{"id":78602,"date":"2024-07-30T11:50:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T09:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/?p=78602"},"modified":"2024-09-26T22:56:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T20:56:44","slug":"the-global-imposture-and-the-encounter-with-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/the-global-imposture-and-the-encounter-with-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Global Imposture and the Encounter with Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre><em>by Piero Cammerinesi<\/em><\/pre>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It has long been clear to those willing to understand that this is a moment of fundamental historical transition. Those who refuse to see it will likely never comprehend it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As the saying goes: \u2018there are none so blind as those who will not see.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Those who know History\u2014with a capital \u201cH\u201d\u2014are well aware that certain facts work invisibly beneath the surface of external events for a long time, only to manifest abruptly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This, however, does not mean that those who try to analyse outward events in the light of a broader vision are necessarily taken by surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Certainly\u00a0<i>Jean<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<i>Marie<\/i>, as they ran to the Bastille with torches in their hands to free the prisoners and seize weapons during those fateful July days of 1789, did not know that they were protagonists of the <i>French Revolution <\/i>that would change the face of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Like most of us, they were living in the\u00a0<i>\u2018here\u2019 and \u2018now\u2019<\/i>, the chronicle, not the history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To grasp the meaning of history requires more than merely living in the present and focussing only on the external events, which, as those involved in esotericism know, are only the tip of the iceberg compared to the entirety of the historical scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Just as the spiritual element\u2014the thoughts\u2014of each individual human being is transformed into actions that cause consequences in his life and in the lives of those around him, the same is true for the life of humanity. It is precisely the spirit\u2014the impulses of men and beings acting behind the veil of the physical world\u2014that produces the external happenings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>The invisible always determines the visible.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To understand this, it is not enough to be an expert in geopolitics;\u00a0<b>one must grasp the\u00a0<i>Big Picture\u2014<\/i><\/b>a broader vision that enriches outer history through the investigation of occult causes.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Everything that happens externally on the physical plane is dependent on the underlying spiritual forces and powers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So stated\u00a0<b>Rudolf Steiner<\/b>\u00a0in a lecture given in Dornach on 9\u00a0December 1916 (GA 173).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And it is not enough to content ourselves with understanding, for example, the causes of World War I\u2014so brilliantly indicated by\u00a0<b>Rudolf Steiner<\/b>\u00a0in his three-cycle\u00a0<i>Considerations on the Present Historical Period<\/i>\u2014our task is to understand\u00a0<b>what is really happening here and now<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It is too easy to make exegesis of\u00a0<b>Steiner<\/b>\u2018s cycles; our task is to pursue his path of unravelling the real.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Treasuring, of course, his indications and anticipations\u2014truly prophecies\u2014he left us now more than a century ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Such as that of the advent of what he calls\u00a0<b>an imposture in a big way<\/b>:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is possible to steer a force that lives in an individual person in a particular direction. This person may then be totally convinced of his deep love of peace; and yet he does what he does because somehow or other a suggestion has been planted in him. He is quite at odds with what he does. In the same way, with the right knowledge, similar things can be done to whole groups; it is merely a matter of selecting the appropriate means. You take a force that lives but has no particular direction, such as the force living in certain Slav races, and by suggestion on a grand scale you nudge it into a definite direction (Rudolf Steiner, GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>What has happened in the last four years is exactly that, a<\/strong> <strong>global imposture<\/strong>. Just think of how institutions, media and ordinary people <strong>in words preach peace and then act for war<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, we even witness the blatant folly that in order to achieve peace it would be necessary to arm ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>As in: <strong>hate if you want to be loved<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No,-Steiner reiterates- no, my dear friends! The ideal of perfect peace can never be achieved if even the smallest drop of blood is shed by means of an instrument of war. Perfect peace must come into the world in quite another way! And whoever says he is fighting for peace, and must continue to make war till the enemy is annihilated in order to achieve peace, is lying, even if he does not realize it, and regardless of who he may be! (Rudolf Steiner, 18 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Instead, we find that in 2023, nuclear-weapon countries spent $91,393,404,739 on their arsenals, equivalent to $2,898 per second. That represents a $10.7 billion increase in nuclear weapons spending in 2023 over 2022, with the United States accounting for 80 percent of this increase. Total nuclear weapons spending over the past five years has been <strong>more than $387 billion,<\/strong> <strong>more than the World Food Program estimates would be needed to end world hunger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And the global imposture continues at a strong pace&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And how is this global imposture accomplished? Through fear, which, <strong>Steiner<\/strong> says, was also at the root of the outbreak of World War I:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I said that someone who has lived through recent decades in a state of spiritual consciousness must know that one of the main causes of today&#8217;s painful events is the fear in which the whole world was drenched, the fear that individuals had of each other, even though they did not know it, and above all the fear that the different nations had of one another. If people had seeing eyes with which to track down the cause of this fear, they would not talk as much nonsense as they do about the causes of the war (Rudolf Steiner, 10 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>That<\/em> <em>today<\/em> was 1917 and what&#8217;s going on in <em>our today<\/em>, in 2024?<\/p>\n<p><strong>We are faced with a real war on humanity, from the pandemic to the current fear-fuelled by the bombastic headlines in the media-first of global warming and now of war, not to mention the next inevitable pandemics; all, of course, by manipulating consciences through lies and half-truths.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But how are these impulses to manipulate the masses managed?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Those who desire &#8211;<strong>Steiner<\/strong> points out-\u00a0 to work in this way are always concerned, not to stimulate just one stream but to make sure that one stream is always crossed by another, so that they influence each other in some way. Not much is achieved by simply running straight ahead with a single stream. It is necessary sometimes to throw a sidelight on this stream so that certain things become confused, so that certain tracks are covered up, and other things are lost in an impenetrable thicket. This is very important. Thus it comes about that certain secret streams which have set themselves some task or other also set about achieving the exact opposite. These opposing tasks have the effect of obliterating all tracks (Rudolf Steiner, 9 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Manipulation and distractive strategies, then.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although, sometimes, for certain needs of power groups -more or less occult- some truths are publicized or, at least, hinted at.<\/p>\n<p>Think, for example, of this cover of the <em>Economist<\/em> from June 17, 2020, just after the start of the <strong>pandemic imposture<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-78347 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12eco-229x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"479\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12eco-229x300.png 229w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12eco-9x12.png 9w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12eco.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sitting on the comfy couch, members of the typical family become spectators of the coming catastrophe.<\/p>\n<p>Behind dad, mom and son -already equipped for chemical or conventional warfare- we see in order the images of possible coming catastrophes: from swine flu to volcanic eruptions, from melting poles to killer meteorites, from Armageddon watch to deadly viruses, from atomic warfare to solar storms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A riot of terror to better condition and influence people; fear is, in fact, the most effective means of controlling them, as <b>Goebbels<\/b> theorised and put into practice, incorporating half-truths and graphically anticipating the dawn of an era of global deception.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here, too, <strong>Rudolf Steiner<\/strong>&#8216;s guidance is valuable:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is significant and important to take into account that much that is launched on the public from occult sources is not untrue, but half true, a quarter true, an eighth true, and just because it bears within it a part of the truth it can be used to achieve one aim or another in a one-sided way. That is why those who see through these things gain a significant impression from the fact that, on the part of America, the twentieth century is introduced by the launching of certain ideas in the world via some channels of the bookselling trade serving certain movements which make use of occult means (Rudolf Steiner, 17 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>&#8220;The fact is&#8221;<\/em>, <strong>Steiner<\/strong> continues, <em>&#8220;that<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have already pointed out a number of times that people are, in a way, inattentive; they do not like looking closely at what is going on. Many of those who work with certain occult connections in order to bring something about in the world make use of this fact. Those of us who see the world, not in the usual way but with free and open eyes, will know that there are people who can be influenced by those who want to make use of such means. Someone who is intent on influencing people, someone who, as an occultist, is not entirely scrupulous, can indeed gain power over people in this way. (&#8230;) By pointing out these elementary matters I simply want to draw your attention to what you must take into account if you want to form a judgement; for the world is frequently misled by the way in which history is written (Rudolf Steiner, 9 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So here we are referred to those <strong>realities that are hidden behind external events but determine their course<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But for this\u2014the founder of Anthroposophy tells us\u2014<b>we must develop our attention and certainly not turn away, lest we be saddened by the painful events of the present.<\/b> Perhaps we should not follow the dramatically erroneous indications of those who theorise that we must only think about the development of our inner life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>On this subject, I do not think it is possible to misunderstand his words:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>It is too easy to think that the wisdom-filled world order will sort everything out. If this were so, there would not exist in the entire wide sweep of the physical world something that in fact does exist: human freedom. (&#8230;)<\/em> <em>For if we investigate only the spiritual aspect of things we lack the basis on which to frame the right questions, and we then do not understand how the spiritual happenings are mirrored below, on the physical plane (Rudolf Steiner, 11 December, 1916 GA 173).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If in the aftermath of the outbreak of World War I he stated with absolute clarity the belief that one of the main reasons for that catastrophe was&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230; the attitude that a blind eye can be turned to certain matters while others are discussed on the basis of an entirely false premise. Even in the face of large-scale matters of this kind, each individual should start from a foundation of self-knowledge. And a portion of self-knowledge is involved if we recognize that to claim no interest in these things and to want only to hear of occult matters is, in a small way, no different from all that adds up to the events we are experiencing today. For spiritual things are not only those which have to do with higher worlds. These, to start with, are of course occult for everybody. But much of what takes place on the physical plane is also occult for many people. We can only hope that much of what is occult and hidden on this plane may be revealed! For one of the causes of today&#8217;s misery is that so much remains occult for so many people, who nevertheless persist in forming judgements <em>(Rudolf Steiner, December 16, 1916 GA 173)<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What remains the same, unfortunately, is the human inability to learn the lessons of the past; here we are, in fact, gripped mostly unconsciously by the same vortex of lies, fear and sloth.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>wrote the Spanish thinker <strong>George Santayana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And please don&#8217;t tell me that we should not look at the evil around us, for it is <strong>Steiner<\/strong> again who stated in a lecture given in Dornach on 19 November, 1917 that&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>every era in the post-Atlantean age has its particular task. I have characterised in general the task of the fifth post-Atlantean period, indicating that it is humanity&#8217;s task in this period to come to grips with evil as an impulse in the evolution of the world. We have frequently discussed what this means. It cannot be otherwise than that forces that appear at the wrong place appear as evil <em>(Rudolf Steiner, Novembre 19, 1917 GA 178)<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In fact, this period of civilisation presents humanity with very difficult trials with extremely strong temptations. The gradual rise of evil powers throughout history will make mankind more inclined to indulge in evil rather than strive to transform that evil into good, thereby putting it at the service of the spiritual world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-78713 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-300x139.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"647\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-300x139.png 300w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-1024x474.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-768x355.png 768w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-1536x711.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-18x8.png 18w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59-1320x611.png 1320w, https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-2024-07-13-at-18.20.59.png 1772w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 647px) 100vw, 647px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The fact that since 1879\u2014as we know from\u00a0<b>Rudolf Steiner<\/b>\u2018s revelations\u2014<b>the spirits of darkness have been present on Earth<\/b>\u00a0forms the basis of their influence on human impulses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is no need to point out how recent events in the news and indiscriminate massacres indicate, beyond reasonable doubt, the progressive intensification of such impulses.<\/p>\n<p>What then is our task in the face of this increasingly evident reality?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To recognise with our reason\u2014<b>Steiner<\/b>\u00a0tells us\u2014the spiritual element through the forces of evil present in us.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I have said that, exactly because of this, beings that are close to man work in an invisible way among human beings, and that man is held back from recognising the spiritual with the intellect through the play of forces of evil. This is again bound up with the task of the fifth post-Atlantean period, because precisely through this many opportunities are given to the fifth post-Atlantean period to lend itself to dark illusions and the like. Man must accustom himself to a certain extent in this period to grasping the spiritual with his intellect <em>(Rudolf Steiner, 19 November, 1917 GA 178)<\/em>..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One of the things that, in my view, we must then understand is that, as <strong>we are facing a fundamental turning point in human history<\/strong>, it is essential, above all, to understand the magnitude of this turning point in order then to identify the most appropriate ways to bear witness to our spiritual militancy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The time is now; when else?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">English Text revision: Maja Schroeder<\/span><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Piero Cammerinesi It has long been clear to those willing to understand that this is a moment of fundamental historical transition. Those who refuse to see it will likely never comprehend it. As the saying goes: \u2018there are none so blind as those who will not see.\u2019 Those who know History\u2014with a capital \u201cH\u201d\u2014are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5162],"tags":[58,2112,1595,234,63],"class_list":["post-78602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articoli-news","category-spiritualita","tag-en","tag-fond","tag-goebbels","tag-piero-cammerinesi","tag-rudolf-steiner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberopensare.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}