Practical occultism?

Rudolf Steiner was the founder of the Anthroposophical Society, a religious group with a message based on Steiner's rather idiosyncratic interpretation of the Western esoteric tradition. Reincarnation, karma, conspiracy theory, evil demons, nature spirits and the invisible return of Christ "in the etheric" are some of the beliefs of this group. What makes the Anthroposophists unique among occultist groups, is that Steiner also laid great emphasis on practical, tangible goals in the present. Steiner developed an alternative pedagogy, known as Waldorf schooling, had ideas about ecologically sustainable agriculture, and even developed a political theory, known as Threefold Social Order, which he apparently agitated for quite seriously during the German revolutionary crisis after World War One. (His opponents weren't amused.)

Steiner's main work on the Threefold Social Order has been translated to English under many different titles. It seems that the books "Threefold Commonwealth" and "Threefold State" are actually the same work, in two somewhat different translations! Steiner's book is also available free on-line at the website of the Rudolf Steiner Archive, where it's titled "Basic issues of the social question".

Nominally, Steiner proposes a curious division of society into three autonomous spheres: the economic, the political and the spiritual. The three spheres have separate decision-making assemblies, and there is no united parliament for all of society. It's unclear where this idea comes from. Steiner was born in the multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary, where some political groups proposed the creation of autonomous cultural associations for each nationality, as an alternative to full independence. Perhaps this kind of non-geographical federalism served as inspiration when Steiner developed his own ideas? Cultural federalism was still in vogue in 1919, when the book was originally published, now associated with Austro-Marxists, the Jewish Bund, etc. Another possible sources of inspiration are the co-operative movement and moderate forms of anarchism.

I said that Steiner "nominally" proposed a three-way division of society. In reality, the three spheres aren't independent from each other. The economic sphere is clearly subordinated to the political sphere, and it's implied here and there that the spiritual sphere might actually be the most important. The spiritual organisation chooses all the judges, and fortunes whose deceased owners didn't leave a will are transferred to the spiritual organism. The spiritual organisation also controls all education, science and culture. This usually sounds quite "hippie", as when Steiner says that school attendance should be strictly voluntary, but why does he want the spiritual sphere to select the courts?

As for the economy, Steiner envisages a system dominated by cooperative enterprises, with profit sharing between the managers and the employees. Most of the profit, however, goes to the community. No unproductive capital is allowed. If a cooperative enterprise doesn't invest its capital somewhere, the state has the right to remove the managers, and offer the enterprise to somebody else. Nor are citizens allowed to have large savings, unless these are invested in cooperative ventures. Steiner also proposes that new money should be printed from time to time, at which time the old currency is voided. In this manner, large savings in the old money becomes worthless. Steiner also calls for price controls, apparently negotiated by cooperatives and consumer representatives. It also seems that Steiner opposes the buying and selling of land, but this point is made mostly in passing. What Steiner doesn't say is that his system would have little or no economic growth: if there are price controls, no surpluses and no savings, it would be a steady-state economy. This, I think, is the point of Steiner's reforms, since he believes that the spiritual dimension is the most important one. The point of economic activity is simply to provide humans with essentials, thereby liberating them to pursue spiritual and cultural endavours. In other words, a "Green" vision.

It's hard to see how this system really makes the state and the economy independent of one another. It's the state that makes the rules governing the economy. Of course, we could choose to call the state "the community" and imagine it to be democratic, but it would still be the subordination of economics under politics. Not bad in itself, but why didn't Steiner say so explicitly? Perhaps he feared being accused of "socialism" or "communism".

It's also difficult to see how this kind of society can be implemented in practice, without some kind of seismic shift in the consciousness of modern man. In the end, not even Steiner seemed to have believed that the Threefold Commonwealth could be implemented at one stroke, since he emphasizes gradual evolution. Today, we are probably even further from his ideal than in 1919. Steiner's blend of co-ops, bio-dynamic farming and new agey spirituality could perhaps appeal to people trying to create alternative communes.

In the real world, it's either Stimulus or death.

Still, it's interesting that at least one occultist had a political vision.