Rights Life Today
The Threefold Nature of Human Society
And the Special Issue of BOUNDARIES
Previous : Rights Life Today : An Introduction
Our needs as human beings are many and complex - but they also fall into certain basic categories. For the sake of shared vocabulary, these may be seen as :
While human social life is infinitely complex, these three realms or fields of activity are archetypal. They each have contributions to make - and also specific needs, if they are to thrive. With his threefold social idea (or threefold social order), Rudolf Steiner discerned this threefold membering of society, and these different sets of contributions and needs systematically for the first time.
Once grasped, the threefold idea offers surprising insights into why things go wrong in society when they do ; and also for understanding why they go right when they do. I'll start by exploring the realm of rights life in more detail.
The Sphere of Rights Life
The realm of "rights" concerns limits and boundaries among individuals, between groups, and between individuals and groups. It's needed that rights be established in society because of a most basic and recurring fact of human life : namely that under certain conditions, the actions of one person or group infringe on the freedoms, safety or well being of another person or group. Rights are based in the need of every human being, on the one hand for certain freedoms, and on the other for safety. Rights are established in society through agreements among people, concerning which behaviors are acceptable among them, and which not. These may of course be agreed on privately and personally in different ways among people ; but also in more formal ways.
The Domain of Government
To be a human being means to live with paradox. Just as we have the capacity and impulses to do good in our human actions, the capacities to make mistakes, to in some cases conceal them, and in certain cases even to act with malice or intent, also run deep in our nature. While it's possible to redeem these traits, this tends to happen only gradually for us. We can see this both in history, and if we're honest, in ourselves as well. This healing activity must therefore be seen as a process, as something ongoing - a long term social "work in progress".
In the meantime, rights life serves society by identifying harms and wrongs that concern people, building consensus on these matters, setting limits and penalties, and creating processes by which they're punished or redressed. This is practical work, that has evolved its own set of professions, with expertise in various protective roles.
As rights and safety are needs of all people, these are positions of trust, with a responsibility to rightly represent those served. Rights life lends safety and dignity to human life, and is an important stabilizing force in society. In the best case, this is the core and most essential task of government.
The scope of rights life (and government) includes important and basic civil and human rights ; protections by police, criminal justice systems and eventually the military ; and protections against serious harm due to unsafe products and practices, including harm to the natural and economic environments common to all.
The irreducible need of healthy rights life is equality. All citizens need "equal protection under the law" from harm, need redress of loss or injury done to them - and an equal voice in creating the rules and laws by which society is governed.
As noted, rights life is the most essential task of government - and also it's most legitimate one. Government is correct to protect citizens from injury, harm or loss at the hands of economic interests, or those of any branch of spiritual-cultural life ; but for the best health of society, righting these abuses would mark the limits of its tasks. Again, a view to the overall more healthy structuring of society can be found in the threefold social idea of Rudolf Steiner. This idea, and the urgent (but still mostly unconscious) need of society for such a threefold membering, is the orientation point for my Facebook page Rights Life Today
Rights Life in Crisis
The first and second articles in this series looked at the phenomenon of "threefoldness" as it occurs in nature, in our own bodies and consciousness ; and in its optimal healthy form in human society. Here we'll explore, one time through thoroughly, how this threefoldness in society can break down - and what the costs to our lives and society not only might be some day, but are now, in almost any area we look.
In noting the differing needs of the three spheres, Steiner also finds one they have in common, namely a need for autonomy - the need of each to be free of interference from the others, and unfold its own unique strengths. Economic, rights and spiritual cultural rights are not by nature at odds, but interference and conflicts among them do indeed cause harm. A review of the kinds of incursions that occur - and their consequences - will follow below.
These explorations are not intended to identify "evildoers", or cast doubt on humanity, collectively or individually ; but rather to clarify, when things go wrong in society, why it is that they do. Nevertheless, bear in mind as you read, the scale of harm possible when whole societies, and the institutions that anchor them, perpetrate such incursions ; and their impact not just on "society" as an abstract principle, but on the individual human being.
Trespass of Spiritual Cultural Life into Rights Life
This was a problem faced squarely by the framers of the U.S. form of government, and manifested in the principle of "separation of church and state".
Despite the great contributions of religious life to European society, it also occurred repeatedly in the course of history that religious denominations - different ones at different times and in different places - gained influence over the policies of political states, to attack or dominate perceived "enemy" denominations. Persecutions on the basis of faith tore the fabric of life in Europe violently, and literally for centuries. Mindful of the chaos, wars and migrations these had caused, the American framers chose to set strong boundaries, as noted.
Not anticipated and restricted, however, were tendencies to sects and factions in all realms of spiritual cultural life.
The persecution of groups and persons on the basis of faith is one clear theme in history ; but spiritual cultural life includes many disciplines - among them education, science and the healing arts, to name just three.
Like religious life, each of these fields have their schools of thought, and differences of methods and opinion. Given protections of freedom, these differences have room to be resolved ; to be worked out on
the basis of free discussion and exploration ; to gain adherents on the basis of their merits - or find no adherents at all. This is the natural process of spiritual cultural life - the way understanding evolves, and progress occurs
But as with religious denominations, the temptation exists to prevail by force - to gain the favor of government, become the "official" school, able to set policy and exclude or suppress other views. With official status, the favored approach - for instance a certain approach to medicine - gains power to set rules for the much broader field of activities, affecting all practice in that field, possibly even banning some kinds of remedies or treatments. The general effect on this field can only be impoverishment :
- Poverty of choices for the public (what is financed, what is approved).
- Loss of beneficial effects, through restriction of other modalities.
- Poverty of ideas, through narrowed education and discussion.
- Loss of checks and balances, should the favored approach fall into
serious or dangerous error.
- Denial of livelihood to other approaches/practitioners.
To the extent the dominant paradigm is rigid or has blind spots, this power-based structure can miss - or even cause - real and serious harm in society. While these may not mean bloodshed as in earlier times, the devastation to individuals and society (in this case in the realm of healthcare), is in truth not less. This will easily repeat in science, education or any area of spiritual cultural life where one school or faction gains access to the powers of government, and uses these against perceived rivals or "false creeds".
Trespass of Rights Life into Spiritual Cultural Life
Whether by negligence or intent, practitioners in spiritual cultural life at times cause serious injury, harm or loss. In a healthy course of rights life this would be addressed by government through its processes of detection, investigation and prosecution, with advice as needed from experts in the professions concerned. But interventions of government in this sphere are not without dangers.
Spiritual cultural life has no right to cause harm, of course ; but to thrive, it also requires freedom : freedom for practitioners to develop their individual gifts and abilities, to innovate, and to serve those who seek their services. Historically these matters were dealt with organically in the professions themselves, and in the course of the actual work. In recent centuries, however, they've come more and more under the jurisdiction of government. The state licenses virtually all branches of spiritual cultural work, regulates standards and scope of practice, professional education, the contents of learning and the knowledge base of practitioners. Options for independence have decreased, with more and more limitations, enforced by more and more consequences and penalties. The role of government has grown gradually enough that this process is not much consciously noticed.
Nevertheless, in hopes to prevent harm by various professions, the state has come to define actual practice in these fields, in astonishingly fine detail. In defining "must do" parameters for virtually all professions, governments also come to fix increasing areas of "may not do" ; limits and exclusions of practice, and of autonomy to act, teach or even speak outside proscribed boundaries. In effect today, if a practitioner steps beyond these, he or she is technically considered unqualified, and potentially, subject to discipline and penalties.
This goes far past redress of injury, harm or loss caused by practitioners, which would be justified ; to an ability of the state to choke off dissent in any field ; and should real harm develop from some product or practice, to silence or punish those who point it out. Even those most accomplished in their fields are subject to this ; and although a practitioner may work a whole career in good standing, these mechanisms for control are in place at all times.
Trespass of Economic Life into Rights Life
Economic life, as noted, creates and distributes products that meet the physical needs of human life. But it also has its own needs and natural limiting factors - namely the availability of materials and natural resources on the one hand ; and the availability of competent, willing human beings on the other.
To meet its ends and overcome obstacles, economic life employs every manner of skill and invention : tools, machinery, systems, procedures, negotiations, contracts and agreements among many parties. These are the means and methods that make physical life possible - and economic life admirable - among human activities. But it may also come up against hard limits in the areas noted ; and at this point encounters what can only be described as temptations.
A first and obvious example might be a business owner who employs people in a town. He knows how to recognize and direct the abilities of others, and does so skillfully. But as he has a certain profit in mind, he also wants them to work a great deal - say, sixteen hours a day - and doesn't want to pay them much. His offer is to take what they get, work as long as they're told to - or risk losing their source of livelihood.
It may cost them their dignity, time with their families and eventually their health ; but the needs of a family and other circumstances of life make it near impossible to tell him no. With this he's turned their human skills, time and work into commodities, like any other product or raw material - at the cost of all else that makes them human. In short, he uses their need and the capital he controls to exert power over them. Employees feel, and "when push comes to shove", experience directly, that once they work for him, they've lost great swaths of their rights, even those the law might otherwise promise.
A further source of harm so common today that it escapes conscious attention, are various forms of speculation. Suppose the same owner is ambitious, and wants more ways to enrich himself. He plans a new factory at a place with many advantages - near to a variety of resources, with easy access to ports, railroads, etc. Again, this is good business practice - but again, he wants more.
Because he has capital, he buys up land in the area, knowing this place and its resources are also needed by others. He buys mines and timberland, land near the ports and rail lines noted - again, excellent business practice. But he buys more than he needs for himself, and raises prices on what he owns, "as much as the market will bear". He buys or builds homes his workers will need, with rents as the market will bear. He opens or buys banks, and rents his money. He uses his capital to enhance his advantage over others at every turn.
Because his actions cause people difficulties and inspire anger, he takes steps to affect government policies. This might include support of friendly political candidates, lobbyists to keep them informed of his wishes, and insertion of his allies in government posts and agencies.
Especially pernicious effects arise when his products or practices are found harmful to human health, or the environment. Through his influence and contacts, he can delay or prevent restrictions on products and practices he profits from - at the expense of society overall. This is a circumstance we might think of as "government turned on its head" : namely that instead of protecting citizens against a product or practice that does harm, it protects the product/practice that does the harm.
Not content with gains of these many kinds at home, he turns his attention to other lands, and enlists the state - his own or the foreign one - to help him secure advantages there. Governments are often drawn into wars by such entanglements ; or condone and enable the actions of dictators, to protect favored industries. Perversely, sales of weapons, and war-induced shortages of products/commodities of all kinds offer yet more ways opportunities for profits - a self-perpetuating, exploitative cycle.
Whether in the homeland or the foreign, offenses cause harm. Resistance to this may take the form of civil or human rights activism, environmental activism, etc - or unfold in less peaceful and orderly ways. Even without clear understanding of what causes their pain, people feel themselves wronged ; and even with no clear solutions in mind, feel driven to action - at times impulsive (or organized) violent action.
Time and again in history, oppressed peoples fall prey to demagogues, and to sudden destructive explosions. At the extremes of predatory capitalism, governments criminalize and crush protest, not just in its chaotic forms, but its most principled and orderly ; and not just in faraway places abroad ; but eventually also at home.
The Special Problem of "Surveillance Capitalism"
Perhaps the most recent and serious challenge to rights life from the side of economic life is surveillance capitalism ; namely, the commodification of data which mass-scale, technological corporate data collection provides ; and the direct access and use of this data.
This process works largely by tailoring marketing and advertising to each person, through analyzing each person’s psychology, from any number of data points from social media posts to specific device usage patterns. These kinds of activities are attractive both to those who sell goods and services, and to product makers who create ever more “convenient” and “intuitive” products. It may also be attractive to many modern individuals for the possible ease it affords, and for reinforcement of personal preferences. Not noticed, though, may be a narrowing in one's own thinking and social contacts ; and the possibility that this all be used against one.
Surveillance capitalism happens almost completely below the threshold of awareness of those surveilled, and with little or no regard for their privacy. And data collection, mining and tracking are not only tools for product makers. They're also of interest, actual and potential, to governments, for purposes of surveillance and security - or more darkly, for political control. Corporate data systems may be linked technologically with little civilian oversight to government systems for contact, communication or financial tracing purposes. Social credit, ranking and rule systems, whether government or corporate derived, typically do not include citizen input when established ; nor do punishments and penalties by which they're enforced.
The various observations above are not meant to disparage capitalism, in the sense that resources and capital are placed in the hands of those best able to use them ; the complexity of modern production and distribution require this, at every level of economic life. The threefold idea observes only that in following its own core needs and interests, economic life easily comes in conflict with civil and human rights, the safety of human beings and the environment ; and in fact does so frequently.
Trespass of Rights Life into Economic Life
While it's appropriate for government to stop economic interests from doing harm, attempts by government to manage or regulate actual activities of economic life inevitably undermine it.
Government intervention in this realm has grown steadily in recent centuries, to the extent that we take it almost completely for granted. Yet, as with activities of spiritual cultural life, government has no natural expertise at economic life ; and when it does intervene, it tends to do so inefficiently and ineffectively - and at worst, heavy-handedly and destructively.
We've already seen effects of alliances of the state with capitalism ; forms this can take range from neoliberal thinking and policies, to the extreme of fascism. At the opposite end of the spectrum state control of economic life took extreme historical form in communism.
Antisocial impulses have never disappeared under communism, but simply taken other forms. The transfer to state control has typically been violent and brutal ; and pursuit of personal privilege and enrichment by state officials has been notorious in these systems. Expressions of dissent or frustration are treated almost as treason, and often ruthlessly crushed. Surveillance and tracking technologies now make this control near absolute.
Communism rightly identified abuses to human rights and dignity perpetrated by capitalism ; but supposed this could be eliminated by transferring control of capital and the means of production to the state. But correct as the state might be about the abuses of capitalism, it could grasp neither the needs of economic life, nor it's dynamic and creative nature. For those who did have the ability to manage capital, factories or farms, the rules and demands of the state caused constant hindrances ; and economic life stagnated. Mismanagement of agriculture alone, in Russia and China under communism, is now known to have caused deaths in the tens of millions.
To attempt an overview of communism and capitalism, it will help to look one more time at economic life. In the processes of producing, distributing and consuming, economic life must move things, and seek those things it needs. This activity is natural, a web of activity that must eventually extend worldwide. Economic life will only need limits set on it when it does specific harm, as discussed previously. If capitalism causes harm to rights and safety when allowed too much power by the state, communism harms economic life by overly controlling and restraining it.
For now, there remain two last general kinds of trespass among the spheres of social life, as follow.
Trespass of Economic Life into Spiritual Cultural Life
Economic life applies skills and insights drawn from spiritual cultural life to all parts of the economic process, including production, distribution and the delivery of needed services. This encompasses inventions and innovations it "brings to market", and myriad efficiencies it can find and apply, all in the service of bringing products to people. To this extent, for society, the relationship is fruitful and healthy.
Problems arise when an economic entity, for instance a corporation, intervenes in a field of spiritual cultural life, at the cost of integrity or freedom (e.g. of exploration or expression) in that field. Corporations do this, for instance, when they
To review, spiritual cultural life contributes constantly to economic life, and to human life generally, when it can do so in freedom ; but when economic life controls the content, expression or forward progress of spiritual cultural life, it inevitably harms and paralyzes it.
Trespass of Spiritual Cultural Life into Economic Life
Economic life is an archetypal phenomenon of human life, and subject to natural law. Under the right conditions, through appropriate actions and cooperation, the needs of all human beings can in fact be met. But wrongly understood or implemented, economic life can also be damaged. The deciding factors are, first of all, in our thought processes.
As seen previously, spiritual cultural life originates in the efforts of individual human beings, and gives rise to invention and progress in all areas of life. Human culture arises when they cooperate to share creative thoughts and insights, to achieve or preserve these benefits - at best, in service of all human society. Economic life relies constantly on this help from the side of spiritual cultural life, and suffers immediately when it lacks.
What's missing, when it does, can most often be traced either to lack of insight concerning the particular work at hand ; or lack of the necessary competence. These things can be a matter of inexperience, or lack of education and training - especially in those who try to start or build a business ! They can also be a matter of aptitude for a particular kind of work. An old saying puts this humorously :
"If your business is harvesting nuts, you can either hire squirrels, or teach horses to climb trees."
The point is that for any work to succeed, the right person must be in the right job. Problems of this kind are ones either of self-knowledge, ineffective personnel management or both. They multiply especially when those who make decisions in a field or project do not actually work in that field - either not currently, or never at all. Consequences are never long to follow, as
- The quality of products or services deteriorates.
- The circulation and distribution of products is interrupted.
- The need or demand for the product/service is overestimated.
- The need, cost or availability of needed materials and resources - including human
resources - are underestimated.
- The product or service offered is not made properly visible to the hoped for market/audience.
These failures are costly - but can be remedied through experience, training and intra-organizational communication (healthy group process).
More serious, however, are ideas and concepts that undermine economic life, directly or indirectly. Effects of these are all the worse when held rigidly, or forced on society through the exercise of power by sectarian interests, whether in government as noted earlier, or in the economy itself.
The doctrines of capitalism and communism in their most extreme forms are in fact creeds, belief systems, rather than manifestations of economic life - and for this reason, tend inevitably to harm it. The assumptions underlying the current push for a "Great Reset" - namely that the economies and resources of the world (and much else in it) will function best if controlled centrally, through technology - are also, first of all, a framework of ideas, intended in this case not just to equal, but surpass the two previous great "-isms".
Though perhaps not much noticed, all of these economic ideologies have a common root - namely, in the doctrine of materialism. Materialism is also a prevailing doctrine in natural science today, where it sets limits to scientific thinking and research. What is the basis for this ?
The Costly Doctrine of Materialism
Natural science finds insight and discovers laws in the natural world through observation, and through thinking about what's been observed. It's areas of study are physical phenomena that can be weighed, measured and perceived by our five senses : sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and their extension through instruments. In the realm of purely physical and mechanical phenomena, it's extremely precise, and discovers laws that stand up well under scrutiny ; and in turn give rise to inventions and technologies that are not just useful to us, but indispensable.
Historically, this science came to recognize certain limits to its understanding of the natural world, and also of the realm of consciousness, beyond which it could not reach. These limits were discerned (and admitted) as early as the mid-1800s by leading scientists of their day, and have not been overcome - neither through concepts, methods or research. For some scientists, an absence of working tools and concepts led to the conclusion that, beyond what could be weighed and measured, beyond the reach reach of the five senses, no satisfactory tools or concepts were possible. This is in fact the foundation in concepts of materialism.
But as in other areas of human life, science - or more accurately, scientists - have since been prone to impulsiveness. Once acknowledged, admissions of limits are also sometimes forgotten, as science simply jumps a gap of knowledge to theories that are later accorded the weight of scientific laws - in the absence of full testing, and at times without testing at all. Such theories have next given rise to technologies, rapidly invented and applied, again in the absence of full understanding, especially of their risks and downsides. Unfortunately there are many such cases today, where science has raced swiftly ahead, while flying at least in part blind.
What realms are there, that science is with best efforts still unable to understand - but intervenes in boldly nonetheless ? A first is
Without ways to truly understand the realms of life, sentience and self-consciousness, science intervenes (technologically) anyway, intensively and on the very largest scale. Lacking adequate concepts, it fails to even seek the knowledge it needs to intervene appropriately ; or the moral-ethical values to do so responsibly. This has wide-ranging - and increasing - real world consequences.
In an age with science as its dominant worldview, materialism has come to dominate science, and this has effects in every sphere of life. The gaps in our understanding of living things, of sentience, of consciousness - and of ourselves as human beings - leave us not just unable to rightly nurture them, but prone to constantly harm them.
In the big picture, science (and its practitioners) are no better than their guiding ideas - and no less prone to error, greed or corruption than any other field or discipline, current or historical. Moreover, where potentially better ways to understand life, sentience and self-consciousness have emerged (a future article), they're subject to scorn, and to aggressive attack.
Without our necessarily noticing it, materialism colors our thinking, feelings and actions in virtually all areas of life today. When this is disquieting, we may find a certain refuge in traditional ways and values ; but the "ideals" of materialism - wealth, advantage, power - are a constant tempting force in society. And in economic life, a constantly destructive force.
Planting the Seeds of Threefolding
It's tempting to look away from wrongs in the world today, and the escapes available to us are many. Equally so are the impulse - and offers - to just join in, and "get a piece of it" for ourselves. The urge to "check out" - or conform and get our share - seem only to increase today, for the individual, seemingly isolated human being.
In the meantime too, we hear on all sides that some other group or person is at fault ; that "someone else" is evil, and our enemy. It can be tempting to believe this - but also tricky, as it transforms easily to a sense that anyone could be an enemy, that no one can be trusted - including ourselves. On the large stage, this mindset predisposes us to endless conflicts - and eventually to warfare ; on the personal level, eventually to self hatred, self destruction.
The threefold idea offers a middle, less apocalyptic way, a set of insights by which conflicts may be understood, addressed as practical (albeit large) problems ; and solved as such, in community with others.
This series will continue to look at unhelpful paths in rights life, including the phenomenon of political parties, and other specific mindsets that undermine it, and turn it destructive. The final articles will look beyond rights life to ways a threefold idea might grow into a robust and creative force in society, bringing the three spheres into healthier interaction and alignment.
Next : False Paths in Rights Life : Political Parties
The Threefold Nature of Human Society
And the Special Issue of BOUNDARIES
Previous : Rights Life Today : An Introduction
Our needs as human beings are many and complex - but they also fall into certain basic categories. For the sake of shared vocabulary, these may be seen as :
- Our various physical needs of life, which we satisfy by means of economic life. Economic life includes the production and consumption of goods from raw materials, their distribution where needed and the providing of needed and/or related services.
- Our need for understanding and insight, and the manifold improvements, help and benefits these contribute to our lives. Abilities for these things are developed and expressed within spiritual and cultural, or spiritual-cultural life. Science, medicine, education, religious and spiritual life and the arts all belong to this realm - as do other forms of human ability and expertise, even so far as physical abilities : strength, agility, the ear or voice of a musician, etc. The skills and abilities of those who work in the economic and rights spheres are also developed in the spiritual cultural sphere, in trainings appropriate to those professions.
- Our need to be free from serious injury, harm or loss at the hands of others ; or as a result of harmful products and practices. This realm of activities includes protection of our civil and human rights and of the environments (e.g. natural, economic) common to all ; and is what we refer to when we use the term rights life.
While human social life is infinitely complex, these three realms or fields of activity are archetypal. They each have contributions to make - and also specific needs, if they are to thrive. With his threefold social idea (or threefold social order), Rudolf Steiner discerned this threefold membering of society, and these different sets of contributions and needs systematically for the first time.
Once grasped, the threefold idea offers surprising insights into why things go wrong in society when they do ; and also for understanding why they go right when they do. I'll start by exploring the realm of rights life in more detail.
The Sphere of Rights Life
The realm of "rights" concerns limits and boundaries among individuals, between groups, and between individuals and groups. It's needed that rights be established in society because of a most basic and recurring fact of human life : namely that under certain conditions, the actions of one person or group infringe on the freedoms, safety or well being of another person or group. Rights are based in the need of every human being, on the one hand for certain freedoms, and on the other for safety. Rights are established in society through agreements among people, concerning which behaviors are acceptable among them, and which not. These may of course be agreed on privately and personally in different ways among people ; but also in more formal ways.
The Domain of Government
To be a human being means to live with paradox. Just as we have the capacity and impulses to do good in our human actions, the capacities to make mistakes, to in some cases conceal them, and in certain cases even to act with malice or intent, also run deep in our nature. While it's possible to redeem these traits, this tends to happen only gradually for us. We can see this both in history, and if we're honest, in ourselves as well. This healing activity must therefore be seen as a process, as something ongoing - a long term social "work in progress".
In the meantime, rights life serves society by identifying harms and wrongs that concern people, building consensus on these matters, setting limits and penalties, and creating processes by which they're punished or redressed. This is practical work, that has evolved its own set of professions, with expertise in various protective roles.
As rights and safety are needs of all people, these are positions of trust, with a responsibility to rightly represent those served. Rights life lends safety and dignity to human life, and is an important stabilizing force in society. In the best case, this is the core and most essential task of government.
The scope of rights life (and government) includes important and basic civil and human rights ; protections by police, criminal justice systems and eventually the military ; and protections against serious harm due to unsafe products and practices, including harm to the natural and economic environments common to all.
The irreducible need of healthy rights life is equality. All citizens need "equal protection under the law" from harm, need redress of loss or injury done to them - and an equal voice in creating the rules and laws by which society is governed.
As noted, rights life is the most essential task of government - and also it's most legitimate one. Government is correct to protect citizens from injury, harm or loss at the hands of economic interests, or those of any branch of spiritual-cultural life ; but for the best health of society, righting these abuses would mark the limits of its tasks. Again, a view to the overall more healthy structuring of society can be found in the threefold social idea of Rudolf Steiner. This idea, and the urgent (but still mostly unconscious) need of society for such a threefold membering, is the orientation point for my Facebook page Rights Life Today
Rights Life in Crisis
The first and second articles in this series looked at the phenomenon of "threefoldness" as it occurs in nature, in our own bodies and consciousness ; and in its optimal healthy form in human society. Here we'll explore, one time through thoroughly, how this threefoldness in society can break down - and what the costs to our lives and society not only might be some day, but are now, in almost any area we look.
In noting the differing needs of the three spheres, Steiner also finds one they have in common, namely a need for autonomy - the need of each to be free of interference from the others, and unfold its own unique strengths. Economic, rights and spiritual cultural rights are not by nature at odds, but interference and conflicts among them do indeed cause harm. A review of the kinds of incursions that occur - and their consequences - will follow below.
These explorations are not intended to identify "evildoers", or cast doubt on humanity, collectively or individually ; but rather to clarify, when things go wrong in society, why it is that they do. Nevertheless, bear in mind as you read, the scale of harm possible when whole societies, and the institutions that anchor them, perpetrate such incursions ; and their impact not just on "society" as an abstract principle, but on the individual human being.
Trespass of Spiritual Cultural Life into Rights Life
This was a problem faced squarely by the framers of the U.S. form of government, and manifested in the principle of "separation of church and state".
Despite the great contributions of religious life to European society, it also occurred repeatedly in the course of history that religious denominations - different ones at different times and in different places - gained influence over the policies of political states, to attack or dominate perceived "enemy" denominations. Persecutions on the basis of faith tore the fabric of life in Europe violently, and literally for centuries. Mindful of the chaos, wars and migrations these had caused, the American framers chose to set strong boundaries, as noted.
Not anticipated and restricted, however, were tendencies to sects and factions in all realms of spiritual cultural life.
The persecution of groups and persons on the basis of faith is one clear theme in history ; but spiritual cultural life includes many disciplines - among them education, science and the healing arts, to name just three.
Like religious life, each of these fields have their schools of thought, and differences of methods and opinion. Given protections of freedom, these differences have room to be resolved ; to be worked out on
the basis of free discussion and exploration ; to gain adherents on the basis of their merits - or find no adherents at all. This is the natural process of spiritual cultural life - the way understanding evolves, and progress occurs
But as with religious denominations, the temptation exists to prevail by force - to gain the favor of government, become the "official" school, able to set policy and exclude or suppress other views. With official status, the favored approach - for instance a certain approach to medicine - gains power to set rules for the much broader field of activities, affecting all practice in that field, possibly even banning some kinds of remedies or treatments. The general effect on this field can only be impoverishment :
- Poverty of choices for the public (what is financed, what is approved).
- Loss of beneficial effects, through restriction of other modalities.
- Poverty of ideas, through narrowed education and discussion.
- Loss of checks and balances, should the favored approach fall into
serious or dangerous error.
- Denial of livelihood to other approaches/practitioners.
To the extent the dominant paradigm is rigid or has blind spots, this power-based structure can miss - or even cause - real and serious harm in society. While these may not mean bloodshed as in earlier times, the devastation to individuals and society (in this case in the realm of healthcare), is in truth not less. This will easily repeat in science, education or any area of spiritual cultural life where one school or faction gains access to the powers of government, and uses these against perceived rivals or "false creeds".
Trespass of Rights Life into Spiritual Cultural Life
Whether by negligence or intent, practitioners in spiritual cultural life at times cause serious injury, harm or loss. In a healthy course of rights life this would be addressed by government through its processes of detection, investigation and prosecution, with advice as needed from experts in the professions concerned. But interventions of government in this sphere are not without dangers.
Spiritual cultural life has no right to cause harm, of course ; but to thrive, it also requires freedom : freedom for practitioners to develop their individual gifts and abilities, to innovate, and to serve those who seek their services. Historically these matters were dealt with organically in the professions themselves, and in the course of the actual work. In recent centuries, however, they've come more and more under the jurisdiction of government. The state licenses virtually all branches of spiritual cultural work, regulates standards and scope of practice, professional education, the contents of learning and the knowledge base of practitioners. Options for independence have decreased, with more and more limitations, enforced by more and more consequences and penalties. The role of government has grown gradually enough that this process is not much consciously noticed.
Nevertheless, in hopes to prevent harm by various professions, the state has come to define actual practice in these fields, in astonishingly fine detail. In defining "must do" parameters for virtually all professions, governments also come to fix increasing areas of "may not do" ; limits and exclusions of practice, and of autonomy to act, teach or even speak outside proscribed boundaries. In effect today, if a practitioner steps beyond these, he or she is technically considered unqualified, and potentially, subject to discipline and penalties.
This goes far past redress of injury, harm or loss caused by practitioners, which would be justified ; to an ability of the state to choke off dissent in any field ; and should real harm develop from some product or practice, to silence or punish those who point it out. Even those most accomplished in their fields are subject to this ; and although a practitioner may work a whole career in good standing, these mechanisms for control are in place at all times.
Trespass of Economic Life into Rights Life
Economic life, as noted, creates and distributes products that meet the physical needs of human life. But it also has its own needs and natural limiting factors - namely the availability of materials and natural resources on the one hand ; and the availability of competent, willing human beings on the other.
To meet its ends and overcome obstacles, economic life employs every manner of skill and invention : tools, machinery, systems, procedures, negotiations, contracts and agreements among many parties. These are the means and methods that make physical life possible - and economic life admirable - among human activities. But it may also come up against hard limits in the areas noted ; and at this point encounters what can only be described as temptations.
A first and obvious example might be a business owner who employs people in a town. He knows how to recognize and direct the abilities of others, and does so skillfully. But as he has a certain profit in mind, he also wants them to work a great deal - say, sixteen hours a day - and doesn't want to pay them much. His offer is to take what they get, work as long as they're told to - or risk losing their source of livelihood.
It may cost them their dignity, time with their families and eventually their health ; but the needs of a family and other circumstances of life make it near impossible to tell him no. With this he's turned their human skills, time and work into commodities, like any other product or raw material - at the cost of all else that makes them human. In short, he uses their need and the capital he controls to exert power over them. Employees feel, and "when push comes to shove", experience directly, that once they work for him, they've lost great swaths of their rights, even those the law might otherwise promise.
A further source of harm so common today that it escapes conscious attention, are various forms of speculation. Suppose the same owner is ambitious, and wants more ways to enrich himself. He plans a new factory at a place with many advantages - near to a variety of resources, with easy access to ports, railroads, etc. Again, this is good business practice - but again, he wants more.
Because he has capital, he buys up land in the area, knowing this place and its resources are also needed by others. He buys mines and timberland, land near the ports and rail lines noted - again, excellent business practice. But he buys more than he needs for himself, and raises prices on what he owns, "as much as the market will bear". He buys or builds homes his workers will need, with rents as the market will bear. He opens or buys banks, and rents his money. He uses his capital to enhance his advantage over others at every turn.
Because his actions cause people difficulties and inspire anger, he takes steps to affect government policies. This might include support of friendly political candidates, lobbyists to keep them informed of his wishes, and insertion of his allies in government posts and agencies.
Especially pernicious effects arise when his products or practices are found harmful to human health, or the environment. Through his influence and contacts, he can delay or prevent restrictions on products and practices he profits from - at the expense of society overall. This is a circumstance we might think of as "government turned on its head" : namely that instead of protecting citizens against a product or practice that does harm, it protects the product/practice that does the harm.
Not content with gains of these many kinds at home, he turns his attention to other lands, and enlists the state - his own or the foreign one - to help him secure advantages there. Governments are often drawn into wars by such entanglements ; or condone and enable the actions of dictators, to protect favored industries. Perversely, sales of weapons, and war-induced shortages of products/commodities of all kinds offer yet more ways opportunities for profits - a self-perpetuating, exploitative cycle.
Whether in the homeland or the foreign, offenses cause harm. Resistance to this may take the form of civil or human rights activism, environmental activism, etc - or unfold in less peaceful and orderly ways. Even without clear understanding of what causes their pain, people feel themselves wronged ; and even with no clear solutions in mind, feel driven to action - at times impulsive (or organized) violent action.
Time and again in history, oppressed peoples fall prey to demagogues, and to sudden destructive explosions. At the extremes of predatory capitalism, governments criminalize and crush protest, not just in its chaotic forms, but its most principled and orderly ; and not just in faraway places abroad ; but eventually also at home.
The Special Problem of "Surveillance Capitalism"
Perhaps the most recent and serious challenge to rights life from the side of economic life is surveillance capitalism ; namely, the commodification of data which mass-scale, technological corporate data collection provides ; and the direct access and use of this data.
This process works largely by tailoring marketing and advertising to each person, through analyzing each person’s psychology, from any number of data points from social media posts to specific device usage patterns. These kinds of activities are attractive both to those who sell goods and services, and to product makers who create ever more “convenient” and “intuitive” products. It may also be attractive to many modern individuals for the possible ease it affords, and for reinforcement of personal preferences. Not noticed, though, may be a narrowing in one's own thinking and social contacts ; and the possibility that this all be used against one.
Surveillance capitalism happens almost completely below the threshold of awareness of those surveilled, and with little or no regard for their privacy. And data collection, mining and tracking are not only tools for product makers. They're also of interest, actual and potential, to governments, for purposes of surveillance and security - or more darkly, for political control. Corporate data systems may be linked technologically with little civilian oversight to government systems for contact, communication or financial tracing purposes. Social credit, ranking and rule systems, whether government or corporate derived, typically do not include citizen input when established ; nor do punishments and penalties by which they're enforced.
The various observations above are not meant to disparage capitalism, in the sense that resources and capital are placed in the hands of those best able to use them ; the complexity of modern production and distribution require this, at every level of economic life. The threefold idea observes only that in following its own core needs and interests, economic life easily comes in conflict with civil and human rights, the safety of human beings and the environment ; and in fact does so frequently.
Trespass of Rights Life into Economic Life
While it's appropriate for government to stop economic interests from doing harm, attempts by government to manage or regulate actual activities of economic life inevitably undermine it.
Government intervention in this realm has grown steadily in recent centuries, to the extent that we take it almost completely for granted. Yet, as with activities of spiritual cultural life, government has no natural expertise at economic life ; and when it does intervene, it tends to do so inefficiently and ineffectively - and at worst, heavy-handedly and destructively.
We've already seen effects of alliances of the state with capitalism ; forms this can take range from neoliberal thinking and policies, to the extreme of fascism. At the opposite end of the spectrum state control of economic life took extreme historical form in communism.
Antisocial impulses have never disappeared under communism, but simply taken other forms. The transfer to state control has typically been violent and brutal ; and pursuit of personal privilege and enrichment by state officials has been notorious in these systems. Expressions of dissent or frustration are treated almost as treason, and often ruthlessly crushed. Surveillance and tracking technologies now make this control near absolute.
Communism rightly identified abuses to human rights and dignity perpetrated by capitalism ; but supposed this could be eliminated by transferring control of capital and the means of production to the state. But correct as the state might be about the abuses of capitalism, it could grasp neither the needs of economic life, nor it's dynamic and creative nature. For those who did have the ability to manage capital, factories or farms, the rules and demands of the state caused constant hindrances ; and economic life stagnated. Mismanagement of agriculture alone, in Russia and China under communism, is now known to have caused deaths in the tens of millions.
To attempt an overview of communism and capitalism, it will help to look one more time at economic life. In the processes of producing, distributing and consuming, economic life must move things, and seek those things it needs. This activity is natural, a web of activity that must eventually extend worldwide. Economic life will only need limits set on it when it does specific harm, as discussed previously. If capitalism causes harm to rights and safety when allowed too much power by the state, communism harms economic life by overly controlling and restraining it.
For now, there remain two last general kinds of trespass among the spheres of social life, as follow.
Trespass of Economic Life into Spiritual Cultural Life
Economic life applies skills and insights drawn from spiritual cultural life to all parts of the economic process, including production, distribution and the delivery of needed services. This encompasses inventions and innovations it "brings to market", and myriad efficiencies it can find and apply, all in the service of bringing products to people. To this extent, for society, the relationship is fruitful and healthy.
Problems arise when an economic entity, for instance a corporation, intervenes in a field of spiritual cultural life, at the cost of integrity or freedom (e.g. of exploration or expression) in that field. Corporations do this, for instance, when they
- Obtain rights to a product or process they feel threatens their interests, and simply bury it. An example might be a company that makes auto tires, that learns of a way to make tires that last virtually forever ; that buys up the patents for the process ; never makes tires like that itself - and effectively blocks anyone else from making them.
- Learn that a product or practice they profit from has serious flaws or downsides, such as harm to the environment or human health ; and seeks to downplay or conceal this. As noted above, this occurs across many industries today, and has become a major problem. It's done in a variety of ways :
- By drawing overwhelming attention to positive points of the product/practice through public relations and advertising : the urgent need for it, advantages over other or previous products/practices etc.
- Derision and dismissal of concerns/risks/dangers of the product/practice - and of those who bring the concerns - also amplified through public relations, public and social media etc.
- Enlistment of social media and internet search engines, whose algorithms can be changed to reduce the visibility of these concerns, and of the persons and organizations that bring them, under the pretext of "preventing the spread of misinformation."
- Enhancement of these surveillance and marginalization tactics with censorship measures, including targeted "fact checking", suspensions of accounts or services and "deplatforming" of dissenting groups and individuals.
- More secretive measures of the nature of actual warfare, including hacking and/or electronic disabling of websites, and more.
- Funding of research favorable to the product or practice, of university positions, departments or buildings by the corporation(s) or industry concerned.
- Dismissal, derision and/or defunding of unfavorable research - and of those who conduct it.
- Engagement of government to suppress the fact or evidence of harm ; or to intimidate and punish those who would expose it.
To review, spiritual cultural life contributes constantly to economic life, and to human life generally, when it can do so in freedom ; but when economic life controls the content, expression or forward progress of spiritual cultural life, it inevitably harms and paralyzes it.
Trespass of Spiritual Cultural Life into Economic Life
Economic life is an archetypal phenomenon of human life, and subject to natural law. Under the right conditions, through appropriate actions and cooperation, the needs of all human beings can in fact be met. But wrongly understood or implemented, economic life can also be damaged. The deciding factors are, first of all, in our thought processes.
As seen previously, spiritual cultural life originates in the efforts of individual human beings, and gives rise to invention and progress in all areas of life. Human culture arises when they cooperate to share creative thoughts and insights, to achieve or preserve these benefits - at best, in service of all human society. Economic life relies constantly on this help from the side of spiritual cultural life, and suffers immediately when it lacks.
What's missing, when it does, can most often be traced either to lack of insight concerning the particular work at hand ; or lack of the necessary competence. These things can be a matter of inexperience, or lack of education and training - especially in those who try to start or build a business ! They can also be a matter of aptitude for a particular kind of work. An old saying puts this humorously :
"If your business is harvesting nuts, you can either hire squirrels, or teach horses to climb trees."
The point is that for any work to succeed, the right person must be in the right job. Problems of this kind are ones either of self-knowledge, ineffective personnel management or both. They multiply especially when those who make decisions in a field or project do not actually work in that field - either not currently, or never at all. Consequences are never long to follow, as
- The quality of products or services deteriorates.
- The circulation and distribution of products is interrupted.
- The need or demand for the product/service is overestimated.
- The need, cost or availability of needed materials and resources - including human
resources - are underestimated.
- The product or service offered is not made properly visible to the hoped for market/audience.
These failures are costly - but can be remedied through experience, training and intra-organizational communication (healthy group process).
More serious, however, are ideas and concepts that undermine economic life, directly or indirectly. Effects of these are all the worse when held rigidly, or forced on society through the exercise of power by sectarian interests, whether in government as noted earlier, or in the economy itself.
The doctrines of capitalism and communism in their most extreme forms are in fact creeds, belief systems, rather than manifestations of economic life - and for this reason, tend inevitably to harm it. The assumptions underlying the current push for a "Great Reset" - namely that the economies and resources of the world (and much else in it) will function best if controlled centrally, through technology - are also, first of all, a framework of ideas, intended in this case not just to equal, but surpass the two previous great "-isms".
Though perhaps not much noticed, all of these economic ideologies have a common root - namely, in the doctrine of materialism. Materialism is also a prevailing doctrine in natural science today, where it sets limits to scientific thinking and research. What is the basis for this ?
The Costly Doctrine of Materialism
Natural science finds insight and discovers laws in the natural world through observation, and through thinking about what's been observed. It's areas of study are physical phenomena that can be weighed, measured and perceived by our five senses : sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and their extension through instruments. In the realm of purely physical and mechanical phenomena, it's extremely precise, and discovers laws that stand up well under scrutiny ; and in turn give rise to inventions and technologies that are not just useful to us, but indispensable.
Historically, this science came to recognize certain limits to its understanding of the natural world, and also of the realm of consciousness, beyond which it could not reach. These limits were discerned (and admitted) as early as the mid-1800s by leading scientists of their day, and have not been overcome - neither through concepts, methods or research. For some scientists, an absence of working tools and concepts led to the conclusion that, beyond what could be weighed and measured, beyond the reach reach of the five senses, no satisfactory tools or concepts were possible. This is in fact the foundation in concepts of materialism.
But as in other areas of human life, science - or more accurately, scientists - have since been prone to impulsiveness. Once acknowledged, admissions of limits are also sometimes forgotten, as science simply jumps a gap of knowledge to theories that are later accorded the weight of scientific laws - in the absence of full testing, and at times without testing at all. Such theories have next given rise to technologies, rapidly invented and applied, again in the absence of full understanding, especially of their risks and downsides. Unfortunately there are many such cases today, where science has raced swiftly ahead, while flying at least in part blind.
What realms are there, that science is with best efforts still unable to understand - but intervenes in boldly nonetheless ? A first is
- The realm of life - namely, the reason physical substances behave so differently in a living plant, animal or person than in a dead one. Natural science can name substances, identify and influence processes, one by one in sequence ; but the sum of them, and of additional processes involved is vast, and not adequately explained merely by physical laws. A second is
- The realm of perception, emotion and action common to animals and human beings ; and in humans, the additional capacity to think. While these functions can be tracked and manipulated externally (physically, chemically), they're also experienced inwardly ; which, for the person or animal concerned is the heart of the matter, the whole experience. These elements of sentience, action and consciousness as inwardly experienced, may be called a soul element in animals and human. A third is that
- As humans we have a still further capacity for self-consciousness : the ability to not just have thoughts and feelings but observe and gain mastery of them. While not a guarantee of moral action, self consciousness creates the possibility to gain (or regain) control of mere impulse and reaction ; to gain a capacity for actual choice, and to direct a personal biography. This potential, with its open-ended possibilities for future development, may fairly be called the spiritual element in the human being.
Without ways to truly understand the realms of life, sentience and self-consciousness, science intervenes (technologically) anyway, intensively and on the very largest scale. Lacking adequate concepts, it fails to even seek the knowledge it needs to intervene appropriately ; or the moral-ethical values to do so responsibly. This has wide-ranging - and increasing - real world consequences.
In an age with science as its dominant worldview, materialism has come to dominate science, and this has effects in every sphere of life. The gaps in our understanding of living things, of sentience, of consciousness - and of ourselves as human beings - leave us not just unable to rightly nurture them, but prone to constantly harm them.
In the big picture, science (and its practitioners) are no better than their guiding ideas - and no less prone to error, greed or corruption than any other field or discipline, current or historical. Moreover, where potentially better ways to understand life, sentience and self-consciousness have emerged (a future article), they're subject to scorn, and to aggressive attack.
Without our necessarily noticing it, materialism colors our thinking, feelings and actions in virtually all areas of life today. When this is disquieting, we may find a certain refuge in traditional ways and values ; but the "ideals" of materialism - wealth, advantage, power - are a constant tempting force in society. And in economic life, a constantly destructive force.
Planting the Seeds of Threefolding
It's tempting to look away from wrongs in the world today, and the escapes available to us are many. Equally so are the impulse - and offers - to just join in, and "get a piece of it" for ourselves. The urge to "check out" - or conform and get our share - seem only to increase today, for the individual, seemingly isolated human being.
In the meantime too, we hear on all sides that some other group or person is at fault ; that "someone else" is evil, and our enemy. It can be tempting to believe this - but also tricky, as it transforms easily to a sense that anyone could be an enemy, that no one can be trusted - including ourselves. On the large stage, this mindset predisposes us to endless conflicts - and eventually to warfare ; on the personal level, eventually to self hatred, self destruction.
The threefold idea offers a middle, less apocalyptic way, a set of insights by which conflicts may be understood, addressed as practical (albeit large) problems ; and solved as such, in community with others.
This series will continue to look at unhelpful paths in rights life, including the phenomenon of political parties, and other specific mindsets that undermine it, and turn it destructive. The final articles will look beyond rights life to ways a threefold idea might grow into a robust and creative force in society, bringing the three spheres into healthier interaction and alignment.
Next : False Paths in Rights Life : Political Parties
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