Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 39

Peter Staudenmaier writes in Paragraph 11 of Anthroposophy and Ecofascism:

Steiner's doctrine of reincarnation, embraced by latter-day anthroposophists the world over, holds that individuals choose their parents before birth, and indeed that we plan out our lives before beginning them to insure that we receive the necessary spiritual lessons. If a disembodied soul balks at its own chosen life prospects just before incarnation, it fails to incarnate fully—the source, according to anthroposophists, of prenatal "defects" and congenital disabilities. In addition, "the various parts of our body will be formed with the aid of certain planetary beings as we pass through particular constellations of the zodiac. [Footnote: Stewart Easton, Man and World in the Light of Anthroposophy, New York 1975, p. 164.]"

The above description, it should be pointed out, is based on a secondary source, a summary of Anthroposophy written by Stewart Easton. While I won't go into the individual points, I should point out that Peter Staudenmaier appears not to have actually read the primary sources necessary to formulate such a sweeping overview, relying instead on someone else's efforts. While I have nothing against secondary sources for quickly surveying a field of inquiry, I would suggest that a serious scholar would then go the extra step and actually read the primary sources, citing those to establish a point. Were he to put in the effort, Mr. Peter Staudenmaier would find that the primary sources tend to speak of "should" and "could" and do not bear the dogmatic character that they acquire in his retelling. Doubtless the purpose of writing this three sentence summary is to portray Steiner as silly. While effective, I should point out that such a hack job does not constitute scholarship, and the central accusation of racism has not been established.