Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

things. For instance, Forrest McDonald, in his introduction to the new editionof An Economic Interpretation … , characterizes Beard disturbingly butjustifiably as an academic opportunist, who challenges his students (andreaders) with bits of misinformation in order to test their alertness. That isjust too academic. Writing toward our end of the twentieth century, Wilsonpresents his challenge without such ivory-tower gimmicks. His sharp butcompassionately formulated observations can be carried forward into thepresent and projected into the future.After all, education is that part of the culture that prepares theindividual to realize and foster its powers of spiritual-scientific, morallymotivated thinking. As Rudolf Steiner says, the cultivation of a (morallymotivated) collective will, based on the cooperation of single wills, worksback on the individual, and so the cultural movement unfolds at whateverpace its pioneers can set.Notes:1. The wording of Jefferson’s masterpiece, the Declaration of Independence,reveals a more democratic attitude toward the citizen. Jeffersonwas in France during the Convention, and his philosophy had, if any, onlyan indirect influence on the direction taken by the debates. Prior to theDeclaration of Independence, the prevailing formulation of the list of rightsthat transcend the power of government to suppress was “life, liberty, andproperty.” This sequence can be found, for instance, in the “Declaration ofResolves of the Continental Congress” (1774), the “Declaration of Rights ofDelaware State” (1776), and the “Maryland Constitution” (1776). Jefferson,of course, has “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” which can appealto anyone, landed or landless. The same principle applies to Jefferson’s famousdictum that “all men are created equal.” He was not the first to treatequality so generally, but his formulation does fail to distinguish equalitybefore the law from Locke’s tabula rasa, whereas the “Virginia Declarationof Rights” (June 1776) strongly suggests this distinction with the phrase“by nature equally free and independent.” Again, Jefferson’s happy sayingwill naturally have had appeal to those without property qualifications forvoting and office-holding. Perhaps that explains why the first section of theDeclaration is so frequently invoked, even today.332