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King Philip IV (‘the Fair’) of France and Henry VIII of England
This article was first published in The Present Age magazine Vol. 3 No. 5 July 2017 In a lecture of 1 October 1916 Rudolf Steiner discusses the superficiality of much of the modern study of history and points out that “when one traces things back to their causes in the superficial easy-going way that modern history largely employs, one comes to positive absurdities. Ultimately, one would have to come to the opinion that the greatest part – perhaps even the most widespread part of what happens – owes its existence not to sense but to...
read moreAspects of the Brexit Referendum – The One and the Many
This article was first published (with slight abridgements) in New View magazine Issue 80 July – Sept. 2016 On 23 June this year Britain’s referendum on membership of the European Union (EU) resulted in a dramatic decision to exit the European Union (EU), but the decision does not change certain fundamental underlying elements of our social and economic life today. The economic establishment has shown very little sign at all of changing its practices since the crisis of 2008, and furthermore, relations between the superpowers, the...
read moreCharlottesville August 2017: Where is the Truth?
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 85 Autumn 2017 When people in Britain recall the summer of 2017 they may remember the two blockbuster movies showing that season which evoked nostalgia for a summer 77 years earlier – June – August 1940: “Dunkirk” and “Churchill”. On release exactly a year after the Brexit referendum, these two films reinforced the British mythos of national unity in the face of imminent national disaster and threat. Although “Churchill” is about the period immediately before the...
read moreIndividual – Nation – World
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 84 Summer 2017 One of the major features of human development over the past 100 years has been the relationship between nationalism and what is variously called ‘internationalism’, ‘supranationalism’ or ‘cosmopolitanism’. First, the difference between these latter three terms should be clarified. Internationalism simply organises cooperative relations between nation states while recognising that the basic unit remains the nation state. The League of Nations, founded in...
read more1849 and 2017: Thoughts on ‘Globalisation’
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 86 Jan. – Mar. 2018 It seems to this writer that there has been a certain similarity between the events of the years 1848 and 1849 on the one hand and those of 2016 and 2017 on the other. In 1848 and 2016 there was a widespread populist revolt across the western world against the existing Establishment which was severely shaken by the upsurge – various governments and prominent figures fell, including the Kings of France and Bavaria, and Chancellor Metternich of Austria, the...
read moreThe Year of the Black Swan – Brexit and Trump
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 82, Jan. – Mar. 2017 The study of biography is an important and growing area of research in anthroposophy, related as it is to Rudolf Steiner’s work on the study of karma and reincarnation. As such, biographical work has a socially hygienic function, as it helps to promote the understanding of time (and timing) in one’s life and thus to restore meaning. And it is meaning that human beings crave above all, for we are beings who create meaning through the act of cognition,...
read moreMoltke, the West’s War on Russia & the ‘New Roman Empire’
This article was first published in The Present Age magazine Vol. 2, No. 3, June 2016 In his Reflections and Memories, written in Homburg in November 1914, Helmuth von Moltke makes quite clear that “Our failure to overwhelm France in the first attack was due to England’s fast intervention”(1). The British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey kept British military plans and intentions to aid France in the event of war secret, even from his own fellow Cabinet members, until the secret came out in 1911. Later, in Berlin in the...
read moreEchoes of the 9th Century in Our Time
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 81 Autumn 2016 “Matthew was an angel as a young child – sensitive, well-behaved, affectionate, often joyful, and often dreaming away on another plane. After turning nine, however, he soon changed into quite a different person. He was sometimes rude and critical, and often moody if not downright wretched…. Prior to age seven or eight, most children are sunny, smiling, exuberant, joyful beings – little angels, for the most part. Around the ninth birthday, however, a tinge of...
read more2016: Britain’s Year of Decision
This article was first published in New View magazine ‘No. 79 Apr – June 2016 2016 looks to be a momentous year in British history, when the nation makes its choice in the referendum on 23rd June on whether to remain in the European Union or leave it. This could affect Britain’s direction for decades, if not centuries. In the world of science Professor Stephen Hawking (74), who seems to be regarded by the media as something of a British scientific ‘cardinal’ in the contemporary western world’s modern ‘religion’ of...
read moreHistorical Conscience – From Uriel to Michael
This article was first published in New View Magazine Issue 77 Autumn 2015 The light from the widths of the world Lives on within me powerfully, Becoming light of soul And shining into spirit depths, To bring forth all the fruits Which in course of time shall ripen The Self of Man from the Self of the World - Rudolf Steiner, The Calendar of the Soul (Week 22) translated by Terry Boardman In October...
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