Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

artists, writers, and musicians fill the bucket for Dorothy, as it were, withtrue imaginative works of art. They can take up the study of the forerunnersof Anthroposophy and bring the European conceptualization of Anthroposophyinto a living relationship with American culture. A study ofthe Concord Circle surrounding Emerson might lead to bringing BronsonAlcott’s educational ideas into connection with those of Waldorf educationso that a real adaptation of Steiner’s pedagogical insights to the Americanpeople might occur. Margaret Fuller’s social ideals, Thoreau’s insights intonature and social practice, and especially Walt Whitman’s role as guardianof the spirit of America might prove to be of similar importance in theirrespective fields.Many American Anthroposophists worry about the question ofhow to defend Anthroposophy against its opponents. The only defensethat can logically be expected to succeed is one that reveals the attacks to beanti-American. An Anthroposophy that brings the true ideals of Jefferson,Franklin, and the Founding Fathers into the light has nothing to fear fromits opponents, at least nothing more than any other American fears when theideal of freedom itself is under attack. If writers such as Herman Melvilleand Samuel Clemens and political leaders such as Abraham Lincoln andMartin Luther King are explored in any depth, then Anthroposophy willhave accomplished a great deal for this land. If The Wizard of Oz is taken upin a similar fashion, perhaps that last stage of the process might not be sodistant after all.Endnote1. A comparison of Baum’s characters with those in Steiner’s Mystery Dramascould also be drawn, since Steiner himself related his characters tothose in Goethe’s fairy tale in the preface of “The Portal of Initiation.”341