Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

This is more than just a complementary formulation; it is
an approach to healing. It also represents a set of intentions
that are the basis of the new economic story and a renewed
ethic of social transformation.
One of the aspects of Rudolf Steiner’s work that inspires
RSF is his framing of economic thinking in a broader social
context that is as transformative as it is challenging to grasp.
He developed this approach in response to the self-interested,
competitive, and nationalistic forces that gave rise to World
War I. In 1922, he proposed that all economics needed to be
reconsidered as one world economy, and that political
boundaries were irrelevant to the flow of economic life. He
presaged the recognition of ecological limits and the altruistic
notion that economic activity in any one place affects and is
affected by the rest of the world. This is an imagination of
circulation rather than accumulation. His version of a world
economy was the complete opposite of how corporate “globalization”
colonizes the local.
Steiner’s imagination of society, sometimes referred to as
threefold commonwealth, divided all social life into three sectors:
cultural-spiritual, rights, and economic. Steiner’s insight
and innovation was to say that if the three ideals of the French
Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—were each
rightfully applied to the appropriate sectors, social life would
find its equilibrium, its life-affirming essence, not through
conflict, but rather through a new kind of engaged conscious
citizenship. Freedom was the guiding principle for the cultural-spiritual;
equality that for rights; brotherhood (what we
call interdependence or mutuality) for economics. This is a
basic framework that has enormous implications for how we
practice our daily lives and organize society—particularly in
the realm of money. But how does one develop a sense for
one’s economic self operating interdependently at the same
time as one’s spirit self works in freedom? How can we see
each other as equals in forming agreements and at the same
moment see each other as not necessarily equal in the realm
of thinking (spirit)? This takes discipline, attention, and forgiveness.
Steiner was always encouraging self-development,
deepened self-awareness, and interest and understanding for
each other. Understanding who we are as individuals, and
how we create our agreements to work together to help others
thrive, is one way to put threefolding into practice.
For better or worse, money is my mirror. As I reflect on
my relationship to and uses of it, I see my values (spiritualcultural)
practiced or not, the agreements I have made as
between equals or not (rights), and whether I have actually
added value to the economy by meeting others’ real needs
(economic). Through this reflective process I can own my
thoughts and actions and work to change myself. This I am
free to do. I am not free to change somebody else. I also participate
in our financial system and it is therefore also a part of
me—like it or not. It is also reasonable to think that whatever
change I can make for myself does actually change the financial
system, even if the rules, laws, policies, and those seeking to
control them for private benefit make it seem an overwhelming
challenge. But, this is part of the new economic story.
What if we practice direct, transparent, personal financial
transactions as a way of reestablishing equilibrium in social
life, including all three sectors? What if we understood that
direct means that we remove layers of intermediation in our
economic life and actually bring producers, consumers and
distributors together in association to set price and determine
best use of natural resources? What if we understood transparency
as a process that means all parties to the transactions
are operating in full and honest disclosure and thus feel equal
in the agreement process? What if our transactions were done
in a spirit of interest in and a sense of long-term responsibility
for each other? In doing so, might we not transform the way
we work with money and bring about social transformation
at the same time?
The inquiry here is purposeful beyond a series of leading
questions. It is also an invitation to and proposal for a process
that is at the heart of the new economic story. The old one
has in many ways already failed us by the ecological disasters
left in its wake and for want of speaking to our deepest humanity.
The new one, threefold in nature, speaks to our longing
for meaning, connection, and community in a way that
is direct, transparent, and personal—and one that welcomes
the presence and practice of spiritual values.
John Bloom is the Director of Organizational Culture at RSF
Social Finance. If you enjoyed this article, originally posted
July 19, 2010 at rsfsocialfinance.org, look for John’s book,
The Genius of Money, at steinerbooks.org.
first issue 2011 • 43