2009 Global Crisis & the Need for Social, Ecological & Spiritual Renewal

Think OutWord at Rudolf Steiner Institute, summer 2009

This summer’s Rudolf Steiner Institute presents a special block of three classes, coordinated with Think OutWord, a peer-led training in social threefolding. Each course will meet separately for two sessions of each day to address pressing societal challenges from one perspective. Participants from all three courses come together in the third session to work artistically and collaboratively in prototyping of new social forms, led by Laura Summer. Evening programs during this first week are in the format of a community colloquium that integrates artistic presentations, talks by guest speakers, and two panel discussions. Those participating in the course concentration will present the explorations and findings that arise from their collaborative efforts. The courses are open to all, with a special invitation to the young and to anyone interested in starting, continuing, or connecting with socially progressive initiatives.

Community Building: Meeting the Challenge of Time through Creative Cooperation

With Robert Karp.

Profound new social and spiritual impulses are emerging within humanity. In the last thirty or so years, for example, thousands of new “communities of interest” have sprung up that are working in one way or another for the ecological, economic, social and spiritual renewal of civilization. The coming decades will determine whether these communities can evolve and work together in such a way as to forge a worldwide movement capable of giving civilization an upward turn, or whether they will prove too fragmented, competitive, narrow and sectarian to meet the challenge of the times. In this course we will draw on the insights of Rudolf Steiner as well as contemporary thinkers in order to penetrate the mysteries of this decisive time and what it is asking of us.

Some of the questions we will take up include: Where do we see new social and spiritual impulses emerging in twentyfirst century America? How can those who carry the impulse of anthroposophy best work together with those from other movements who share our goals? What are the principles of community building and social transformation from a spiritual scientific perspective? How can we begin to embody these principles more fully in and between our initiatives, businesses, and organizations? Can a new community building impulse emerge from the heart of the anthroposophical movement?

Re-Imagining Capitalism: Surviving the Current Economic Tsunami

With Jerry Schwartz, Clemens Pietzner, Robert Hill.

If ever there was a part of our societal structure that cries out for change, that urgently needs to be re-imagined, it is western free-market capitalism. How could it have gone so wrong, become so out of balance as to require massive governmental intervention around the world to prevent global depression? The complexity and scale of this gargantuan economic network would seem to defy one’s efforts to understand or re-imagine it. However, if one examines this aspect of societal life, as Rudolf Steiner, in context of the spiritual/psychological make-up of the threefold human being, the picture that emerges is remarkably straightforward and instructive of what must be done to create balance and stability not only within our economic lives, but more broadly within the human community.

Using the framework and insights of the threefold social structure, we will address the questions that both experts and laypersons are asking: what lies at the roots of the current financial chaos; what attitudes, knowledge and practices must one acquire in order to navigate in this economic turmoil; what are the inner and outer remedies called for if we are to create a healthy social order; what new ways of thinking and financial habits or behaviors should one adopt to become part of the solution; what must change if western market-driven capitalism is to be prevented from destroying itself? The course will be led by three individuals who represent a broad spectrum of experience within the economic world: Jerry Schwartz has been a Wall Street broker and is president of Arista, a financial management firm; Clemens Pietzner is founder and president of Triskeles, a non-profit foundation that manages philanthropic donor advised funds, works with youth who are struggling to find their way into the economic world, and provides an organizational umbrella for start-up non-profits whose mission is community building; Robert Hill was president and CEO of a mid-sized management consulting firm that served a wide range of companies.

Water, Energy, and Changes in the Climate: Outer and Inner Manifestations of Environmental Problems and Solutions

With Michael D’Aleo.

Each one of us regularly hears stories about environmental destruction in the daily news. We long to do something about these problems but often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what is reported. Most of us find ourselves accepting the stories as reported and we feel ourselves ill prepared to deal with both the outer and inner issues that arise from such a startling and often bleak picture.

The course will offer three approaches to help establish a renewed and healthier relationship between our self and our environment. The first morning sessions will focus on helping ourselves to reconnect to the foundation for knowing the world: the relationship between the sensory and conceptual elements of our experiences. This activity will help us to breakthrough the limited view that we are encouraged to accept by many elements of our modern western culture. The second set of sessions will involve an investigation of some of the contemporary environmental issues: what is really happening, what needs to be done and what aspects do we need to be less concerned with. The third aspect of the course will consist of a group artistic activity in the sculptural arts.