jesus, who wanted nothing to do with evolution, and who
therefore must remain in his race, must always reappear in his
race. These are myths that have been given to humankind for its
eternal memory, so that humankind knows what it is dealing with."
(Steiner, Menschheitsentwickelung und Christus-Erkenntnis pp.
186-187)
It seems to me that passages like that one
(and there are lots more like that one) simultaneously represent
the sort of 'tapestry' approach that you invoke, and depend on
racist premises. This is one of the reasons why I say that Steiner's
work contains significant racist elements, even on those occasions
when Steiner looked toward a non-racial future.
Peter Staudenmaier
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 10:00 am
Subject: Re: agreement and disagreement
Hi Mike, thanks for your reply. No apology
necessary for ripping me up when I wasn't here; you should see
what they're saying about me on anarchist lists and discussion
boards these days.... the rebukes of my anthroposophist detractors
are gentle in comparison. You wrote:
I don't have the Ammo to discuss much about racism with you.
But I will try to get around to our old discussion about Empathy,
as well as your personal motive and intent, and why you might
feel that your personal interprataton of Steiner might not be
affected by your life experience; And if it indeed is, I would
like for you to tell us a little about your personal history.
As you said "our ideas are always formed wthin social contexts."
A history of your personal social context might enlighten me
and others as to why you believe and don't believe the things
that you do.
I was hoping we could talk about Steiner, not about me, but the
empathy discussion is important, and there is no doubt that any
interpretation of a complex body of ideas is bound to be affected
by the life experience of the interpreter. I disagree, however,
that this has much to do with motive and intent. One of the time-honored
principles of both philosophical discourse and public debate
is that arguments ought to be judged on their own merits, not
on the basis of the character of the person who expresses them.
Thus it simply shouldn't matter if I am one of Ahriman's minions
or the next incarnation of Rudolf Steiner. But since it seems
that this issue keeps getting in the way of substantive dialogue
between critics and supporters of anthroposophy, I will try to
offer a brief response to your question about why I believe the
things I do.
I definitely have what you call an intellectual bias (though
I'm not sure why you think this would be a hindrance to understanding
Steiner, since he was an intellectual himself), and the aspects
of anthroposophy that I study have little to do with Steiner
as a person; I am much more interested in his ideas. It is also
true that I have "atheistic leanings", as Dottie has
reminded the list; I am either an atheist or an agnostic, I'm
never quite sure which (believe it or not, the question isn't
particularly important to me). It is not true that I am opposed
to spirituality; I am a spiritual person, and keenly interested
in a variety of spiritual traditions. Some time ago you mentioned
my Catholic education; I went to Catholic schools for twelve
years, including a Jesuit high school, and a number of my immediate
family members are practicing Catholics. I don't see what that
has to do with my outlook on anthroposophy, but perhaps you could
explain what connection you have in mind. Tarjei's descriptions
of my political beliefs are generally accurate (though he did
list a number of projects, like LETS schemes, that I am quite
skeptical toward; it is unclear to me where he got this list
from). I live in Madison, Wisconsin, a very left-leaning city,
and spend each summer at the Institute for Social Ecology in
Vermont. My chief focus as a historian is the cultural and intellectual
history of the German right, and that is basically the perspective
from which I approach anthroposophy. I recognize that this is
a very different approach from yours, and I will try to keep
that in mind here.
I'd be glad to answer any more specific questions you might have,
but I still think it makes more sense to focus our discussion
on Steiner's writings, not on each other's personalities. In
my experience, that is a much more promising way to get at the
actual agreements and disagreements. Happy Sunday,
Peter Staudenmaier
...................................................................................................................................
From: dottie zold
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 10:27 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Peter:
Happy Sunday,
Happy Sunday?, hey that's my line, you are
too funny. Welcome to the list. May some new thing be learned
on all sides.
Thanks for coming,
Dottie
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 10:58 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Tarjei, you wrote:
Your point would be clarified considerably if you could tell
us who you're referring to here and cite some examples that illustrate
how the people in question express a lack of comprehension regarding
the complexity of the relationship you're talking about.
Sure. Daniel said a few days back: "To anyone who has done
a comparative study of the two, similarities between Rosenberg
and Steiner are tenuous at best. Claiming that Rudolf Steiner's
teachings became official mythology of Nazi Germany is patently
absurd." I think the second sentence is more or less accurate,
if a bit overheated, but I disagree with the first sentence.
Also, if I understood Andrea's recent post, she thinks that Evola's
racial theories had nothing in common with Steiner's. I disagree
with that claim as well.
Tarjei again:
How would you define an "ethnic doctrine" or a "racial
doctrine"?
Doctrines about ethnicity and about race.
If the achievements in question relate to natural-scientific
research, I agree that they are not affected by the morality
of doctrines adhered to.
I wasn't talking about morality. I fundamentally disagree with
your take on concepts like 'racism' (assuming I've understood
what you're getting at); I don't think it makes sense to use
these concepts primarily as moral categories; to my mind our
first task is to see what they mean descriptively, and then we
can move on to normative judgements.
Claiming insight regarding other people's perceptions of themselves
requires intimate knowledge of the individuals in question. Otherwise,
such claims are not only arrogant, but extremely presumptious
and conceited as well.
I disagree entirely. Claiming insight about other people's perceptions
of themselves requires paying attention to what they say.
What do you mean by Steiner's "theosophical/anthroposophical
period"
The period from 1902 onward during which he publicly identified
with Theosophy and anthroposophy.
I seem to recall a claim by you that Steiner
was an atheist in the 1890's
Yes, in my view Steiner oscillated between atheism and a mystical
re-affirmation of christianity between the mid-1890's and 1900-1901.
which would make him a liar when he wrote in his autobiography
thirty years later that the spiritual world had been wide open
to him since childhood.
Why would that make him a liar? Atheism means disbelief in
god. It does not mean disbelief in the spiritual world. In any
case, there is nothing unusual about autobiographies re-interpreting
their authors' past; that's part of the point of the whole endeavor.
Someone accustomed to communicate with the souls of the departed
cannot be called atheists.
Why on earth not? Atheists are people who don't believe in god,
not people who don't believe in souls or in communication with
the dead.
RS also made it clear that what later became Anthroposophy
was evolving within him long before the turn of the century.
For this reason, Steiner's "theosophical/anthroposophical
period" can be said to have started with his work on Goethe
in the 1880's.
You're forgetting his caustic criticisms of Theosophy in the
1890's.
By using the expression "Aryan myth", you seem to
indicate that no Aryans have ever existed. You also seem to imply
that stating that Aryans have existed, and still exist, is a
racist statement.
I tried to explain this to you at considerable length last month.
Maybe I could ask you to read that post again:
http://www.topica.com/lists/waldorf-critics/read/message.html?mid=1715726619
It is indeed the case that "no Aryans have ever existed"
if by Aryans you mean a race that founded the civilizations of
antiquity. The Aryan myth mixed up language and biology. There
was never any such thing as an Aryan race. That's why it's a
myth.
The significance of Christ's first sign, and of the RS lecture
quoted here, is that Anthroposophy is a New Christ-Proclamation
that seeks to lead humanity behond the old ties of blood, soil,
nationality, tribe, and race. You have previously claimed that
Steiner spoke in favor of glorifying "blood and soil"
and race like the Nazis did, and that this was his "doctrine",
but that is a lie.
I don't know whether this is a "lie", but it isn't
my position. It sounds to me like you're getting my discussion
of Steiner mixed up with my discussion of Darre.
Steiner did not insist on assimilation; he recommended
it. (Please notice the difference.)
I disagree. His recommendations on this score were categorical
and emphatic.
There are orthodox Jews who share your misgivings about assimilation
I do not have misgivings about assimilation as such. I do have
misgivings, as everyone should, about the specific version of
assimilation that Steiner propagated. What he understood by assimilation
was very different from what pro-assimilationist Jews understood
by it. These Jews were anything but Orthodox.
The Jerusalem Post, Sunday December 30, 2001 - Health minister
compares assimilation to Holocaust - Assimilation was a greater
catastrophe for the Jewish people than the Holocaust, Health
Minister Nissim Dahan said this morning.
Yes, I recall that remark. I think such comparisons are foolish.
I don't see what this has to do with Steiner's views, however,
which were formulated and expressed before the holocaust.
Nonsense. There was just a discussion about Mel Gibson and
anti-Semitism after your arrival here, because you and nobody
else is endeavoring to make a "hot topic" of Steiner's
view on the Jews.
Dottie devoted several posts to the topic last week.
Here is another piece of blatant falsehood. Rudolf Steiner
never had a "pan-German period." That is another lie.
Steiner was actively involved in the pan-German ("deutchnational")
movement in Austria in the 1880's. He wrote dozens of articles
for the pan-German press and briefly edited an important pan-German
journal, the Deutsche Wochenschrift. These articles can be found
in two of the volumes I mentioned yesterday: Gesammelte Aufsätze
zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte and Gesammelte Aufsätze zur
Literatur (GA 31 and 32). Both Lindenberg's and Wehr's biographies
discuss this period.
As previously mentioned, Rudolf Steiner held the view that
all racial ties should disappear, for the simple reason that
racial ideals lead mankind into decadence. The Jews were no exception.
This view is aparently what you refer to as Steiner's "broader
racial doctrines."
That's part of it. But there's a lot more to Steiner's racial
theories than that. I'm not sure I understand your second sentence
above. Are you saying that the mere existence of Jews depends
on some sort of racial ideal? If so, which one? Do you agree
with Steiner's dictum that the best thing would be for Jewry
as a people to cease to exist?
Peter Staudenmaier
Continued in
another thread
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:03 am
Subject: Re: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Hi again Tarjei, you wrote:
If assimilation is regarded as something anti-Semitic, all
Jews who embrace religions and philosophies and worldviews that
differ from Judaism, and Jews who marry non-Jews, are anti-Semites
according to such a definition. It's a semantic quicksand.
I don't think its quicksand at all. The issue isn't really all
that murky, is it? Some antisemites were assimilationists. Others
weren't. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether assimilation
itself is antisemitic (it isn't, obviously); it has to do with
differences among antisemites in late nineteenth and early twentieth
century Germany.
Peter
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:28 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Daniel, you asked:
Was there anyone at all in Austria or Germany between 1870
and 1930 who publicly held a view of the Jews that you would
not consider anti-Semitic by the standards of today?
Yes, of course. A very large majority of Austrian and German
Jews held entirely reasonable views on the "Jewish question"
(although I disagree with any number of those views for various
reasons), and with rare exceptions did not adopt antisemitic
positions. But there were lots of gentiles who held perfectly
sensible and non-antisemitic views as well (again, I disagree
with many of them). I completely reject the argument put forth
by scholars like Goldhagen that all of German and Austrian culture
was permeated by aggressive antisemitism for decades before the
Nazis came to power. My perspective is much closer to that of
historians like Mosse, Aschheim, Greive, and so forth. I know
you read German, and if you like, I could recommend some of the
secondary literature, both classics and the latest research,
that I think makes a valuable contribution to understanding the
vexed relations between German Jews and non-Jewish Germans during
that turbulent era. Or I'd be happy to tell you more about my
own viewpoint and the parameters of my current research. I would
be very interested to hear your own thoughts on the matter. Thanks,
Peter Staudenmaier
...................................................................................................................................
From: golden3000997
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:50 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
In a message dated 2/22/2004 1:59:05 PM Eastern
Standard Time, pstauden writes:
Why would that make him a liar? Atheism
means disbelief in god. It does not mean disbelief in the spiritual
world. In any case, there is nothing unusual about autobiographies
re-interpreting their authors' past; that's part of the point
of the whole endeavor.
Hello Peter,
I am fascinated with this statement here and
in your own brief biography (thank you very much, by the way.)
I kind of "feel" that I understand
how someone can "believe" in the existence of a spiritual
world, but not in the existence of a "god" per se.
Who are the philosophers or spiritual thinkers who expound on
this? And more to my satisfaction, can you expound on how it
works in your own life? I can more understand someone "believing"
in "God" and rejecting the idea of a "spiritual
world" outside of a conventional "heaven" than
I can figure out how someone can "believe" in a spiritual
world and the existence of souls after death without a "god".
It's just something I never really thought about before. I'm
going to mull it over a bit, but I really would love to know
the more personal side of it.
If you wish,
Christine
...................................................................................................................................
From: golden3000997
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 11:54 am
Subject: Re: R: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
In a message dated 2/22/2004 2:03:45 PM Eastern
Standard Time, pstauden writes:
This has absolutely nothing to do with
whether assimilation itself is antisemitic (it isn't, obviously)
OK, major confusion! I thought assimilation
WAS antisemitic?! No? I thought that you were saying that you
were basing the idea of Rudolf Steiner as a racist, or some of
his ideas as containing racism on the passages about assimilation.
What is the aspect here that I am missing?
Assimiliation is not antisemitic. Is it racist?
Help!
Christine
...................................................................................................................................
From: at
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:04 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Peter,
Thanks for addressing my question. My own
thoughts are unfinished at the moment. I have a number of books
on the subject that I am working through, including several by
Mosse, Tal's volume and a few others (including Goldhagen and
Lerner, Wistrich, and Hilberg, plus some general histories of
the era). Due to work and family obligations, I am not likely
to get through them before the end of the summer. If you feel
that my reading list is incomplete, please feel free to recommend
further volumes. I would be interested in hearing some of the
results of your own research, so if you feel inclined to share,
I would appreciate it.
Daniel Hindes
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Daniel, you asked:
Was there anyone at all in Austria or Germany
between 1870 and 1930 who publicly held a view of the Jews that
you would not consider anti-Semitic by the standards of today?
Yes, of course. A very large majority of
Austrian and German Jews held entirely reasonable views on the
"Jewish question" (although I disagree with any number
of those views for various reasons), and with rare exceptions
did not adopt antisemitic positions. But there were lots of gentiles
who held perfectly sensible and non-antisemitic views as well
(again, I disagree with many of them). I completely reject the
argument put forth by scholars like Goldhagen that all of German
and Austrian culture was permeated by aggressive antisemitism
for decades before the Nazis came to power. My perspective is
much closer to that of historians like Mosse, Aschheim, Greive,
and so forth. I know you read German, and if you like, I could
recommend some of the secondary literature, both classics and
the latest research, that I think makes a valuable contribution
to understanding the vexed relations between German Jews and
non-Jewish Germans during that turbulent era. Or I'd be happy
to tell you more about my own viewpoint and the parameters of
my current research. I would be very interested to hear your
own thoughts on the matter. Thanks,
Peter Staudenmaier
...................................................................................................................................
From: golden3000997
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:10 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
In a message dated 2/22/2004 2:35:29 PM Eastern
Standard Time, pstauden writes:
A very large majority of Austrian and German
Jews held entirely reasonable views on the "Jewish question"
(although I disagree with any number of those views for various
reasons), and with rare exceptions did not adopt antisemitic
positions. But there were lots of gentiles who held perfectly
sensible and non-antisemitic views as well (again, I disagree
with many of them).
I know you're talking to Daniel, but now I'm
REALLY curious! What DO you agree with? This is exciting, because
I think it is a completely different starting point.
: ) Christine
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:45 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Christine, you wrote:
I kind of "feel" that I understand how someone can
"believe" in the existence of a spiritual world, but
not in the existence of a "god" per se. Who are the
philosophers or spiritual thinkers who expound on this?
Atheism is definitely not my area of expertise, but I know a
couple of Buddhist atheists, to choose one example. But there
are lots of other examples. Here's a quick quote from a superb
study of the influence of Nietzsche, perhaps the best-known atheist
of Steiner's era (interestingly, the following passage comes
right after a quote from Steiner himself, the bit from the autobiography
about seeing Nietzsche's soul):
"The various cults and
surrogate faiths of the time were linked to a widespread perception
that the age was particularly empty, materialistic, and despiritualized.
Many defined their projects as directly Nietzschean in nature,
responses to the famous proclamation that God was dead. These
post-Christian Nietzschean faiths have been labeled "religious
atheism," "secular polytheism," and "pan-cosmic
religion without transcendence." However one defines them,
they abounded in number and demonstrated an adaptability to a
range of divergent political and cultural tendencies."
(Steve Aschheim, The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, p. 215)
Christine again:
And more to my satisfaction, can you expound on how it works
in your own life? I can more understand someone "believing"
in "God" and rejecting the idea of a "spiritual
world" outside of a conventional "heaven" than
I can figure out how someone can "believe" in a spiritual
world and the existence of souls after death without a "god".
Good point. I guess I'd say that the continuum of spiritual experience
is very broad, and god need not come into the picture at all
points. Maybe our conceptions of souls, afterlifes and so forth
are so consistently linked to god imagery that we think the two
must somehow go together. I don't see why this would necessarily
have to be the case, though. From what I do understand of atheism,
many atheists portray their own position as simply a lack of
belief in a divinity; it doesn't have to entail any specific
belief or disbelief in things like souls or communicating with
the dead. There is also a rich tradition of people who go from
being convinced theists to atheists and vice-versa; one of Steiner's
peers in the Theosophical movement, Annie Besant, was a famous
example. As far as my own life, I simply don't think about the
question of god much. Most of my spiritual experiences involve
things like trees, bodies of water, other people, and so forth,
but not deities.
I'm going to bundle my replies to your other message into a new
post. Thanks for a very interesting conversation,
Peter
...................................................................................................................................
From: dottie zold
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 1:07 pm
Subject: Re: agreement and disagreement
Peter wrote:
Rudolf Steiner was certainly not a Nazi,
but a number of his followers were, and there was a significant
strand within the Nazi movement that looked favorably on various
aspects of Steiner's work.
Hi Peter,
It seems to me the reason you hold Steiner
was not a Nazi was because he had died before this group actually
pulled itself together, is this correct? And is it not correct
that you think Dr. Steiner layed the groundwork for what later
became teh thought process within the nazi regime?
In regards to followers, as was stated before,
many people harkened unto Dr. Steiners work at the time. He was
definitely making himself known for his studies of the spiritual
realities and their connections to man. Anybody can decide to
follow you, Peter Staudenmaier, as a public speaker, or a Dr.
Steiner, without you realizing specifically what their political
bent is. This does not make you accountable for what they will
then take from your work and decide to do at a later date, unless
you engage in a teroristic type of 'go get em and make em pay'
kind of way that some of the so called pro-life people do.
Do you really think that Dr. Steiner formented
the idea that killing Jews was a good thing: segregating them
and making them cease to exist was the way it should be? That
because he said Jewry should have ceased to exist means that
he was of the mind that the Jews should be killed?
In regards to the 'significant strand' within
the nazi stream these people were interested not in racial themes
as you claim, rather the environmental issues facing many of
the farmers of the day and a people at the crossroads of themselves.
The group you have specifically co-opped trying to make the nazi
stain stick to Steiner is actually Ariosophy. Many of the followers
you mention in your article were actually a part of this particular
group who were trying to make themselves God here on Earth and
fell very easy into Hitlers hands. This particular group had
absolutely no understanding of the spiritual workings other than
that which was twisted and corrupted and whos teachings can be
found in Mein Kemph. Just about every word you have written and
pinned on Dr. Steiner can be traced back to this Ariosophy.
So, looking at Ariosophy, which I believe
you must have in order to come up with some of the conclusions
you have, and it becomes pretty transparent once one looks at
your errant conclusions regarding Dr. Steiner and Anthroposophy,
I am wondering if you realize how similar your claims against
Dr. Steiner are to the thinkings of that particular group?
Dottie
...................................................................................................................................
From: Tarjei Straume
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 1:59 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Peter,
I wrote:
If the achievements in question relate
to natural-scientific research, I agree that they are not affected
by the morality of doctrines adhered to.
Peter S wrote:
I wasn't talking about morality. I fundamentally
disagree with your take on concepts like 'racism' (assuming I've
understood what you're getting at); I don't think it makes sense
to use these concepts primarily as moral categories; to my mind
our first task is to see what they mean descriptively, and then
we can move on to normative judgements.
Tarjei:
In other words, racism has nothing to do with
ethics and morality?
Tarjei:
I seem to recall a claim by you that Steiner
was an atheist in the 1890's
Peter S:
Yes, in my view Steiner oscillated between
atheism and a mystical re-affirmation of christianity between
the mid-1890's and 1900-1901.
Tarjei:
which would make him a liar when he wrote
in his autobiography thirty years later that the spiritual world
had been wide open to him since childhood.
Peter S:
Why would that make him a liar? Atheism
means disbelief in god. It does not mean disbelief in the spiritual
world.
Tarjei:
That would still make him a liar, because
according to his autobiography, Rudolf Steiner testifies being
a Christian and suggests being a reincarnationist in Vienna in
his late twenties, thus negating the preposterous theory that
Christology and Theosophy was something he adopted more than
a decade later:
http://wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA028/TSoML/GA028_c07.html
About the two were gathered
professors of the theological faculty, Catholic priests of the
very finest scholarship. First among them all was the priest
of the Cistercian Order of the Holy Cross, Wilhelm Neumann. Müllner
justly esteemed him because of his comprehensive scholarship.
He said to me once, when in the absence of Neumann I was speaking
with enthusiastic admiration of his broad and comprehensive scholarship:
“Yes, indeed, Professor Neumann knows the whole world and
three villages besides.” I liked to accompany the learned
man when we went away from delle Grazie's at the same time. I
had many a conversation with this “ideal” of a scientific
man who was at the same time a “true son of his Church.”
I would here mention only two of these. One was in regard to
the person of Christ. I expressed my view to the effect that
Jesus of Nazareth, by reason of supramundane influence, had received
the Christ into himself, and that Christ as a spiritual Being
has lived in human evolution since the Mystery of Golgotha. This
conversation remained deeply imprinted in my mind; ever and again
it has arisen in memory. For it was profoundly significant for
me. There were really three persons engaged in that discussion:
Professor Neumann and I, and a third, unseen person, the personification
of Catholic dogmatic theology, visible to spiritual perception
as he walked behind the professor, always beckoning with his
finger threateningly, and always tapping Professor Neumann on
the shoulder as a reminder whenever the subtle logic of the scholar
led him too far in agreement with me. It was noteworthy how often
the first clause of the latter's sentences would be reversed
in the second clause. There I was face to face with the Catholic
way of life in one of its best representatives. It was through
him that I learned to esteem it, but also to know it through
and through.
Another time we discussed
the question of repeated earth lives. The professor then listened
to me, spoke of all sorts of literature in which something on
this subject could be found; he often nodded his head lightly,
but had no inclination to enter into the merits of a question
which seemed to him very fanciful. So this conversation also
became of great import to me. The uncomfortableness with which
Neumann felt the answers he did not utter in response to my statements
was deeply impressed upon my memory.
- Mein Lebensgang, Chapter
VII (GA 28)
No atheist would express his view "to the effect that Jesus of
Nazareth, by reason of supramundane influence, had received the
Christ into himself, and that Christ as a spiritual Being has
lived in human evolution since the Mystery of Golgotha."
That's belief in God.
Peter S:
In any case, there is nothing unusual about
autobiographies re-interpreting their authors' past; that's part
of the point of the whole endeavor.
Tarjei:
In this case, the historical revision you
wish to make is making a liar RS, unless he was too feeble-minded
to remember his early years when he wrote his autobiography.
There is nothing to indicate the latter.
Tarjei:
Someone accustomed to communicate with
the souls of the departed cannot be called atheists.
Peter S:
Why on earth not? Atheists are people who
don't believe in god, not people who don't believe in souls or
in communication with the dead.
Tarjei:
The suggestion that RS was ever an atheist
is absurd. Higher beings (gods) are part and parcel of the spiritual
world and were never hidden from his spiritual vision. No semantic
drivel can make an atheist of Steiner at any time in his life.
Tarjei:
RS also made it clear that what later became
Anthroposophy was evolving within him long before the turn of
the century. For this reason, Steiner's "theosophical/anthroposophical
period" can be said to have started with his work on Goethe
in the 1880's.
Peter S:
You're forgetting his caustic criticisms
of Theosophy in the 1890's.
Tarjei:
Steiner was opposed to the approach to the
spiritual being practiced in the Theosophical Society from the
beginning. what he taught as "Theosophy" was radically
different from Blavatsky's tradition. Steiner chose the natural-scientific
discipline of Darwin as his epistemological point of departure,
which differed radically from the crystal balls and seances of
the Theosophists.
Tarjei:
By using the expression "Aryan myth",
you seem to indicate that no Aryans have ever existed. You also
seem to imply that stating that Aryans have existed, and still
exist, is a racist statement.
Peter S:
I tried to explain this to you at considerable
length last month.
Tarjei:
You express the same stigmatizing bias there
when you write:
[PS]
"Moreover, the concept
of an "Aryan race", in the form which it typically
took within European culture in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, was inescapably racist. It posited a superior Aryan
stock who colonized the ancient world and founded the great civilizations
of antiquity."
Rudolf Steiner did not claim that the Aryans
had founded the great civilizations of antiquity. There
are many, many pre-historic civilizations. It was the Ariosophists
and the Nazis who concocted the notion - or the myth (in the
derogatory-illusory sense of the word) - that the Aryans had
founded all ancient civilizations. It looks as if you
are deliberately blending occult history based upon spiritual
science with the German nationalist idea of a master race in
order to stigmatize Anthroposophy in this manner.
Peter S:
It is indeed the case that "no Aryans
have ever existed" if by Aryans you mean a race that founded
the civilizations of antiquity.
Tarjei:
By Aryans is meant the Indo-European peoples
who migrated between Asia and Europe. There have been many civilizations
in pre-historical times. They were not founded by one group.
RS also talked about the Aryan epoch in the early years when
he used traditional theosophical terminology, when he actually
meant the fifth post-atlantean epoch. In the spiritual science
of seership as practiced by RS a century ago, the relationships
of races, epochs, cultures and civilizations were very complex,
and a sincere effort to understand what was communicated from
those quarters is needed to make sense of it.
Peter S:
The Aryan myth mixed up language and biology.
There was never any such thing as an Aryan race. That's why it's
a myth.
Tarjei:
Subjective personal opinion on your part.
Tarjei:
The significance of Christ's first sign,
and of the RS lecture quoted here, is that Anthroposophy is a
New Christ-Proclamation that seeks to lead humanity behond the
old ties of blood, soil, nationality, tribe, and race. You have
previously claimed that Steiner spoke in favor of glorifying
"blood and soil" and race like the Nazis did, and that
this was his "doctrine", but that is a lie.
Peter S:
I don't know whether this is a "lie",
but it isn't my position. It sounds to me like you're getting
my discussion of Steiner mixed up with my discussion of Darre.
Tarjei:
Darre wrote a book with that title, I seem
to recall, but you keep bringing up Darre and his book, racism,
Nazi war criminals, Ariosophy, and so on and so on, and sticking
it on Rudolf Steiner and his movement, plus Waldorf.
Tarjei:
Nonsense. There was just a discussion about
Mel Gibson and anti-Semitism after your arrival here, because
you and nobody else is endeavoring to make a "hot topic"
of Steiner's view on the Jews.
Peter S:
Dottie devoted several posts to the topic
last week.
Tarjei:
They were about you and your cohorts at PLANS-WC.
Accusing RS of anti-Semitism is either plain ignorant or deliberately
malicious. Beating on that drum year after year against obvious
better knowledge is reminiscent of a hate group.
Tarjei:
Here is another piece of blatant falsehood.
Rudolf Steiner never had a "pan-German period." That
is another lie.
Peter S:
Steiner was actively involved in the pan-German
("deutchnational") movement in Austria in the 1880's.
He wrote dozens of articles for the pan-German press and briefly
edited an important pan-German journal, the Deutsche Wochenschrift.
These articles can be found in two of the volumes I mentioned
yesterday: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte
and Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Literatur (GA 31 and 32). Both
Lindenberg's and Wehr's biographies discuss this period.
Tarjei:
That's right, it's in GA 31. My mistake; I
should have been more precise. What I was getting at, was that
Steiner had no link to the nationalistic movement that later
evolved into Nazism after the first world war, although you seem
to have made efforts to establish such a link.
Tarjei:
As previously mentioned, Rudolf Steiner
held the view that all racial ties should disappear, for the
simple reason that racial ideals lead mankind into decadence.
The Jews were no exception. This view is aparently what you refer
to as Steiner's "broader racial doctrines."
Peter S:
That's part of it. But there's a lot more
to Steiner's racial theories than that.
Tarjei:
Not what the future is concerned. In the future,
human races will no longer be linked to physical heredity but
to soul-content, to spirituality or absence of such.
Peter S:
I'm not sure I understand your second sentence
above. Are you saying that the mere existence of Jews depends
on some sort of racial ideal?
Tarjei:
No, I'm not saying that. But the effort to
preserve forever any race of the present, whether it's Jews,
Blacks, "Caucasians", Indians, Asians or whatever -
that is an effort based upon racial ideology. Resisting integration
and assimilation and evolution at all costs forever leads to
ethnic-cultural isolationism, nationalism, ethnic strife, etc.
It wasn't necessarily like that in the past, but that's how it
is today. And Rudolf Steiner knew it and saw the problems coming.
Peter S:
If so, which one? Do you agree with Steiner's
dictum that the best thing would be for Jewry as a people to
cease to exist?
Tarjei:
I do not agree with any dictum regardless
of whom it comes from. But I do hold the view that human races,
i.e. ethnic groups sharing distinct physiological characteristics
and so on derived from heredity, are in the process of disappearing
and that we're only seeing the faint beginning of this now. Today,
you can be black, have a French name, and live in Mexico as a
citizen of Finland. In the future, the present-day human races
will have ceased to exist. That does not mean that human individuals
will have ceased to exist, or that humanity will have ceased
to evolve through ever-changing social forms and cultures. I
believe that answers part of your question above. Larry King,
who was born Jewish, has not ceased to exist. His kids, who are
raised Mormon, are not ceasing to exist. The Hebrew legacy will
not cease to exist, although the traditional practice of old
time religions like Judaism, Islam, and orthodox Christianity
will fade away in due time. Our existence and our future do not
depend upon such things.
I also believe that the views Rudolf Steiner's
held a century ago regarding race, nationality, assimilation,
Jewry, etc. were healthy, although impatient in some respects.
He wanted to see culture transform itself through a new spiritual
awakening under the regency of St. Michael. He saw a special
need for Jews to assimilate because of the social problems that
were present in Europe in connection with the so-called "Jewish
question." And although Steiner did not foresee the holocaust
in Europe against the Jews specifically, he may have had forebodings,
especially when he mentioned the year 1933, when Adolf Hitler
came to power, as the rise of the apocalyptic Beast. This is
what he said in one of his very last lectures before his fatal
illness put an end to it all, in September 1924:
[RS]
"In 1933, dear friends,
there would be a possibility for the earth and everything living
on it to perish if there did not exist also that other wise arrangement
that cannot be calculated. Once comets have taken on other forms
calculations can no longer be accurate. What needs to be said
in the sense meant by the apocalyptist is: Before the Etheric
Christ can be comprehended by human beings in the right way,
humanity must first cope with encountering the Beast who will
rise up in 1933. This is what the apocalyptic language tells
us. Here a view of spirit unites with a view of nature. What
is there in the cosmos becomes clear to us in its fundamental
spiritual character."
- "The Book of Revelation and the Work
of the Priest" (Lecture 16, Dornach 20 Sept 1924, GA 346
)
Cheers,
Tarjei
http://uncletaz.com/
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 3:24 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Hi Daniel, you wrote:
Thanks for addressing my question. My own thoughts are unfinished
at the moment. I have a number of books on the subject that I
am working through, including several by Mosse, Tal's volume
and a few others (including Goldhagen and Lerner, Wistrich, and
Hilberg, plus some general histories of the era). Due to work
and family obligations, I am not likely to get through them before
the end of the summer. If you feel that my reading list is incomplete,
please feel free to recommend further volumes.
Sounds like a great reading list. Tal's book in particular is
excellent. I have some differences with Wistrich (as a colleague
once put it, "Wistrich finds an antisemite under every rock");
he sometimes comes close to adopting the position you thought
I espoused. My own analysis of German antisemitism is not as
sweeping as his. But his book on Viennese Jewry (The Jews of
Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph, Oxford 1989) is superb; I
recommend consulting it when reading Steiner's early writings
about Austrian Jews, to contrast Steiner's claims about the nature
of "Jewry as such" with detailed description of actual
Jewish life in Vienna at the time.
I would be interested in hearing some of the results of your
own research, so if you feel inclined to share, I would appreciate
it.
I will try to say more about my research once I catch up here.
Thanks,
Peter
...................................................................................................................................
From: Mike Helsher
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 4:26 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
[Peter S]
I was hoping we could talk about Steiner,
not about me, but the empathy discussion is important, and there
is no doubt that any interpretation of a complex body of ideas
is bound to be affected by the life experience of the interpreter.
Thank you for acknowledging that
I disagree, however, that this has much to do with motive
and intent. One of the time-honored principles of both philosophical
discourse and public debate is that arguments ought to be judged
on their own merits, not on the basis of the character of the
person who expresses them.
I'd be ok with that if the arguments were presented anonymously,
or maybe even created in a committee.
But you write that Anthroposophy is "racist to the core"
and you sign your name to it. Call me naive, but I have a hard
time separating a persons psychological make- up (which stems
from their biography) from the ideas that they put forth.
Personally I feel that completely discarding or separating a
persons motive and intent, from the foundations upon which their
ideas are built, leaves out an important element of our shared
humanity.
Might be great if we were talking about computers or bicycles;
but when were talking about people, especially highly influential
people like RS who expounded ideas in so many different areas
of the human experience, and people like myself who have found
much hope in his writings, personal motive and intent is important.
And how do we separate the idea of "Empathy" from our
personal motive and intent?
Thus it simply shouldn't matter if I am one of Ahriman's minions
or the next incarnation of Rudolf Steiner.
That's a bit of a red-herring, don't you think. I'm more interested
in who you are as an individual, not in labeling you as such.
But since it seems that this issue keeps getting in the way
of substantive dialogue between critics and supporters of anthroposophy,
I will try to offer a brief response to your question about why
I believe the things I do.
Thank you. You might find that your difficulty with "talking
to Anthroposophists" would be quite lessened in the future,
if expounded upon these ideas more frequently
It is not true that I am opposed to spirituality; I am a spiritual
person, and keenly interested in a variety of spiritual traditions.
That is truly good to hear. Thank you for sharing that.
Some time ago you mentioned my Catholic education; I went
to Catholic schools for twelve years, including a Jesuit high
school, and a number of my immediate family members are practicing
Catholics. I don't see what that has to do with my outlook on
anthroposophy, but perhaps you could explain what connection
you have in mind.
Dear God. I'd have to write a book on this one. Catholicism and
the corporate-media; hard to deny the subtle effects that these
institutions have on us all. I did the Alter-boy thing, communion,
confirmation... I wound up burning my catholic Bible in my early
twenties; it was quite satisfying to watch it roast. Maybe your
immune but I am still effected.
There is hope though. I just watched the movie "Dogma"
again just last night.
<snip> My chief focus as a historian is the cultural
and intellectual history of the German right, and that is basically
the perspective from which I approach anthroposophy. I recognize
that this is a very different approach from yours, and I will
try to keep that in mind here.
Thanks, I'll try to do the same.
Truth and Love
Mike
...................................................................................................................................
From: dottie zold
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:06 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] agreement and disagreement
Tarjei:
which would make him a liar when he wrote
in his autobiography thirty years later that the spiritual world
had been wide open to him since childhood.
Peter S:
Why would that make him a liar? Atheism
means disbelief in god. It does not mean disbelief in the spiritual
world.
Tarjei:
That would still make him a liar, because
according to his autobiography, Rudolf Steiner testifies being
a Christian and suggests being a reincarnationist in Vienna in
his late twenties, thus negating the preposterous theory that
Christology and Theosophy was something he adopted more than
a decade later:
Hi Tarjei and Peter,
I remember this conversation happening on
the critics list and I recall you, Peter, saying that Dr. Steiner
changed his tune to be politically correct; in other words he
lied.
Dottie
...................................................................................................................................
From: Peter Staudenmaier
Date: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:42 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: agreement and disagreement
Hi Dottie, you wrote:
It seems to me the reason you hold Steiner
was not a Nazi was because he had died before this group actually
pulled itself together, is this correct?
Well, that's certainly part of it; Steiner died in 1925 and the
Nazis came to power in 1933. But the Nazi party did exist, in
small and localized form, during the last several years of Steiner's
life. There is no evidence that Steiner had the slightest sympathy
for the party, and some anecdotal evidence that he strongly disliked
them.
And is it not correct that you think Dr. Steiner layed the
groundwork for what later became teh thought process within the
nazi regime?
No, that it is not correct. Steiner's influence was restricted
to a subset of the Nazis, mostly the group that I study, the
so-called 'green wing'. He certainly did not lay the groundwork
for the thought process of the entire Nazi regime.
In regards to followers, as was stated
before, many people harkened unto Dr. Steiners work at the time.
He was definitely making himself known for his studies of the
spiritual realities and their connections to man. Anybody can
decide to follow you, Peter Staudenmaier, as a public speaker,
or a Dr. Steiner, without you realizing specifically what their
political bent is. This does not make you accountable for what
they will then take from your work and decide to do