Translator's
Introduction
This book,Basic issues of the Social
Question was written in 1919
for the German-speaking peoples of central Europe. It deals with the
social problems of that time and suggests solutions. The question
therefore arises: Is this book still relevant today, in the
21st century, for a worldwide readership?
In order to answer this question,
let us first look at the book's very last paragraph:One can anticipate the experts
who object to the complexity of these suggestions and find it
uncomfortable even to think about three systems cooperating with each
other, because they wish to know nothing of the real requirements of life
and would structure everything according to the comfortable requirements
of their thinking. This must become clear to them: either people will
accommodate their thinking to the requirements of reality, or they will
have learned nothing from the calamity and will cause innumerable new
ones to occur in the future.
The calamity referred to is the First
World War, and since that time history has certainly shown these words to
be prophetic. Rudolf Steiner's suggestions were ignored in Central Europe
at that time, at least by those who were in a position to put them into
practice, and the calamities have been occurring ‘innumerably’ ever
since. The ‘social question’ has not been resolved, nor have the steps
been taken which are necessary to initiate the healing process. People
all too often still look to the political state for the solution to all
social problems, whether they be of an economic, spiritual (cultural), or
political nature.
Where in the world is spiritual life,
schools for example, free — not in the sense of cost, but free from state
control and economic influence? Where does an ‘associative’ economy
function? What political state is content with its legitimate function of
ensuring that human rights are respected? The answer to all these
questions is negative. The destructive tendencies which existed in 1919
are still very much with us; in fact, they have greatly increased their
potency.
Certain historical circumstances are
referred to, especially in Chapter Four, which were fresh in the minds of
the readers in that part of the world at the time the book was written.
Rudolf Steiner was born on 27 February 1861, in the town of Kraljevec,
which was then in Austria-Hungary and is now in Croatia (he died on 30
March 1925 in Dornach, Switzerland), so the events relating to such
political entities as the Austria-Hungarian and German empires were
entirely familiar to him and, for the most part, to his readers. This is
no longer the case, so I have added in-line ‘Notes’ within the text which
can, however, only include a very brief description of the historical
events referred to by the author.
In spite of the fact that certain
descriptions refer to specific occurrences and attitudes of the times in
which it was written, the suggestions and essential principles given by
Rudolf Steiner are even more relevant today than when they were
originally described, if only because their realization has since become
even more urgent.
Frank Thomas Smith
October 2019