Twenty Articles From
The Newspaper:
The Threefold Social Order
Longing for New Thoughts
“Well
meant thoughts don't make
bread.” Such is the wisdom heard today the moment one speaks of
ideas like those underlying the threefold social order. In view of the
gravity of the times, this piece of wisdom may rank with another frequently
heard today: “The social question will look different only when
people return to work.”
Whoever
does not hear these two truths constantly repeated has no ears for the
language of public discourse in widespread circles. And even if they
are not expressly spoken, one hears these words behind much that is
said publicly.
It is
hard for the ideas that the age requires to compete against such founts
of wisdom because these objections are so incomparably “insightful.”
A person need only say, “Show that they are wrong!” for the
keenest thinker to recognize his powerlessness. Of course they cannot
be refuted; they are obviously perfectly true.
Is this
all that is important in life — to say something that
is perfectly true? Is not the all-important task to find thoughts that
can set the facts of the matter into motion? It is a feature of modern
public life (and one which does it great harm) that people will not
combine their thinking with
a sense of reality.
It is only this lack of a sense of reality that stands in the way when
one tries to bring fruitful ideas to bear upon modern social troubles.
People have long been accustomed to such deficient thinking; however,
now it is truly time for a radical change of habits, especially in this
aspect of human life.
First, one must perceive how people came to slip into this kind of
thinking. One must look at the kind of thought valued by our age.
One such cherished train of social thought goes back to the life and
customs of primitive times. People burrow into “primeval ages”
to find communistic customs and such things, and draw from this certain
conclusions about what should be done today. This train of thought has
become very fashionable in pamphlets on the social question, and has
thus spread throughout large circles. It may be found today in a great
many ideas about “the social question,” especially among the
masses.
People might actually have arrived at this particular train of thought
with far less effort than has been devoted to it in many quarters. They
might have compared human social life with the lives and habits of various
wild animals. They would have found that the animals have instinctive
functions which lead them to satisfy their needs, and that these
instinctive functions are adapted to acquiring in the best way the things
nature provides.
The essential
point is that in the human being this instinctive functioning must be
replaced by conscious, intentional thought. We must build upon the foundation
of nature, just like every other creature that must eat to survive.
The “bread question” touches the natural foundation of our
very existence. But this question exists for every creature that needs
food; one cannot possibly talk of “social thinking” in this
regard. Social thinking begins only when the human being works upon
nature by means of his intellect. Through thinking he makes himself
master of the forces of nature; through thinking he brings himself into
association with other human beings in a labor process through which
the “bread” won from nature becomes a part of general social
life. For this life, the “bread question” is an intellectual
one. It can mean only, “Which are the fruitful thoughts that can,
when realized, guide human labor to the satisfaction of our needs?”
One can
readily agree with anyone who, after hearing such an argument, replies,
“Really, that is a very primitive piece of wisdom! What is the
use of expounding anything that is so self-evident?” Indeed, one
would very gladly stop expounding it, if only those who believe it is
so superfluous were not the very people who cast it to the winds and
destroy all sound social thinking with these words of wisdom: “Bread
is not made by thoughts.”
It is
the same with that other wise saying, through which people seek to evade
the gravity of the social question: “First of all, people should
get back to work.” We work when a thought stirs in our soul and
sets us working. If one is to work as a member of society as a whole,
and at the same time feel one's existence to be one worthy of a human
being, social life must be shaped by thoughts that reveal our contribution
in the light of human dignity. Certain circles, it is true (socialist
ones, moreover), would like to replace this incentive to work with compulsory
labor. That is their particular way of avoiding recognition
of the need for fruitful social ideas.
The world
has been brought to its present pass by those who make it impossible
for ideas to effect anything because they run away from them. Salvation
is possible only if a strong body of people, who are still able to rouse
themselves to sufficient consciousness of the true state of affairs,
join together. These people must not grow faint-hearted at
this critical time, for they will be buffeted with the scornful words:
“Impractical idealist! Utopian dreamer!” These people will
do their duty and build, while the scoffers tear down. For everything
that the others, with their “magnificent accomplishments,”
have built or still wish to build, will fall into ruin because with
their dread of ideas and their “practical life” they have
built upon a quagmire of false “realities.” Such people are
merely weaving delusions around their own routines, and procuring
themselves a cheap complacency by scoffing at life's real work. To the
open-minded, it is as clear as day; to look at such things clearly is the
urgent duty of all who are unafraid to change their way of thinking. The
age longs for creative thoughts. This longing will not be silenced,
however noisily the foes of thinking may try to drown it out by
thoughtlessness and grandiose gestures.
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