Twenty Articles From
The Newspaper:
The Threefold Social Order
The Basis of the Threefold Social Order
The
essence of the threefold social
order is that it looks at social relations without party or class prejudice
and poses the question: what must be done at this juncture of human
evolution in order to create viable social forms? Anyone who strives
earnestly and honestly to answer this question shall confront one fact
he or she cannot possibly disregard: namely, that in modern
times the economic and political spheres have come into devastating
conflict with one another.
The class
strata that are the basis of contemporary social life arose out of economic
circumstances. In the course of economic evolution (and as a result of
that evolution) one person became a worker and another an
industrialist, while a third became engaged in some cultural activity.
Socialist thinkers never tire of putting this fact in the forefront of
their programs, thinking it will lend them an aura of necessity. However,
they do not realize that the important point is to see why economics was
able to exert such a tremendous influence upon the stratification of
society. They do not see that this stratification came about because the
industrial system was not opposed by a political and legal system that
could have counteracted its influence. Each person was swept by the forces
of the economy to a point where he stood alone. It was possible to live
only within the conditions that economic life afforded. One person ceased
to understand the other; he could only hope to outvote or overpower
him with the help of those who stood upon the same ground. There has
yet to arise from the depths of human evolution a political or legal
form capable of bringing together the isolated groups of humanity. People
did not see that the old currents of politics and law run counter
to the new economic forces.
One cannot
carry on economic life in the way made necessary by the circumstances
of the last two centuries, and at the same time put people into social
positions evolved from political theories belonging to bygone times.
Nor should one hope that the class structure, which arose apart from
any new political aspirations, can represent a point of departure for
the reconstruction of the social organism. Obviously, the classes who
feel themselves oppressed will not acknowledge the justice of this statement.
They say, “We have had new political aspirations for more than
half a century.” In my
Toward Social Renewal,
I demonstrated
that this is not the case as a first premise for all further consideration
of social renewal. Karl Marx and his adherents have certainly summoned
one class to battle; yet they have merely set forth the same thoughts
learned from the adherents of those classes they are to oppose. Therefore,
even if the battle could bring about what many desire, nothing new would
come of it. It would lead to the same old end; there would merely be
a different group at the helm.
This realization
does not, of course, lead directly to the idea of the threefold order;
but it is a necessary step in that direction. Until this realization
has dawned upon a sufficiently large number of people, they will go
on trying to extract from old ideas of politics and law the impulses
that are supposed to be equal to present economic conditions. Until
they see this, they will be afraid of a threefold articulation of the
social organism because it clashes with their accustomed thinking.
It is
understandable that, in times that have brought so many disasters, people
should shrink from any call for original thinking — thinking born
of the depths of human life. Many feel themselves crushed by the weight
of the times, and despair of the power of ideas as creative forces.
They are “waiting” until “circumstances” produce
a more favorable state of affairs. However, circumstances will never
produce anything but what has been implanted in them by human ideas.
“Yet,
after all,” many say, “the very best ideas are powerless in
actual practice if the circumstances of life reject them!” This
is precisely the point of the threefold social order. The threefold
idea begins with a recognition that neither praxis without theory nor
impractical ideas can ever lead to a viable social organism. Accordingly,
it does not promote an old-fashioned program. There are enough of such
programs to teach one that they may be very “excellent” or
“high-minded” or “inspiring” in the abstract, but
that reality rejects them. In the field of economics, the threefold
idea works with the natural and social realities of modern life; it
works with the sense of right and justice that has evolved over the
last few centuries; it works with a cultural life that provides the
social organism with men and women who understand its organic laws and
promote them to the benefit of society. It believes that, within a
threefold order of the social organism, human beings will find it
possible to work together in such a way that out of this
cooperation, they shall create what cannot be brought about by any
programmatic theory.
Anyone
who is unwilling to see the distinction in principle between the threefold
idea and the usual programs will refuse to be convinced that it could
bear fruit. The idea is one attuned to reality; it does not try to
tyrannize life with a program, but aims at creating a basis that allows
the life from which social impulses spring to develop freely. The
questions of the present and the near future are not of the kind that
can be solved by the intellect; they must be solved in a life-process,
and that life-process must first be created. Modern humanity has only a
first inkling of the real nature of the social question. It will
assume its real form when the structure of the social organism is such
that the three life forces underlying all human existence can rise in
their true form from a vague instinct into conscious thought. Much that
is said today about the social question, when measured against a real
understanding of life, gives the impression of immaturity. It is said
that people are too immature to shape their lives by ideas. That is not
the case: people will be mature enough for answers as soon as they
are presented with questions that are divested of ancient prejudices.
Such is
the present situation perceived by one who, out of a living experience
of the full reality, has struggled through to the idea of the threefold
order. He would like to see this perception translated into action.
However, words enough will have been exchanged only when deeds
are born of them.
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