Talk about the Spirit is, for very many people, nothing else than an anesthetic for their otherwise cozy materiality

 

Rudolf Steiner, in 1919:  "Sometimes even talk about the Spirit today is nothing else than the purest materialism, for this talk about the Spirit is, for very many people, nothing else than an anesthetic for their otherwise cozy materiality. The will to activity is lacking in men today, the will to real inner activity. This is the reason why the bourgeoisie has remained in a state of ineffectiveness in face of the Social Question which has been rising up for 70 years. It is a monstrous materialism which has taken hold of men in the most diverse forms — and especially the circles on whom, in recent times, was set the task of turning to the Spiritual. One must know this about the basic impulses of our time, about what is living in our time. Not to know it implies that one is giving oneself up to illusions. Spiritual Science is of such great importance for present-day men because it takes them away from themselves, but it must be truly comprehended in this sense."

Source: April 14, 1919. GA 190