Rudolf Steiner’s Threefold Social Order
Rudolf Steiner, born in Vienna in 1861, was a scientific genius and created a new way of thinking in the 20th century. Steiner studied Goethe’s scientific works and became an anthroposophist as well as a theosophist. When the Gilded Age had past and the First World War ended, Steiner understood that it was time for change in a world fraught with self-interest and exploitive tendencies. Steiner believed the world could start over in how it conducts its economics, its politics and its social structures. With this, Steiner developed the Threefold Social Organism, a proposal, which describes a new social order he believed was imperative during this time of globalization, capitalism and industrialization. Counter to the world-view of globalization and imperialism during and after World War One, Rudolf Steiner understood values of brotherhood, respect and integrity. He proposed a system of society based on civic virtue where culture, economy and politics acted as separate entities in order to create a more just and peaceful society.
Steiner’s Threefold Social Order enhanced the fact that individuals should be living deliberately and consciously through the social, economic and political aspects of life. We should not exploit others to gain a profit, but have a holistic appreciation for the world and live with integrity. Steiner’s Threefold Social Organism was based on the interrelation of body, soul, and spirit. He believed that it was these three, which reflected the essence of our humanity and our relation to nature and to the cosmos.[1]
“If the economy is left to its own devices without counterbalancing spiritually creative and inspired ideas and actions it is exploitive, even culturally and environmentally destructive. All sustainable systems, whether at the individual, farm, organizational, or social level, are dependent on harnessing or invigorating cosmic or spiritual forces.”[2]
Steiner wanted to see a change in modern society and wanted social renewal. In 1917, Steiner made the blueprints for this change because of the polarity between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Bolshevik Revolution and World War One, Steiner became increasingly concerned about the world splitting apart between Russia and the United States. He saw the dangers of a Cold War before it even happened.[3] According to Johannes Tautz, author of The Founding of the First Waldorf School in Stuttgart, “Rudolf Steiner’s intervention in politics was to bring to bear an equalizing, negotiating principle, which was Central Europe’s task. But Central Europe forfeited this task; that is the German burden of Debt, the German Destiny. The anthroposophical movement must step into this place…”[4] This idea of Steiner’s started in 1917, but came into reality after World War Two.
Steiner gave many lectures about his Threefold Social Order in Dornach, Switzerland and understood that the only way this idea of Threefold Order would become a reality was by creating a Waldorf School to teach and instill Threefold principles in the curriculum. According to Johannes Tautz, “The Threefold Social Order can be prepared only by an anthroposophical school movement.”[5] The first school was created in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany.[6]
Steiner gave the example of the state of Europe as being similar to St. Michael fighting the dragon. “And what do the dragon forces want? They want to extinguish freedom, the self-determination of man — most clearly visible in the Bolshevik Revolution — the extinction of freedom.”[7] Steiner wanted his anthroposophical movement to stimulate a social order that ensures the free development of the individual. His Threefold Social Order stated that culture, politics and economy would act alone and be unaffected by one another. This is essentially Steiner’s theory to lasting peace in the world.
When a German politician, Otto Von Lerchenfed asked what could be done in our world to establish lasting piece, Steiner and his supporters went all over Europe to spread the idea of Threefold Social Order. According to Gary Lamb, author of The Threefold Nature of Social Life, “…Threefold enthusiasts tried to introduce certain aspects of threefolding on a local and regional basis through such initiatives as the first Waldorf School, an effort to advance educational and cultural freedom…”[8] He was giving Europe a very different opinion on how individuals should live in the world.
When Woodrow Wilson proposed his “push for Democracy” after World War One, he understood that human society was affected by economic changes in the world. He understood that with a new era in modern developments and a rapid increase in industrialization, “’We [must] carry on business under new conditions. We think and legislate for the economy of the nation from a perspective long out of date…’”[9] Wilson believed that individuals should work for the benefit of the community and not for their own benefit, which is oddly similar to the Marxist mindset. Wilson also stated that as long as there is an incongruity between politics and the economy, the needs of human evolution cannot be satisfied.[10] Steiner had a lot of criticism of what Wilson said, but he stated an odd comment that makes a lot of sense: “…to do justice to the realities of our day, current conditions often urgently demand paradox.”[11]
The creation of Steiner’s social organism was in order to plant the seeds for the future, so his ideas could become reality. Although there is a lot of vagueness in his plan, “Steiner says that he is not trying to describe a utopia, a task of particularization; he is merely setting forth principals and presenting a general outline.”[12] Steiner is putting in place a paradox. He is forcing people to look at the ideology behind it all. The difference between ideology and reality is very important in Steiner’s opinion because all of what the Culture, Economy, and Politics are is man-made ideologies that could be changed.[13]
In today’s world it has become apparent that economic thinking and interests dominate the political and cultural realms, including education.[14] “…In recent times humanity has developed a life of the mind which is highly dependent on political institutions and economic forces. As children we are already ‘plugged in’ to the educational structure of the state, and are educated in a manner which the economic circumstances of our environment dictate.”[15]
The function of the Cultural is to foster the development of the human being inwardly as well as outwardly; this is based on the principle of individual freedom. The Political is to foster human relations, democracy, equality and should uphold human rights and justice. The Economy fosters altruism, cooperation, and interdependence.[16] These are the three parts of the social organism that Steiner proposed. They must not influence one another and they have to be equal in significance; it is imperative that all parts be upheld in order to promote lasting peace.
The Cultural life must primarily be focused on education and should not be influenced by economic or political events or decisions. The Cultural life does not just foster individualism and self-development, but it fosters a sense of caring for those around the world, for people whom you do not necessarily know. The Cultural also reaches areas of religion, nutrition, science, arts, and medicine. People must have the right of free religious expression, nutrition, and choice of medicine. According to Gary Lamb, “In summation, true cultural freedom requires a highly developed sense of responsibility and a high degree of cultural tolerance.”[17]
The Economic model, unlike the Cultural, does not foster individualism and self-interest, but rather group decision-making, such as determining pricing, and allocating resources. Steiner suggested an impersonal competitive market that “focuses on meeting the real need of consumers rather than meeting needs instilled in people through cooperate advertising aimed at creating new markets.”[18] Ideals of this economic model stem from brotherhood and leadership. This economic system is a hybrid form of capitalism, which Steiner believes must continue to be the economic system. According to Steiner himself, “[Economy] has not discovered laws capable of molding human life within the social organism.”[19] Steiner did not blame capitalism itself, but the way capitalism was run; Steiner did not necessarily want to reform the economic system, but the whole social system of how we view capitalism.[20]
“To a great extent, the economic aspect of life has over-spread everything, because it has outgrown both politics and culture and has acted as a suggestion on human thoughts, feelings, and passions. Thus, it has become increasingly evident that the way that a nation’s business is conducted, in reality, determines the culture and politics of the people.”[21]
I agree with what Steiner says here, because we humans look at the economy and the acquisition of money as a way to make a life, support a family, and pay for things that we want.
Many aspects of our lives are determined by money, such as college, bills, mortgages, food; the list goes on. It is unfortunate that human beings are rarely judged on their innate capacities. They are judged on their skills in business and what they can achieve in a commercial world, where for most, is predicated on making money. Culture now, cannot follow its own independent laws, but it is fitted to Economy and Politics. Now, it is hard for Culture to be independent because so much of it is politics over the question of money. The economic system is now dependent on the political system; Wall Street is very political. The current conflict in Yemen is affecting gas prices. Various political decisions have sometimes, major affects on global markets. Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels saw the state of the economy as their sole reality. They saw cultural life as an ideology and believed that it’s the economy, which determines the state of culture and politics: communism.[22] As this is one point of view, Steiner was trying to determine if his social organism could allow us to live in peace.
The Politics model is quite simple: protect the people’s democratic rights and ensure the people’s security in the state or nation. The government would handle law, civility, security, public health, and environmental security. Just like individualism should affect the Cultural, and collaboration and productivity should affect the Economy, equality should affect the Political “In [a] democratically based political state, we are continually oscillating between self-interested behavior and a concern for others and the greater community.”[23]
In looking at Steiner’s teachings of spirituality, it is important to understand the integrity that must be kept in Political, Cultural, and Economy. Being observant of what goes on in the world, I have noticed that too many products are produced to make a profit; it does not matter how it was made, but the purpose of making the product is for consumers to buy it. Now, being the consumer, for some products, I do not know where they come from or how they are made: whether they are made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh or whether the company tortures animals and injects them with antibiotics. What I’m trying to say is that I rarely see integrity in products, as well as the ideology and the message the product sends. There is a culture I believe can come back, which is not just focused on profit, but integrity and care. “…[Workers] can be brought together again with those who make business possible by lending capital. This cannot be done, however, except through the principle of association, by which people will reunite with one another as human beings.”[24] By being connected with consumers, co-workers, the product, and by treating the product with integrity, that is what Steiner wanted to see in the economy; this is partly what he wanted to see after World War One.
“[The political leaders’] habit of thought admitted of no other conception than that the boundaries of state must also be the bounds of national community. They could not understand, how cultural organizations could be formed, cutting across state frontiers, comprising the school system and other branches of cultural life. It was against all their habitual conceptions. And yet this “inconceivable” thing is what international life demands in the new age. A really practical thinker ought not to be held up by apparent impossibilities, and assume that the obstacles in the way of doing what is requisite are insurmountable. He must simply concentrate on surmounting them.”[26]
Rudolf Steiner presented the world with a paradox, the idea that humanity can understand the Threefold Social Order because Culture, Politics and Economy are all man made ideologies that can be changed. Steiner understood the values of brotherhood and integrity and wanted to restore humanity to its most genuine state. From Gilded Age globalization and imperialism, Steiner brought a new mentality to the social question. The idea that Culture, Politics and Economy must be separate and unaffected by one another so the world could become a more peaceful place.
Bibliography
Fuller, Raymond G. “New Scheme of Social Organization.” Review of The Threefold Commonwealth. The New York Times (New York), January 14, 1923. Accessed March 29, 2015. http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/m/NYTimesReview.php.
Henry, Travis. Solving Burning Conflicts Through the Separation of Culture and State. Charleston: Threefold Now, 2014.
Lamb, Gary. “The Threefold Nature of Social Life.” Institute for Social Renewal, June/July 2008, 39–44. Accessed December 2014. http://socialrenewal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/biodynamics-2008-The-Threefold-Nature-of-Social-Life.pdf.
“Our Story.” RSF Social Finance. http://rsfsocialfinance.org/values/overview/.
Steiner, Rudolf. The Social Future: Culture, Equality and the Economy. Great Barrington: SteinerBooks, 2013.
Steiner, Rudolf. Towards Social Renewal: Rethinking the Basis of Society. Translated by Matthew Barton. Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2009.
Tautz, Johannes. The Founding of the First Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Ghent: AWSNA Publications, 2011. Accessed December 2014. www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/.../The%20Founding%20of%20the%2..
[1] Gary Lamb, “The Threefold Nature of Life.” Institute for Social Renewal, June 2008. Accessed December 2014,
[2] Ibid., 39
[3] Johannes Tautz, The Founding of the First Waldorf School in Stuttgart, (Ghent: AWSNA Publications, 2011), 15
[4] Ibid., 17
[5] Ibid., 19
[6] Ibid., 11
[7] Ibid., 19
[8] Gary Lamb, “The Threefold Nature of Life,” 39
[9] Rudolf Steiner, The Social Future, (SteinerBooks: Great Barrington, 2013), 11
[10] Ibid.,19
[11] Ibid.
[12] Raymond G. Fuller, “New Scheme of Social Organization,” Review of The Threefold Commonwealth. The New York Times (New York), January 14, 1923. Accessed March 29, 2015. http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/m/NYTimesReview.php.
[13] Rudolf Steiner, Towards Social Renewal: Rethinking the Basis of Society, (Rudolf Steiner Press: Sussex, 2009), 2
[14] Gary Lamb, The Threefold Nature of Life, 41
[15] Raymond G. Fuller, “New Scheme of Social Organization,” 2
[16] Gary Lamb, The Threefold Nature of Life, 41
[17] Ibid., 42
[18] Ibid.
[19] Rudolf Steiner, The Social Future, 11
[20] Raymond G. Fuller, “New Scheme of Social Organization,” 2
[21] Rudolf Steiner, The Social Future, 22
[22] Ibid.,25
[23] Gary Lamb, The Threefold Nature of Life, 43
[24] Rudolf Steiner, The Social Future, 43
[25] Travis Henry, Solving Burning Conflicts through the Separation of Culture and State, (Threefold Now: Charleston, 2014), 20–24
[26] Ibid., 21
[27] “Our Story,” RSF Social Finance, http://rsfsocialfinance.org
