THE ALCHEMYCAL PAGES

Introducing The Three Fold Social Organism.

The World Physician diagnoses the present condition of the World.

It is obvious to anyone who is a practicing anthroposophist and/or a macrobiotic practitioner the current state of the world, if looked at as a world organism, is profoundly ill.

It is not really necessary to go into a great deal of detail in this essay to show how the world is ill as the entire contents of The Alchemycal Pages is devoted to showing how and why illness and health arises.

However, it is important to point out that what is "out there" in the world is not "out-there"­ it is a reflection of the inner physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual condition of each and every individual living on the planet at any one time.

Thus, the condition of the environment ­ air, water, soil and vegetation ­ also reflects the condition of pathological degeneration humanity is presently showing individually in terms of cancer, AIDS and other chronic infectious illnesses, diabetes, obesity, heart pathology, asthma, allergies, mental illness, etc.

Thus, it is not suprising that the environment is also ill as evidenced by the pollution and poisoning of the air, water and soil, and the sick and weak condition of animals, insects, crops, plants and trees.

It is also necessary to repeat that with respect to illness of the human individual modern medical science is entirely incapacitated and crippled with regard to having any solution to the problem of human illness and health. Modern medical science is intellectually bankrupt and is, essentially, a bogus science, amounting to nothing more than a modern superstition.

Other symptoms of the condition of the world population is the plethora of social ills as manifested in wars, terrorism, "ethnic cleansing", totalitarian states, nationalism, spying, 'homeland security', 'war on drugs', social security and welfare.

Now, when we look at what is considered to be the barometer of the health of a culture or society, the world economy, we also find, not surprisingly, it is entirely sick down to its very entrails.

Of course, it is entirely the temper of our times that every measure of success and health has been cast in terms of money and wealth, despite the fact that this is a bogus idea.

The whole gargantuan edifice of contemporary government and politics is based on making sure the perception is maintained among the voting populace that the economy is sound and people are making money and becoming wealthy. Enormous amounts of money and time and effort are spent to assure everyone that the finances of the world are in good shape and responsible policies are in place to ensure the robustness of the economy. This in fact, to-day, consists of the main job of a contemporary politician and political party. Especially if they want to remain in office , that is, be re-elected, or be elected anyway.

However, notwithstanding, or especially, because of, the efforts of the modern corporate state and its political agenda, one cannot separate the condition of the people from the condition of the economy.

Thus, when a book appears with a title "How come we feel so bad when we have it so good", as one did a few years ago while the biggest stock-market bubble in history was merrily underway (the consequences of which, which we are now only beginning to experience, will make the Great Depression look like a Sunday afternoon picnic in the park), one who knows of the relationship of the condition of the people to the condition of the economy knew that the stock market was being manipulated to fool everyone into thinking that everything is fine.

Much like the endless propaganda of the medical-pharmaceutical complex that the "war on cancer" is winnable and "we just need more funds" for research.

It really doesn't matter a whole lot how much money people have if they are hopelessly ill with cancer, arthritis, AIDS, hepatitis, asthma, diabetes, lupus, constipation, heart disease, kidney failure, anemia and are wracked with pain in their backs, necks, shoulders or joints walking around with 100 lbs of excess baggage in the form of obesity and they cannot get any sleep at all.

No amount of money can purchase love, joy, vitality, peace of mind, inner security, health and a life free from physical pain. These attributes simply cannot be bought at any price, anywhere.

So, why the obsession with money, and wealth cast in the form of monetary aggregates, when, in the end, all the money in the world amounts to Too Much of Nothing? This obsession can only be described as a terminal mental illness on a world-wide scale.

The State of The World Economy.

The condition of the world economy is such today that it is "sick down to its very entrails", because the condition of the people of the world is that they are all sick in their entrails (my book "The End Of Medicine" describes this in detail).

It is important to know the symptoms which indicate that this is in fact the present situation, keeping in mind that the world economy is the thermometer reading of the condition of the billions of people active at their "daily bread" each day, week, and month of the year.

Just as we need to understand facial diagnosis, the Five Transformation Theory, the principles of yin and yang and meridian diagnosis in order to correctly evaluate the condition of a person, we need to have a grasp of the fundamental diagnostic tools of finance to correctly evaluate the condition of the economy.

In its simplest form, we measure the health of any economic enterprise by means of the accounting ledger. On one hand we have the amount of money we earn as capital assets and on the other we have the amount of money we spend as capital liabilities.

And, as in macrobiotic terms, we are healthy when we have the proper balance of yin and yang in our bodies, so, if we wish to be financially healthy, we need to have the proper balance between assets and liabilities in our ledger of daily activity.

Ideally, we need to be solvent, so that we can pay for our liabilities with our assets and have some assets left over so we are always in a state of solvency. If we have too many liabilities and not enough assets then we are in a state of indebtedness, which is a sign that our finances are in a state of ill-health.

The economy of the United States is by far the largest in the world at the present time. The gross annual World Domestic Product (all the money generated by the world population's "daily bread" in the course of 365 days) is 33 Trillion dollars.

The annual Gross Domestic Product of the United States is 10 trillion dollars. The population of the US is approximately 5% of the world population and its generates 33% of world domestic product.

This is obviously an unhealthy financial situation by any standards, indicating a gross imbalance in the world economy. One has to enquire how can it be possible that 5% of the world's population can generate 33% of the world's product.

And what one finds is that this is done by the creation of debt instruments, not by "daily bread". As of today the total debt of the United States, (Federal, Corporate and Household Debt) is 32 Trillion dollars.

So, the balance sheet, the accounting ledger of the United States of America economy shows in the capital assets column 10 trillion dollars and on the capital liabilities column shows liabilities of 30 trillion dollars.

And, today, the percentage growth in the debt liabilities of households is increasing faster than that of household income.

The Government of the United States is thus clearly bankrupt as I write these words. Congress recently granted the US Treasury an increase in the "debt ceiling" of 450 Billion dollars to over 5 Trillion dollars and here is what US Treasury Secretary had to say:

""If it (the debt limit) had not been increased, it would have put we in the Treasury in the position where we would have had to make a choice between defaulting (on debt payments) or ...using shaky, I might even say potentially fraudulent, accounting devices to paper over a lack of action by Congress

"I'm very pleased we didn't reach that point, because ...I do not think we in the Treasury should put ourselves in the position of where we could be accused ...of following the horrendous accounting policies and practices that have come to the surface in private companies in recent months. We will set the standard for integrity in accounting practices and policies."

What he fails to say is that this increase in the debt limit is only enough to cover the obligations of the US Treasury through December 31, 2002! And if this is not a tacit admission that the US debt cannot and therefore will never be paid, I do not know what is.

Now, it is not my intention here to get into any political debate, because, fundamentally, the state of the world economy is not essentially about politics, and to berate politicians and the fiat money banking regimes of the world for the present situation is simply to miss the point of the picture I am drawing here.

For the past three years or so, I have been making a study of how the present state of the world economy has reached the sick condition, from an economic perspective, it is presently in, and I have found the following web-sites to be of great value for the detailed information and deep insight provided by a host of independent analysts and economic philosophers, material that is nowhere to be found in the financial pages of the local paper or from the organs of Wall Street, either printed or electronic.

Zeal - Contrarian Investing for the New Millenium

Gold Eagle

The Golden Sextant

Probably the most important essay I have read on how the United States economy has been deliberately driven into its present parlous state is to be found at:

Northern Lights Research

Please print out and read this essay, "The Short Sellers Nightmare", several times.

It is not my intention to provide a detailed economic analysis here as you can get all the information needed from these websites.

Current Form of Governance.

It is important to restate the observation that the state of the world is symptomatic of the condition of the individuals who comprise the world population. Since we know how and why the people get ill and remain that way from the contents of the rest of The Alchemycal Pages, what is interesting is to observe how the condition of the people of the world is reflected in the form of governance that has arisen in modern times.

The present form of governance is the centralized State, which today oversees and controls every aspect of the life of the individual, or, at the very least, if it has not yet succeeded in so doing completely, definitely has that goal as its ambition.

I need to point out that the present form of government cannot be considered modern in any sense of the word modern. Essentially what has evolved politically today is an imprudent miscegenation of Roman Imperialism and Medieval Feudalism. Thus, the present form of government is between 1000 - 2000 years out-of-date! It is therefore, at its best, antiquated, irrelevant, impertinent and impotent and, at worst, a fundamental driving force of social disharmony and human and environmental destruction (much like present medicine).

In the phrase of Rudolf Steiner, present government is a "social carcinoma".

The Three Fold Human Organism.

The human organism can be viewed from many perspectives and one of the most essential to understand is its three fold nature.

The three fold nature of the human organism is seen as follows:

Head and Central Nervous Organization ­ Thinking

Heart/Lung and Blood Circulation Organization ­ Feeling

Digestion/Metabolic and Limb Organization ­ Willing (Action).

We can think, feel and act as a result of these three constituents of our total organization, and we have consciousness of these three due to the fourth aspect of the human being, the "ego".

For the purposes of this discussion I am only going to refer to the three fold aspect.

Now, when we observe the workings of the healthy human organism as a whole, we find that these three aspects function independently of one another and yet co-operate so their functions are integrated in such a way that the totality is reflected in a healthy mind, heart and digestion/metabolism.

In the case of an unhealthy human individual we find that these three do not function in co-operative harmoniousness but there is a break down of their independence such that nervous activities interfere in the blood activities, blood activities interfere in the nervous system, and the digestive ­ metabolic activities are disharmoniously interfering in both the proper activity of the blood and the nervous tissue. All illnesses of the human individual can be seen, to a lesser or greater extent, as symptoms of the disturbed and non-integrative activity of the three fold human organism.

The Three Fold Social Organism.

The human social organism is here seen as the collective activity of all the individuals in the country where they are geographically located. Furthermore, the manner in which the society chooses to arrange its affairs is seen to be a reflection of the condition of the individuals who constitute the social organism of a country.

If we look at the social organism in the same way we have looked at the human organism in its three fold nature then we find that the expression of its three foldedness consonant with the human organism's three fold nature is as follows:

Head ­ Culture

Heart ­ Law and Justice (Governance)

Guts ­Agriculture and Business, Economy

Culture refers to those activities engaged by human individuals in the realm of education, the arts and sciences, sports, entertainment and religious, spiritual devotion.

Governance is the presiding over the realm of law, justice and the defense of the country.

The guts of a country is the practice of agriculture and the business activities that spring from the people who are able to feed themselves.

The Healthy Social Organism.

If a social organism of any country wishes to be healthy and harmonious in its daily activity then, as in the individual human organism, the three constituents must operate independently and co-operatively.

Thus culture ­ education, the arts and sciences, religious activities -must in no way shape or form have any government influence or interference, nor can government interfere in business and agricultural activities. These three must all act independently of one another.

The proper domain of government, with regard to the internal affairs of its people, is to ensure that fairness and justice prevail in their dealings with one another. Therefore its role is limited to regulation only in the sense that grievances and unethical, illegal behavior in any of the domains is decided by law and the courts of justice.

It is of course nonsense to suggest that today's cultural and business activities is in any way, shape or form operating without government interference. Government interference has spread like a cancer into virtually every aspect of individual and social life, where it does not belong.

Now, like any cancer for which the appropriate steps are not taken, the cancer of today's antiquated government will merely continue to grow until the country is terminal, that is, all the people of the culture and therefore the country itself, is dead.

In the next instalment I intend to describe in more detail what steps need to be taken to heal the world of the terminal cancer of today's government ­ in any country.

If you wish to learn more about the Three Fold Social Organism, the idea for which originates with Rudolf Steiner, you can read these three books by him:

Renewal of The Social Organism

The Social Future

Towards Social Renewal

(All published by Anthroposophic Press)

Purchases, comments or questions can be sent to the following link. I check this address every week. Thank you. Patricia