Freedom - the Ultimate Rulebreaker
The Quality of a Motive, Rudolf Steiner and Passports
Freedom… what else is valued more, by any of us?
If I do something, how do I know I am free, and what does that mean anyway? Does it mean I am un-compelled, un-coerced to do or not do? Yes. But - the real compulsion comes from the many layers of my own being. If I take for the motive of my action an idea which arises from what I am told is right, by my peer group, by the news or my church, without really thinking it through and making it my own, I am not inwardly free. If the motive is raw instinct, even worse. That’s why we wait for others to be served before diving on our food, so we can make ourselves more human by subordinating hunger to care for others.
Just above instinct and drives in the hierarchy of motives is emotionality. When I hear something that upsets me, and I react with harsh words, or by lashing out, I definitely have not reached the level of inner freedom. In The Philosophy of Freedom, Steiner describes in chapter 9 how actions are only free from compulsion of any kind when they spring from what he calls a moral intuition, which is the pure recognition of what is right in a given situation. This is our life’s work; understanding and ranking one’s motives. Learning, raising oneself above all the subtle compulsion of feelings and ideas to a direct seeing of the truth.
We can see the idea of inner freedom being attacked around us - one of the most poignant examples being the trends of the past three years.
I’ve had occasion to look over some documentaries on 1940’s Europe and so the level of insanity is fresh in my mind. Especially the experiences of our brothers and sisters of Jewish descent. People going about their business were being asked to show ID’s, for the worst of purposes. Let me see your papers, so I can make sure you’re not Jewish and you can enter the store. Show me your pass, so I can see you’re Aryan and you can work.
Fast forward to the early 2020’s… show me your papers, so I can make sure you’re not unvaccinated and you can enter the restaurant. Let me see your pass, so I can see if you’re vaccinated and you can continue to work. (In case you live in a part of the world this news didn’t reach, yes, I know many, many people who were refused entry to stores and restaurants, lost friends and lost their jobs because they didn’t have the right “papers”.)
The parallel, at least in attitudes, is quite uncomfortable. But here we can feel the deepest possible gratitude. For the fact that this time when division and exclusion reared its head, it did not lead to a world catastrophe. I take hope from this.
Let’s take a look at the language used in official messaging. It is too similar for comfort. 1940’s propaganda was also health oriented - contamination, purity, safety - and about segregating an unclean part of the population. A western leader infamously said last year, “we are dealing with a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. Many prominent commentators stated that the unvaccinated should be turned away at the emergency room.
Whatever you think about the corona virus, the pandemic or the vaccines is completely beside the point; the gesture we saw within much of the west was one of creating a two tiered society: those who belong, and those who don’t. Those who are safe to be around, and those to be avoided. Is excluding others based on a health-sanitation ideology a positive trend? It concerns me. And we shouldn’t forget that our governments tried hard to pass regulations which would allow them to intern people without a pass or who had a “positive test” (see New York State and Austria).
It was harder to go the the library in Los Angeles than to vote in Georgia. Where there were no official mandates requiring a card to enter public buildings, citizens took it upon themselves to discriminate. Even good-hearted musicians, restaurateurs and healthcare providers required those without a card to meet online. It didn’t really matter that mounting evidence showed, as the CDC eventually confirmed, that vaccination did little to protect those around you. Just as it didn’t matter that the only thing that made Jewish people different was that they seemed to be successful at whatever they set their minds to.
That is because it wasn’t ever about the facts; it was about giving people permission to despise and exclude those outside their tribe, with or without a reason.
I feel a great deal of compassion for everyone swept up in this; after all we were told we were acting out of responsibility, rather than exclusion. It would be a huge mistake to judge anyone who honestly believed they were trying to keep others safe - that would be falling into the same trap. What we are looking for is acceptance, understanding and love, right?
So; what are our motives for this kind of action? From what level do they come? Does tribal exclusion spring from the fonts of inner freedom?
We can see the gesture of this phenomenon. What on earth could be inspiring such an awful thing? Human is the welling up in the soul of understanding and love. Hate and disgust have to be taught. This impulse thus did not come from the heart. The heart is the humble reflection in man of the Sun, and the Sun is the archetype of compassion. Division, exclusion and judgement are inspired by the adversary - here’s why:
If we identify as human, we are out of Ahriman’s, the adversary’s reach. As the spirit of materialism, he does not understand the inner freedom out of which is born compassion and love. And so he detests this freedom and pours forth all his power to inspire identification with things other than the universally human - things like being a member of a political party, a religion or a class. And let’s not forget, with being not-Jewish or being vaccinated.
This teaching has as its goal the prevention of humanity’s ascent to true selfhood - the consciousness which recognizes the human spirit in ALL of our brothers and sisters. This resistance to our true evolution we must overcome at all costs.
The idea of rising above pettiness gains new meaning when we turn away from divisive trends and renew our allegiance to the archetype of the human being - to the spirit of love which inspires without compulsion, which continuously holds space within the soul for its rebuilding with the beams of freedom.
I have been reading Rudolf Steiner's lectures in September 1924 to the Priests of the CC about the Apocalypse of Saint John. Herein, he speaks especially about the importance of perceiving three closely related periods of time. The first concerns the advent of the Michael Mystery in the 1870's; the second concerns the Christ experience at the midpoint of the 20th century; and the third is the Sorath Mystery of 1998, and wherein Sorathian agents will abound in the world. I will cite the specific passage from lecture eight:
"It only makes sense If one becomes an Apocalypticer oneself through this Apocalypse and if one begins to understand one's age through this process of becoming an Apocalypticer to such an extent that one can make the impulses of this age into impulses for one's own work. However, here present-day human beings, including people who are active as priests, must look at the rise of Michael in the seventies of the last century, at the appearance of Christ in the first half of the 20th century and at the threatening rise of Soradt and the Soradtians at the end of the 20th century. Let us arrange our lives in accordance with these three mysteries of our time, the Michael mystery, the Christ mystery and the Soradt mystery as understanding human beings who know how to interpret the signs of our time, and we will be able to work in the right way in the field into which karma has led us, as for instance, the priest in his priestly field. We will go on from here tomorrow."
Thus, true Freedom becomes very comprehensive in its development, and we should refrain from trying to see the recent past, e.g., 1940 & 2020, as indicating a further lapse into slavery.