33. Ideal Humans

Or, better still, we would should say: humans who want to be ideal! But here, too, we must, first and foremost, carefully eliminate all those who may call themselves that or like to be called that, but who do not even belong to the group of those who want to be ideal. These are the large class of weak-minded, starry-eyed people of both sexes, who are joined by those gifted with imagination, who have never been able to learn to control their gift and to use it in a useful way. We must also omit those who are always dissatisfied with existing conditions and attribute this dissatisfaction to the fact that they are more inclined to be idealistic than everyone else and therefore do not fit into their time. Then we find the masses of the so-called “misunderstood” of both sexes, the largest number being girls and women. These type of people imagine that they are misunderstood. In plain language, they are constantly under the illusion that they carry a treasure trove of values that the other person with whom they are associating is not capable of recognizing. In reality, however, there are no treasures hidden in these souls, but instead only an inexhaustible source of boundless, never-ending desires that can never be satisfied.
 
All so-called misunderstood people can simply be called “useless" people, because they show themselves to be useless for the real present life and only indulge in unreal things, sometimes even in frivolity. But always that which is not suitable for a healthy life on earth. Unfortunately, however, the path of such eternally misunderstood girls and women very often leads into such a life that is commonly called “frivolous”, as immoral, because they are always too eager to be ‘comforted’ too easily and too often, which a certain kind of man naturally knows and unscrupulously exploits. But it is precisely these misunderstood people who will always be and remain unreliable in every respect. They think themselves ideal, but they are completely worthless, so that a serious person who does not harbour base intentions would do best to avoid them. To bring help would be futile. They are almost always approached by “comforters” with evil intentions, and the reciprocal action is very quickly triggered; for, after a few days or weeks, a misunderstood girl or woman will feel ‘misunderstood’ again at the heart or in the arms of a so-called comforter and long to be understood again, because they do not know at all what they actually want. Finally, the group of harmless dreamers must be added to all these unsuitable groups! Seemingly harmless like children. But the harmlessness of such a dreamer exists only with regard to the effect against the dreamer himself, on his own personality, but not on his surroundings and all the people with whom he comes into contact. For many people, such a harmless dreamer already has the immediate effect of slowly devouring poison, destroying, disintegrating, because he is able to tear them out of normal and thus regenerative life on earth with his developments of ideas, in order to lead them into the realm of what is inappropriate, the unreal for time on earth time. But mark well: I do not say that such a dreamer is impure or even bad, on the contrary. He may want the best, but he will always want it unrealistically for earth, practically impracticable, and thus he does not have a promoting effect on existence on earth, but an inhibiting, destructive one.
 
But even among the remaining “ideal striving” people we have to make another division, observe closely. We then still find two kinds of people: Those “striving” for ideals and people “striving toward the ideal”. Those who striving for ideals are mostly weaklings who always long for something that can never be achieved. At least not on earth, and who therefore can never become truly happy or even joyful. There is great closeness to the group of the “misunderstood”, and in time fall into a morbid sentimentality that leads to nothing good. But once we have eliminated them so sharply, we must, figuratively speaking, look for the last remaining ones with a lantern even during the daytime, so few there are. These few are not yet to be called “ideal people” themselves, but rather, as I have already said, people “striving toward the ideal”. Ideal striving is regarded as a personal quality that is active on earth. These are the people who can be fully valued, who certainly have a great, often monumental goal in mind, but who never come to float away with it, but who anchor themselves firmly with both feet in earthly life, so as not to be detached into that which is unreal for earth. They strive step by step, with a clear eye and a skilful hand, towards the far-reaching goal, without undeservedly harming other people in the process. The benefits that such people bring will rarely be limited for individuals alone. Exploitation of any kind is never an option, since then the term “striving toward the ideal” would have no justification. And every human being should and can be ideally striving, no matter what activity he pursues here on earth. He can ennoble every kind of work with it and give it broad aims. He must only never forget to keep everything within the framework of earthly life. If he goes beyond this, it becomes unreal and therefore unhealthy for the earth. The consequence is that progress can never be achieved, which is the basic condition and characteristic of all striving toward the ideal. On earth man has the duty to set as his goal that which is most attainable for him, and to strive with all his strength to attain this goal. As a human! This excludes from the outset that he should only strive like an animal for food and drink, as so many people unfortunately do, or that he should allow himself to be whipped by the intellect into obtaining purely earthly greatness or fame without having in mind as his main purpose the general welfare and advancement of humanity. Such people are of less value to the earth than animals, since an animal is always unaffectedly what it is by nature, even if its purpose only serves to keep the creatures alert, so that no inhibiting slackening sets in, which could result in decline and decay, since movement remains a condition of life in Creation. Being alert! The truly ideal striving human being can therefore be recognized by the fact that he seeks to elevate what exists on earth, not in the intellect sense towards augmentation and power, but in the sense of ennobling it! All his ideas, however, will also possess the possibility of earthly realization, which will bring benefit to the individual as well as to the general public, whereas only those who want to be ideal wallow in ideas which are impossible to utilize practically in a healthy earthly life, but only distract from it, draw into a dream world which brings the harm of overlooking the utilization of the present for the maturity of his spirit, which every person should form and develop in his present experience.
 
So also those people with ideal-communist thoughts, taken seriously, are also pests of humanity, because their realization would only have to bring something unhealthy, even though they want good things of their own accord. They are like master builders who carefully assemble a house at a workshop for another place. It looks neat and beautiful... in the workshop. But when it is put on the actual building site, it stands crooked and unstable, so that no one can live in it, because the ground was uneven and could not be levelled despite the greatest efforts and endeavours. The builders had forgotten to take this into account. They overlooked the correct assessment of the existing situation, which was given to this building as conditional and unchangeable! That is not what a truly ideal striving person does!
 
The ideal-communist ideas cannot grow up out of the ground in the implementation, nor can they be anchored in it, nor can they be connected at all, since this ground, the people, do not suit it at all! It is too uneven and will always remain so, because it is not possible to bring about an equal maturity in all people on earth. There will always and forever be a great difference in the respective maturity, since the individual human beings are and will remain spiritually completely separate personalities, which can only develop differently, since these spirit persons shall never be deprived of free will over themselves! With the Cosmic turning-point, humanity's free will outwardly has been taken away, because the Will of God has incarnated on earth and now naturally has to rule the human will, because It stands above it and is stronger! Only inwardly can each individual once more decide on his spiritual path which will lead him to the Light of preservation or to the darkness of disintegration! Now seek to recognize the truly ideal striving people on earth, in order to promote their deeds, for they will only bring benefit by building up.