Global Anthroposophy

Jesaiah Ben-Aharon is an Anthroposophist and the founder of an Israeli intentional community, the kibbutz Harduf. He is also the cofounder of Activists for Israeli Civilian Society (ICS). Ben-Aharon has written several books around various Anthroposophical themes.

“America's Global Responsibility”, published in 2004 by Lindisfarne Books, contains Ben-Aharon's political ideas. They turn out to be a combination of Anthroposophy, alter-globalization and the optimistic version of the New Age circa 1970. Ben-Aharon references William Irwin Thompson, Theodore Roszak, Owen Barfield, David Korten, Nicanor Perlas and Fritjof Capra. He is also interested in postmodernists such as Michel Foucalt and Gilles Deleuze. In some ways, Ben-Aharon's spiritual-optimistic version of alternative grassroots globalization reminds me of David Spangler (not referenced in the book, however). Rudolf Steiner's concept of a “threefolded” society plays an important role, since the author regards “threefolding” as the next step in human societal evolution.

“America's Global Responsibility” is relatively well written, starting off with section on how the globalization driven by American elites have wreaked havoc around the world, and how the same elites are monopolizing more and more wealth at home, creating a 20/80 society (or worse). The next section deals with the anti-globalization movement. Ben-Aharon supports the tendency that calls for an alternative globalization from below, driven by NGOs and other sectors of the civil society. The final section is more Anthroposophical. The author believes that we must first transform ourselves before we can transform others, let alone society as a whole, and sees spirituality as a central part of this personal transformation. While Ben-Aharon never explicitly mentions Waldorf schools, Anthroposophical medicine or bio-dynamic farming, it's clear that his “threefolding” proposals do encompass these contributions by Steiner.

On a more philosophical level, Jesiah Ben-Aharon tries to argue that even materialism, elite globalization and the current anomie and alienation of modern life are, in some sense, positive from an evolutionary viewpoint. Steiner (and Barfield) believed that the materialism and scientism of the West was a necessary stage in the evolution of consciousness, since it made it possible for humans to develop a strong individuality, something impossible during the primordial stage of deep immersion in Spirit. The third stage of this evolution is, of course, that humans return to Spirit, but on a higher level. Ben-Aharon is also fascinated by the idea that order comes from chaos, a notion he connects to Deleuze. He clearly sees the emerging global society, with all its contradictions, as rife with interesting possibilities!

Personally, I honestly don't. While “America's Global Responsibility” isn't a bad book, its optimistic perspective is difficult to take seriously. At one point, the author even denies that Earth's resources are finite! Unless Steiner's lectures contain some super-clever magical dowsing tricks to find new oil wells (or super-abundant bio-dynamic farms in the Antarctic hinterland), I'm afraid Ben-Aharon's alter-globalization will be faced with the same problems as the rest of Gaia: climate change, overpopulation and peak oil being the foremost. There is also a tension in the author's vision between a system that's decentralized, Green and dominated by “civil society”, and a very different system encompassing material abundance, high technology and globalization. Ben-Aharon even sees mankind's conquest of space as a kind of planetary-spiritual initiation! This curious combination of local bio-dynamic farms and space rockets sound very much “Age of Aquarius”, Spangler having the same tendencies. It's difficult to take seriously today. For a more realistic assessment, see John Michael Greer's books, “The Long Descent” in particular.

Since there are no 100% full proof solutions to our present predicament, even “America's Global Responsibility” (or a prolonged chat with the author at his kibbutz) could be of some interest. However, I strongly suspect that the next step in human evolution will be neither alter-global nor particularly responsible…