Social Threefolding

I reviewed a volume of essays on social threefolding last year where the elements are our economic, political and cultural institutions aiming respectively at associative co-operation, human rights and equality, and freedom in these three spheres. This collection of essays by Steiner, many of the first time in English, exhibit the development of his social thinking. It is interesting to that his book Towards Social Renewal was so widely read in the aftermath of the First World War, and was reviewed the New York Times. His agenda was the rebuilding of European social structure beyond the alternatives of capitalism and communism, which is still relevant today, especially given his fundamental scientific/spiritual perspective and focus on the nature of the inner life.

He criticised the popular focus on improving outer conditions without any reference to human element, commenting on the inherent circularity given that it is we who create the conditions. Anthroposophy poses a kernel of brotherhood and service analogous to Peter Deunov's focus on love and life for the whole. The memoranda from 1917 about the war and the state of central Europe show Steiner as an acute political commentator speaking from a central European perspective and therefore critical of Woodrow Wilson's peace proposals requiring German submission and sowing the seeds of further conflict. His remarks on variations in the national psyches of Europe are still pertinent, as is his insistence on faith in spirit's power and the need for real strength of purpose equal to the establishment and with a plan for action. My only criticism is that the introduction seems to presuppose familiarity with the idea of threefolding, and it would have been a good idea to explain this concept in more detail.