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¡°Reversal into the opposite¡± described by Sylvia Sasse

 

Hi all,
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I'm happy to hear so much news from you again since the beginning of the year, but the reports about the fires in California are shocking.
Unfortunately, I don't take much time for discussions, and my poor English often prevents me from doing so.
But there is one topic that has become very important to me and I would like to know whether this topic is also being discussed in other countries.
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Here it is:
The German-Swiss Sylvia Sasse wrote a book in 2023 in which she describes a political phenomenon that she calls ¡°reversal into the opposite¡± ("Verkehrung ins Gegenteil"). Well-known examples of these reversals are the war attack against Ukraine, which Putin justified with the lie of fighting Nazis, and Trump's tricks in the election campaign.
Sasse's book is largely compiled from articles that can be read online.
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One of these articles has even been translated into English.
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I find Sasse's work very helpful in the context of anthroposophical apology. For example on the website ¡°anthroposophy-against-racism¡±. Ansgar Martin has already pointed out in an article for a German skeptic magazine that Wolfgang M¨¹ller uses reversal (or inversion? I'm not sure what's the best word for "Verkehrung" oder "Umkehrung" in English) to equate criticism of anti-Semitism with anti-Semitism itself on the AGiD-Webside (skeptiker, 2/2023, p. 66-71). I see potential for reversals everywhere on this website, because it is much more about criticism of criticism of racism than criticism of racism itself. It is worth noting that the authors of the websites repeatedly cite increased criticism of Rudolf Steiner's and anthroposophy's racism during the coronavirus pandemic as the cause of their initiative. It is therefore not a selfless initiative against racism, as the name of the domain suggests (¡°Anthroposophy against Racism¡±), otherwise the murder of George Floyd by a policeman would have been an obvious reason to launch such an initiative.
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So much for my reason for presenting Sylvia Sasse's work in this forum for anthroposophical criticism. I think Sasse's thoughts are also very helpful beyond that. I wonder, for example, if Wouter J. Hanegraaff made such a reversal on Facebook when he compared Trump's re-election in November to the French Revolution, not mentioning the obscurantism Trump used to win the election. (posted on November 9, 2024)
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But the most important question for me is to the participants in this forum: Do you know of any work similar to Sylvia Sasse's on ¡°reversal into the opposite¡±?
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For those who want to delve much deeper into the subject of reversals, I have something very special from my own repertoire. An important basis for Sylvia Sasse is her work on Michael Bachtin. I only knew Bakhtin through my own research on Hellboy-comics, which I started in connection with my research on esotericism. An American researcher has written an apologetic study on stereotypes in the Hellboy story ¡°The Crooked Man¡±. He uses Bakhtin to argue that these stereotypes are satirical in Bakhtin's sense. I've been reading these comics for 20 years and I doubt their author had such sophisticated thoughts when writing his comics. I suspect that these stereotypes are in the comics because the author adopted them uncritically, or perhaps simply knew nothing about them. I'm not an expert, and in case of Hellboy-comics I have to battle my own tendency to be apologetic. Anyone who would like to know more about my thoughts on this is welcome to read about this on my blog.
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Greetings
Finn
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Finn,?
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an interesting theory, but it¡¯s the first I hear about it, so I can¡¯t help you out with other sources.
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It does ring a little bell. In my anthroposophical years, I¡¯ve met several anthroposophists who are very skilled in letting you come to conclusions that are exactly the opposite of the scientific consensus. E.g. the heart is not a pump, humans did not evolve from apes, the sun is not the centre of our solar system, our will does not stem from our mind¡­ With hindsight I can see these are all based on rethorical trickery. It is no surprise to me that some anthroposophists react to accusations of anti semitism and racism in the same way. They have a lot of experience in this field.
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And when I further think about it, they¡¯re just copying the master, Rudolf Steiner. Aren¡¯t most of Steiners¡¯ lectures ways to show that what the audience believes is wrong and the thruth is just the opposite (or at least very different).
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So I think there might certainly be a convergence in rethorical trickery. The goals however could be different. But it¡¯s definitely an interesting way to look at anthroposophical argumentation (and also broader current events).
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greetings,
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Kokanje
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Thanks Kokanje.
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One of my ringing bells are the movies by M. Night Shyamalan (best known example ¡°The Sixt Sense¡±, famous quote: "I see dead people"). They are known for always having an exciting twist. This was very successful in the early 2000s, but it didn't take much time before these twist-movies were no longer convincing and succesful. In any case, such twists always have a wow effect that never ends for some people, while others only expect disappointment at some point. Fans of these movies may think every new twist is totally smart and may feel smart themselves every time they see it.
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- Finn
 

I have the idea that it might be helpful to investigate the failing of movie twists, there are plenty of them if you believe the internet.
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But (movie-)twists are of course not everything. Sylvia Sasse describes the phenomenon in another way: An equation of the opposite. Her best-known example of this is a quote from George Orwell's novel ¡°1984¡±. In the novel, the totalitarian regime claims ¡°War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength¡±. Sylvia Sasse draws attention to the fact that in the first two pairs the exact opposite becomes the same, while ignorance and strength remarkebly are not the exact opposite, but this is almost overlooked after the first two pairs.
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We are also familiar with the disappearance of opposites from anthroposophy, for example the difference between religion and science.
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- Finn
 

For a search of failed twists in the work of Rudolf Steiner, one could follow the work of the anthroposophist Ullrich Kaiser, who invented the theory that Steiner, with his hair-raising claims, was only a narrator of metaphors.
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- Finn
 

Hi Finn, and all,
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I¡¯ve been thinking about this. The equation between spirituality/religion (based on subjective observation) and science (based on objective observation) is indeed typical for anthroposophy, hence the oxymoron ¡®spiritual science¡¯, what anthroposophy is all about.
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Could this be a result of the influence of christian mysticism on anthroposophy? This strand of Christianity - which goes way back to the earliest days of Christianity and has a long history in the catholic and othodox churches - empasizes the direct experience of god/thruth. True knowledge is acquired through worship, love, meditation, litteral not-thinking in this view. Steiner tried to give these experiences an aura of science, making a bridge between two opposites. This could have been an honest attempt, or a way to make him seem ¡®professoral¡¯.

So, anthroposophy is christian mysticism re-invented for the modern age? Made up by a guy who was accidentaly born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, a melting pot of religions. (The article you shared from the German antifa site on the situation in Hungary, shows that this melting pot is still producing/recycling some of these ideas.)

I¡¯m probably cutting corners again. So, Peter, if you read this and feel the need to correct me, please do! Unlike Steiner, I don¡¯t claim to be a scientist ;-)
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greetings, Kokanje
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Good morning Kokanje,
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Happy to read your reply. I'm also not a scientist, so I live a life with ringing bells.
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1. bell:
Your description of Christian mysticism reminds me of some people describe gnosticism. I'm Not an expert of History of christianity, mysticism und gnosticism. When it comes to this I Always think about how famous comic-writer Alan Moore described a difference between Gnosis and faith or believe in a britisch magazin for gnosticism - he Said Something like: 'gnosis means to know, believe ist for "cissies"'. A note of this ist in this article:
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2. bell:
There ist a Joke about Steiner and Religion in Helmut Zanders Steiner-biography. IT goes Like this: several known holy man meet good at the end of their life, when they come Back from good they understood that they thought in mistakes about god. But then there is Steiner. After He met god at the end of His life, it's god god who understand his mistakes.
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3. bell:
I assume Zander's Joke ist about Something that is known to me as "negative theology", something I don't fully understand. But it's some kind of religious scepticism about the own believes. A concept that seems unknown to anthroposophists, because they have a promise of answering every Last question, If you do "spiritual science" right. (Anthroposphy means to know, If you will, believe ist for everyone else.)
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Greetings!
Finn?
 

Finn,

This might interest you:

What is Christian mysticism?



What is Gnosticism?


From Filip Holm¡¯s podcast: Let¡¯s talk religion. Also available on youtube.?

There will be similarities and differences with anthroposophy. Steiner was a typical syncretic figure in history and not the only one. Now and then you get these figures who are good in bringing abstract ideas together, even if they contradict each other. But it¡¯s also interesting to see how little we know (I¡¯ll speak for myself) about the history of Christianity.

Greetings, Kokanje


Op wo 15 jan 2025 om 06:48 schreef Finnef via <vollnormaleforschung=[email protected]>

Good morning Kokanje,
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Happy to read your reply. I'm also not a scientist, so I live a life with ringing bells.
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1. bell:
Your description of Christian mysticism reminds me of some people describe gnosticism. I'm Not an expert of History of christianity, mysticism und gnosticism. When it comes to this I Always think about how famous comic-writer Alan Moore described a difference between Gnosis and faith or believe in a britisch magazin for gnosticism - he Said Something like: 'gnosis means to know, believe ist for "cissies"'. A note of this ist in this article:
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2. bell:
There ist a Joke about Steiner and Religion in Helmut Zanders Steiner-biography. IT goes Like this: several known holy man meet good at the end of their life, when they come Back from good they understood that they thought in mistakes about god. But then there is Steiner. After He met god at the end of His life, it's god god who understand his mistakes.
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3. bell:
I assume Zander's Joke ist about Something that is known to me as "negative theology", something I don't fully understand. But it's some kind of religious scepticism about the own believes. A concept that seems unknown to anthroposophists, because they have a promise of answering every Last question, If you do "spiritual science" right. (Anthroposphy means to know, If you will, believe ist for everyone else.)
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Greetings!
Finn?
 

Thanks Kokanje!
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And please excuse my many typing-mistakes in my Last message. I write a lot of my Messages during Breaks at Work or when I'm on the bus on may way to work. I have New Hardware but I have No clue how I can disable autocorrectur.
 

Don¡¯t worry about it, Finn.
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¡¯Good¡¯ is an excellent autocorrection for ¡®God¡¯, except when you¡¯re a Sethian Gnostic. Then, ¡®bad¡¯ would be more appropriate ;-)

P.S.: I heard the joke before. It paints a good picture of Steiner.
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Did you ever hear that Hilma af Klint, didn¡¯t paint for several years after her work was critisized by Steiner? He was such a terrible figure :-(
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greetings,
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Kokanje
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