Difficulties in thinking the POF

The same things is happening with the news in Romania. It's very aggressive and it makes me sad how easily most of the people are manipulated by it. The media just points at someone and says that's the enemy and its daily viewers accept that without any doubts.

I always thought that anyone could think POF, and instead of working their bodies with weights and things like that at fitness clubs, they could attend some intensive-thinking-sessions.

But on the other hand, I've always had very bright colleagues at the faculty. At the Philosophy Faculty, most of them were like watchdogs, they had their objections ready and reacted very fast when a thesis was asserted. One of my teachers said philosophy is very much like a fight.

I don't know about intimidation...I heard a bunch of Antroposophists saying they read POF. They were talking like it was a simple thing to do. They had their tricks. They were skipping the paragraphs were other philosophers/opinions were quoted.

We lack courage as well, cause it's quite a "dry" book. Not too many sensational things, although of course it's maybe his most sensational book from a cultural point of view. If it would be put in the history of philosophy of the 20th century, maybe not so much Wittgenstein and Heidegger was thought in schools. Maybe thinking outside of the physical brain would be a common thing, we'd have classes of observation of thinking and so on.

Academics are ignoring Steiner. And I see a lot of crap-practices much easy to do people take on (like reiki, old time yoga).

So thanks for your response and for sharing what makes you continue doing the work for this site.

I have been watching RT television which is the news in English produced in Moscow. The news people are progressives so the content is very informative and supportive of human rights while the US media has become very uninformative and one-sided. To promote TR they remind us of how the US media now shows only narrow-minded political propaganda and weather news. RT keeps saying "Think"! The US media keeps saying "Sleep"! and has degenerated to non-thinking sensationalism because that gets high ratings. I watch news from the UK and other countries and it seems some thinking still occurs. Thinking has nearly ended in the US. Where it still lives in progressives it lacks enough conviction to act. They "know" what should be done but don't do anything except complain.

I am always shocked when I search all over the internet for some writing about the Philosophy Of Freedom that I can repost and find almost nothing. How can this be? For the ideas of another, like Steiner, you need to make his ideas your own. Then you can apply them. It is the same with POF as any other book. Most of the things found in the book, especially in Part 2, are not that hard to understand and express. It is difficult to understand the whole, but the parts are not that hard.

Is it we lack courage? I know anthroposophists have intimidated many people who fear they may make a mistake and be criticized by some "know it all" with many Steiner quotes at hand (like myself?). Actually, I haven't seen enough opinions or expressions in years to even have a chance to criticize.

Is it that POF readers are too passive and lazy? I think we all are, but each can set a low enough goal that we could produce a brief comment somewhere.

Is it we aren't being paid? Educated people seem unwilling to produce a paper unless they need the school credit or will be paid.

Is it we just don't care? That would be sad.

Is it because we pursue other goals? For me, the point of the book is that it "empowers" you to act on your ideals. Many are currently acting on their ideals, but how come so few are acting on the ideal of informing the world of Rudolf Steiner's life philosophy, the one that empowered him and the one that can't be ignored as it is the path of being human?

Is it because most don't understand Steiner's path of Intellectual Intuition? Many seem to desire "clairvoyant perception of the spiritual worlds" through exotic spiritual practices yet can't even work through the Philosophy Of Freedom which would be the first baby step toward Steiner's intellectual intuition.

Is it we have too little time? For myself I have to set aside a lot of time to produce very little. But I do that everyday and eventually I get something done. Putting the time into study and expressing the book has meant giving up financial security, successful relationships that demand time and attention, and many other things. But I am not that bright, so I think most others could be successful while maintaining a balanced life.

I see the powerful affect that a lame philosopher like Ayn Rand has had on culture because her message was presented to the public and wonder how different the world would be today if Rudolf Steiner's ethical individualism had been presented to the world to fill the huge gap in peoples lives. Right now a whole generation of good science minded young people are making their way in life, quite well I think. They have no interest in spiritual worlds, religion, Eastern guru's, cosmic Christ, Rand's selfishness philosophy, or all the other crap out there. But I think they want to be fully human without limits. Steiner offers this.

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Comments

Andrei Pinta April 24, 2013 at 9:51pm

The same things is happening with the news in Romania. It's very aggressive and it makes me sad how easily most of the people are manipulated by it. The media just points at someone and says that's the enemy and its daily viewers accept that without any doubts.

I always thought that anyone could think POF, and instead of working their bodies with weights and things like that at fitness clubs, they could attend some intensive-thinking-sessions.

But on the other hand, I've always had very bright colleagues at the faculty. At the Philosophy Faculty, most of them were like watchdogs, they had their objections ready and reacted very fast when a thesis was asserted. One of my teachers said philosophy is very much like a fight.

I don't know about intimidation...I heard a bunch of Antroposophists saying they read POF. They were talking like it was a simple thing to do. They had their tricks. They were skipping the paragraphs were other philosophers/opinions were quoted.

We lack courage as well, cause it's quite a "dry" book. Not too many sensational things, although of course it's maybe his most sensational book from a cultural point of view. If it would be put in the history of philosophy of the 20th century, maybe not so much Wittgenstein and Heidegger was thought in schools. Maybe thinking outside of the physical brain would be a common thing, we'd have classes of observation of thinking and so on.

Academics are ignoring Steiner. And I see a lot of crap-practices much easy to do people take on (like reiki, old time yoga).

So thanks for your response and for sharing what makes you continue doing the work for this site.
Tom Last April 24, 2013 at 8:16pm

I have been watching RT television which is the news in English produced in Moscow. The news people are progressives so the content is very informative and supportive of human rights while the US media has become very uninformative and one-sided. To promote TR they remind us of how the US media now shows only narrow-minded political propaganda and weather news. RT keeps saying "Think"! The US media keeps saying "Sleep"! and has degenerated to non-thinking sensationalism because that gets high ratings. I watch news from the UK and other countries and it seems some thinking still occurs. Thinking has nearly ended in the US. Where it still lives in progressives it lacks enough conviction to act. They "know" what should be done but don't do anything except complain.

I am always shocked when I search all over the internet for some writing about the Philosophy Of Freedom that I can repost and find almost nothing. How can this be? For the ideas of another, like Steiner, you need to make his ideas your own. Then you can apply them. It is the same with POF as any other book. Most of the things found in the book, especially in Part 2, are not that hard to understand and express. It is difficult to understand the whole, but the parts are not that hard.

Is it we lack courage? I know anthroposophists have intimidated many people who fear they may make a mistake and be criticized by some "know it all" with many Steiner quotes at hand (like myself?). Actually, I haven't seen enough opinions or expressions in years to even have a chance to criticize.

Is it that POF readers are too passive and lazy? I think we all are, but each can set a low enough goal that we could produce a brief comment somewhere.

Is it we aren't being paid? Educated people seem unwilling to produce a paper unless they need the school credit or will be paid.

Is it we just don't care? That would be sad.

Is it because we pursue other goals? For me, the point of the book is that it "empowers" you to act on your ideals. Many are currently acting on their ideals, but how come so few are acting on the ideal of informing the world of Rudolf Steiner's life philosophy, the one that empowered him and the one that can't be ignored as it is the path of being human?

Is it because most don't understand Steiner's path of Intellectual Intuition? Many seem to desire "clairvoyant perception of the spiritual worlds" through exotic spiritual practices yet can't even work through the Philosophy Of Freedom which would be the first baby step toward Steiner's intellectual intuition.

Is it we have too little time? For myself I have to set aside a lot of time to produce very little. But I do that everyday and eventually I get something done. Putting the time into study and expressing the book has meant giving up financial security, successful relationships that demand time and attention, and many other things. But I am not that bright, so I think most others could be successful while maintaining a balanced life.

I see the powerful affect that a lame philosopher like Ayn Rand has had on culture because her message was presented to the public and wonder how different the world would be today if Rudolf Steiner's ethical individualism had been presented to the world to fill the huge gap in peoples lives. Right now a whole generation of good science minded young people are making their way in life, quite well I think. They have no interest in spiritual worlds, religion, Eastern guru's, cosmic Christ, Rand's selfishness philosophy, or all the other crap out there. But I think they want to be fully human without limits. Steiner offers this.

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