“What Society do we want, and how do we get there?”

Action Research Questions for co-creating a threefold commonwealth society

by Martin Large

“What kind of society do we want, and how do we get there?” These were the burning questions that emerged from a November 2016 lecture tour (made possible by generous friends and hosts). This took me from NYC, through NY State, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, then California, to finish in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the Biodynamic Association Conference.

This lecture tour was originally about Rudolf Steiner’s social threefolding vision for society and land trusteeship. However, it was ambushed by the surprise election of Trump on November 8th. Just as the Brexit referendum shook Britain on June 23rd, the Trump election also shocked many Americans. Some people even talked of “8/11” as a follow up to “9/11.”

So with a Sacramento audience we asked, “What kind of society do we want, and how do we get there?” We explored the Trump, Clinton, and Sanders visions for the USA, and then the relevance of Rudolf Steiner’s threefold commonwealth.

They contrasted Clinton’s neoliberal, market-fundamentalist, corporation-friendly approach with the Trump rentier-capitalist, xenophobic, macho, racist, narcissistic, tax-avoiding, protectionist, “America first,” approach. The Sanders vision of free higher education, better healthcare, jobs, fair taxes, social inclusion, affordable housing, and solidarity was seen as different, as was his personal integrity.

For me, a breakthrough light bulb moment was on the one hand to reflect on the comment and analysis coming from Brexit and the Trump election. On the other hand, it was possible to see these as societal turning points, where Steiner’s social threefolding vision could be distilled into four, simple yet profound, action research questions. We can then answer these questions practically, or with a particular personal reformulation of the question that works for us. Instead of feeling powerless and confused, we can take constructive action.

The questions are as follows:

» How are we developing a generative, mutual economy that works for all? (brotherhood)

» How are we caring for the earth? (sustainability)

» How are we engaging politically for human rights, a more participative democracy, social justice, social inclusion, equity, and peace? (equality)

» How are we enabling creative, dynamic cultural life where every person can develop and maintain their whole human potential? (freedom)

At Sacramento, we also discussed the historic opportunity offered by the collapse of the neoliberal, market fundamentalist ideology to draw on Steiner’s seminal social thinking. The above four action research questions can be used personally, by groups and organizations. Such work can make a difference—cultural, political, environmental, and economic—at a local, city, and state level. We can start, or build further, from where we are. The Burlington, Vermont “model” where Bernie Sanders had been the mayor came up as an example close to social threefolding.

Some people said that we face such dangerous times that we need to prepare realistically for the worst, yet also prepare for the best. However, I saw signs of hope everywhere I went, the “blessed unrest” of individuals, groups, and movements making a difference. There were thriving social businesses, biodynamic farms, healthy towns, creative schools, community gardens, social movements like the Dakota pipeline protest, innovative housing schemes, civic initiatives, and impressive evidence of good old American “can do.” In New York, the city’s social landscape has been changed by the work of green guerrilla gardeners transforming waste lots, city parks, growing good food, addressing food poverty, increasing human security, and community building. In some small towns and city neighborhoods, you can see things like co-ops, community farms, free medical and dental services and signs of a thriving cultural life.

These green shoots can be seen as openings for a “commonwealth society.” This is emerging all over the world. We only need to see what is happening, inquire, understand what is emerging, and connect up the dots. We live in a creative, enterprising age, and the lid just cannot be put on this social ferment.

Just think how the invention of community supported agriculture (CSA), an application of Steiner’s associative economics, by the late Trauger Groh and others at the biodynamic Temple Wilton Community Farm in New Hampshire, has gone viral round the world. CSA offers a radical alternative to the “free market”; here consumers, distributors, and growers agree to associate with fair prices for growing good food, guided by clear agreements.

Why a “commonwealth society”? “Commonwealth” is an old word for society or state, meaning much more than just money. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Australia, and Canada are formally commonwealths. “Common wealth” includes “commons” such as land, air, water, language, relationships, and culture, as well as industry, the economy, health service, and our democracy. “Commonweal” is a connected term meaning common good. People long for a common good society.

I observed how social threefolding lived in the will of many people, seemingly just below the surface. They had an intuitive grasp of boundaries between culture, politics, and economy, and how to clarify these. This was expressed by proposals such as, “Let’s get the money out of politics,” or “Get the state and corporations out of education.” The shared understanding of the threefold separation of powers in the US Constitution, of the judiciary, legislature, and executive, easily leads to the clarification of the tripartite dynamics of the political, economic, and cultural systems.

It is vital to analyze the role of social media in order to answer the question of why people voted for Trump. These were expertly used to manufacture consent and votes. Many people now get their news and “information” from the social media, from trusted friends’ recommendations, and from the automatic recommendations of algorithms: “If you like this, then you will like this.” Many people see uncritically through the lenses of their social media and personal “filter bubbles.” Just as with the Brexit campaign, it was possible to spread malicious rumors, factoids, lies, and half-truths. The more vicious and shocking—like the allegation Hilary Clinton was a pedophile, which originated with some Macedonian youths—the more people clicked and forwarded their friends with a message, “Have you seen this? No smoke without a fire!” The more negative the information, the angrier and “pumped up” people got in their social media echo chambers. This was “post-truth politics” in action.

But such social media activation by Trump would not have resonated with people if there had not been real grievances to address. His campaign targeted a mixture of social conservatives from all backgrounds, some with white supremacist and racist views, and “left behind” working class people who were economically more radical. Many jobs had gone to China and to Mexico, communities were run down, people were afraid for their jobs, health, houses, security, and their children’s education. Trump, was able to get through to such people and successfully blame the liberal capitalist elite such as Clinton for the loss of jobs.

From a deeper point of view, Trump also tapped into the many people who are suffering both psychologically and spiritually. (1) They feel they have failed to achieve the American dream, they feel losers, half human. Having internalized the neoliberal ideology of competitive individualism and Social Darwinism, they have no one to blame but themselves. There is a deep lack of self worth, self-respect, and human dignity coming from not feeling that their work, if they have any, is respected and has value. Their labor is treated as a commodity to be bought and sold on the market, a point Steiner makes strongly in Towards Social Renewal (1917). Consequently, they feel bad, self-hurting, afraid, failures. Moreover “the liberals” try to make them ashamed of their socially conservative values. For example, the September 2016 quote by Hilary Clinton, used with deadly effect by Trump:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up…

So Trump was able to mobilize “left behind” people’s spiritual and psychological injuries, directing the hurt, resentment, and anger at scapegoats such as the immigrants, liberals, big Washington government, Muslims, “crooked Hilary,” even war heroes like Senator John McCain. We saw the same here in Britain with Brexit, where the Gloucestershire millionaire Arron Banks spent £7.5 million on a toxic social media campaign that pumped up just enough people to swing the vote to Leave.

From Steiner’s analysis of the social question, a crucial part of the answer to these deep human spiritual injuries is cultural. We need a dynamic renewal of creative education, the arts, sciences, spirituality, health, and our food culture so that people can develop and maintain their spiritual, creative, human, and social potential. If you think of the cost of this, consider the huge costs of not educating people for creative human freedom and dignity.

Creative cultural life is breaking through, despite the capture of large areas of culture by the corporate media and by government. (If you want to control people, command the pulpit, the schoolroom, and the media.) But until we see culture, such as free creative education, as centrally important, the conditions for demagogues like Trump and Farage to flourish will continue.

What are the positive ways ahead? There is hope in the dark, as Rebecca Solnit writes so movingly (Hope in the Dark, 2016). Preferring not to react by becoming an alcoholic or committing suicide, I choose to remain an optimist! People across the USA told me that it is time to wake up, to keep creating positive alternatives. We have significant capabilities, not least to address the spiritual and psychological questions of people seeking creative personal and cultural renewal. We have the opportunity to answer in our own different ways the burning questions that emerge from Steiner’s societal thinking and help co-create a more free, equal, mutual, and earthcaring society.

Follow up: as we need to see how things work, a number of people whom I met are writing up case studies for an upcoming anthology of how they are working with Steiner’s social threefolding in practice. For more details please contact me.

Martin Large (martin@hawthornpress.com) facilitates cultural, social, & economic renewal. His motto is, “Better to light fires than fill buckets!” He has worked as an academic and in business; he enables community land trusts and social enterprise with Stroud Common Wealth.

1 See also Rabbi Michael Lerner in http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/ psychopathology-in-the-2016-election-3