Some thoughts on 2021 Part 2

 Continued from Part 1

    In fact, I believe that because the materialism and the misuse of science in the Fifth Epoch proved to be such disasters, as typified by the two World Wars, that the Sixth Epoch was begun early and in a different place.  Rather than beginning in Eastern Europe, it began in the Anglo-American world after World War II and especially accelerating in the 1960s.  In fact, I believe that the Sexual Revolution is actually the corruption of the impulse of the Sixth Epoch.  It's not hard to see how this might happen.  What would the corruption of an impulse for almost everyone to start a family lead to?  Well, the result is all around us.  (Corruptio Optime Pessima)  

    Steiner seems to suggest as much in his prophecy of 1918: 

    "But this much can certainly be said: The effect in the evolution of humanity would be that certain instincts connected with the sexual life would arise in a pernicious form instead of wholesomely, in clear waking consciousness. These instincts would not be mere aberrations but would pass over into and configure the social life, would above all prevent men — through what would then enter their blood as the effect of the sexual life — from unfolding brotherhood in any form whatever on the Earth, and would rather induce them to rebel against it. This would be a matter of instinct."

    The key phrase here is "configure the social life."  

    In another lecture, titled "Behind the Scenes of External Happenings" Steiner said: 

"the secret of the control of masses — I spoke of this to begin with. It is the secret of how to gain extensive control over those masses who concern themselves little with external affairs, yet possess spiritual capacities and are especially qualified to assist in the preparation of the Sixth Post-Atlantean epoch — it is the secret, too, of how the art of controlling these masses can be placed in the hands of a few individuals. "

    When I try to think about what the Sixth Epoch would look like, one thing I wonder is, how would the families defend themselves?  In other words, those who concern themselves with raising families would not concern themselves with the macro-structure of society within which the families exist and so they would be vulnerable to various kinds of attack on that level.  I believe there was something supposed to develop in the Fifth Epoch (I have no idea what it would have been like), which never got off the ground.  This impulse would have structured human life at the macro-level and would have defended the families in the Sixth Epoch from those who meant them harm.  

    So, if this is true, then it means that people who have the qualities of the Sixth Epoch inside them naturally assume there will be a macro-level structure that defends them and helps to structure social life.  But, they have transferred that belief to the system.  Which has had very bad effects indeed. 

    Notice also that Steiner uses the phrase "the masses."  It is essential that the Fifth Epoch of individuality take place before the Sixth so that human beings are not swept up in the impulses of the Sixth Epoch and become just an undifferentiated mass.  Unfortunately, because the Sixth Epoch was accelerated, people had not fully developed their individuality so these people that Steiner speaks about in this paragraph are highly vulnerable to manipulation on a certain level.  Which we do indeed see with the media.