Initially, Think OutWord was formed as a way to meet like-minded people who still have a bit of youthful idealism and want to bring that as fully as possible through their vocation. “It’s opening the door for necessary social networking. Our group is studying Rudolf Steiner’s social thinking, and we give each other support; bring some ideas to each other, encourage, and learn from each other. It’s really for people like me, who weren’t given much of an education in social thinking. We’re trying to figure out how to positively engage society in meaningful ways.”
Geared towards younger (at least at heart) people, the organization offers training in social entrepreneurship. It is loosely situated in the northeastern United States, and is grounded in, though not limited to, an understanding of the threefold nature of the human being and of society, primarily as it was articulated by Rudolf Steiner.
Seth explains: “We start with self-education, or ‘co-education’ – the group designs a curriculum for itself, gets together, individuals give peer-presentations, go home, create independent projects and small focus groups, find mentors, write papers, etc. Somewhere along the way all this mastering of ideas, all this thinking, melds into doing. That happens pretty quickly. They’re heady ideas but young people feel a sense of urgency (which these times demand), so if they can’t be applied in practice, if they don’t fructify our work, then we need different ones.”
The group’s leaders hope that through the training, participants will gain deeper insight into contemporary social phenomena and explore different methods by which they can become increasingly engaged in socially transformative work.
Think OutWord offers a public introductory training session at the beginning of every year. There is one longer session for full-time participants during the summer. The in-between time is filled with independent projects with partners and mentors, as well as small group work and small intensive weekends. “The sessions are about going deeply into the study and mastery of ideas and then how to bring these ideas into our work and action. It’s geared toward young people, but it’s open to anyone with the longing to learn about and work out of a new view of social entrepreneurship.”
In twenty-five years, how does this group hope our society might be different?
“What we’re looking to see happen is not to spread anthroposophy but to strengthen people,” explains Seth. “Richard Dancy once said, at one of our conferences, that he wasn’t asking people to become Christian Community priests, but that whatever we feel called to do, that we do it radically.
“By ‘radically’ he means getting to the roots of what you’re doing and really doing what you’re called to do. We’d like to create a sort of organic revolution; no coercion; we’re just trying to get people to be more socially and economically aware. We’re trying to figure out ways of living and working in society that are penetrated with consciousness.
“I look around in my community of striving and well-intentioned people and I see a lot of educators, artists, and farmers. That work is essential and it’s the destiny of many of our peers to do it. But what I’m wondering is, where are all the politicians, social activists, and CEOs? I do see some isolated individuals outside our communities who are fighting valiantly on their lonely fronts. But how are we, as the young generation of a socially and spiritually striving movement, in a concerted way, helping resolve national and international troubles – helping to meet global needs today? When we open a newspaper, we shouldn’t be content to witness the world’s problems and not do anything about them. Those are our problems.”
You can learn more about the programs and activities of Think OutWord by going to www.ThinkOutword.org.