The Fundamental Social Law : Rudolf Steiner on the Work of the Individual and the Spirit of Community

The healthy social life is foundWhen in the mirror of each human beingThe whole community finds its reflectionAnd when in the communityThe virtue of each one is living.From the beginning of his public work, Rudolf Steiner saw his spiritual mission as civilizational. He understood that individual spiritual development means little unless, spreading through a community of practitioners, it leads to larger societal and cultural transformation.As always, his views were radical. He realized that a healthy social life would depend, above all, on the transformation of work from a commodity into a gift. As he said in 1905: Evolution is moving towards totally uncompensated work. No one rejects the idea and no one can change it. Whereas Greek workers performed their work in bondage to their master and modern workers are compelled to work for pay, in the future all work will be performed freely. Work and income will be completely separated. That is the healthy state of social conditions in the future. That same year, he formulated what he called "the fundamental social law": The wellbeing of an entire group of individuals who work together becomes greater the less individuals claim the income resulting from their own accomplishments for themselves-that is, the more they contribute this income to their fellow workers, and the more their own needs are met not through their own efforts but through the efforts of others.In this important book, Peter Selg shows us a different Rudolf Steiner. Here, the emphasis of his teaching is mostly on the need to cultivate selflessness and readiness to sacrifice. Selg first describes the context in which Steiner expressed these ideas, how much they meant to him, and how, when they fell on barren ground, he selflessly laid them aside while holding them in his heart in the hope of a more opportune moment. He goes on to show how this moment came after World War I, when Rudolf Steiner dedicated himself tirelessly to the Threefold Social Organism, lecturing extensively on economics and social policy.Finally, in a last, extraordinarily moving chapter, Selg shows the essential Christ- and Gospel-inspired nature of these ideas:As long as you feel painThat passes me by,The Christ works unrecognized...Weak is the spiritThat can feel suffering Only in its own body.Anyone interested in a just, equitable, healthy, and spirit-based social future should read this important book!