Download - Anthroposophical Society in America

Nathaniel Williams: a summerThe Beginnings of the Anthroposophic Youth MovementNathaniel WilliamsA youth movement is a riddle. Apathy might deliver an easyanswer to this riddle but the ease and its lack of depth will simplyleave us dull and dissatisfied. An independent youth movementis an amazing event. It is an event of testimony. It testifiesto a fire in the young heart that does not find a suitable hearthto house it; it is colored light born into a society of grays. Theyoung person walks with their light into the rules of society, thecustoms, the popular ideas and culture, the economic practices,and finds these places smothering and suffocating. As they cannotfind a worthy field for their inspiration within society theycreate an independent space, a movement, outside of it.To accept observations like these as eternally true whereeverold and young meet, though it does possess some validity,is partially blinding. Reality demands more care. It is simplyempirically untrue that every generation revolts in the sameway against its elders. Some generations have found admiration,love, respect, and contentment when looking up toward their elders.Some generations have experienced only discord betweenthose older than them and what they longed for and sought.There is an inner force of tremendous significance in the relationshipbetween generations. If we look to where in the worldgreat strides were made we discover that whole groups wereinvolved, groups fired up by some virtue, some justice, sometruth. We have to see the difference between ideas about thingsand living, authentic sentiments that shape lives and relationships.We all learn about the Golden Rule. Our learning aboutit does not enter into our heart with transformative force andfrom there into our way of thinking and being. In some generationswe see living sentiments, burning ideals. How are we to understandtheir origin? It is as if the world were clouded and gray,and then a portion of the great sky opens and the enliveningsunlight brings the gray, blue-green field into a luminous greenglow and all the rest of the world undergoes a similar awakening.Through a new generation the hills and valleys of the worldacquire fresh and original significance. Out of the young, trulynew virtues, abilities, and forces are making their way. They arelike the gate into the creative foundation of the universe, andthrough them the most progressed melody is being played.Two clear testimonies of this come to mind when lookingback over the last century. The generation that came of age between1950 and 1970 are the first and most familiar. The generationsthat came of age within the first quarter of the twentiethcentury are less familiar. 1 Within the first decade of the century,small gatherings began that were to grow into internationalmovements. Young people began striking out into the world ofnature with their cities and towns attheir backs. They were not engagedby their cities, customs, and education.These were alien and cold tothem. Carrying umbrellas for protectionfrom the elements they wanderedout over hills and throughvalleys for days and days. They feltlife in the flowing bird whistles, inthe wide sky-colors, in the wind thatwas more noble and more worthythan the cliché of twentieth centurycivilization. They became “Wandervögel”—wanderingbirds.1 Examples include the Wandervögel and Herman Hoffman; theNeueschar and Muck Lambarty; the Bruderhof and Eberhard Arnold;Lebensreform and people like Gustav Graser, Ludwig Hauesser, andFidus. Hermann Hesse gives aspects of the life of these in his worksDamian and Die Morgenlandfahrt.6 Evolving News for Members & Friends