The Whole Social

Share this post
The Whole Social's 1st year
thewholesocial.substack.com

The Whole Social's 1st year

Some thoughts on a year of writing and what's to come

Seth Jordan
Jun 27
9
3
Share this post
The Whole Social's 1st year
thewholesocial.substack.com

As of June 15th, 2022, The Whole Social (TWS) is a year old. When I first started writing it, I thought I’d try it for a year and see how it goes. So — how has it gone?

As a reader, it feels like you’re a board member of TWS, so I figured I’d give you a little report — some reflections and highlights, some stats, some new developments, and some ideas on where it’s going from here.


Reflections and highlights

When readers first come to TWS they find a one-line description of its purpose:

A project to help us see society whole and make sense of the deeper dynamics behind current events, especially drawing on Rudolf Steiner’s insights into the threefold nature of society (often called “social threefolding”).

I think that’s a pretty uncommon mission statement — “A project to help us see society whole.” Is there anyone else even attempting such a thing? I can’t think of anyone, which begs the question, “What’s the point of trying to develop such a holistic perspective on society? Why bother?” Why? — Because without it we can’t actually heal our social ills.

It’s not that we all need to become sociologists (no thank you), but that we all need to take a certain responsibility for society and develop some basic understanding of its healthy functioning. Rudolf Steiner described this in his foundational book on threefolding, Towards Social Renewal:

“The present crisis of mankind is asking for certain feelings and sensibilities to arise in every single individual… The old social forms, which existed up to now without the conscious participation of human feeling, will no longer be effective in the future… From now on people will need to develop a healthy sense for the way in which the social organism should work if its forces are to be life-giving ones.”

So that’s what I’m trying to do — I’m trying to develop a sense for the whole social organism in myself, and to help others develop it as well.

But the work has been different than I expected. Before starting, I spent a couple years writing Transforming Society (a 12 lesson course on threefolding) so my basic idea was to use those insights to shine a light on the news. I thought, “People are interested in current events — let’s start there; let’s see how these principles can make sense of the world today.”

But I was surprised to find the opposite also happening: Instead of the principles just making sense of the phenomena, the phenomena also made sense of the principles. Every time I’d dig down into a story, I’d find that threefolding itself became a little more clear.

And that’s kind of a big deal for me. To have my understanding of threefolding deepen considerably as a result of the writing is exciting. If nothing else came from this work, this one result would make it worthwhile.

Fortunately, a bunch of other things have come from this work: I get regular emails from readers sharing their appreciation and thoughts; a bunch of great conversations have been sparked in the comments section of the articles; I’ve been in touch with various academics whose research I’ve mentioned in the articles; and I’ve connected with a number of threefolders from around the world who I didn’t know before I started writing… just to name a few. So the work has been incredibly rewarding in general.

And now for a few specific stats.


Stats

In the last year I’ve published:

  • 18 articles (I’ve covered critical race theory, the war in Ukraine, the New York Times using disinformation to fight disinformation, crypto, the idea of kid’s voting, and many, many other topics)

  • 1 short story (here)

  • 5 audio articles that have been downloaded over 730 times (here)

  • and I’ve been interviewed on 2 podcasts (also here)

In addition, TWS started off with 0 and now has 315 readers! For a newsletter focused on seeing society whole, it’s pretty amazing that I’ve found a few hundred people who are interested. And the list keeps growing daily.

As you can see below, none of my readers are “paid subscribers” because I haven’t enabled a paying option. That said, I have added a donating option to my emails and a number of you have donated (thanks!). I’ll say more about this later.

One big stat is that 50%-60% of emails get opened (the normal average is usually around 20% for email marketing and newsletters) so the community is active. People are reading the articles and, if they miss them, many are listening to them later.

Also, the website is generally pretty busy and has gotten busier over time (which is to be expected, but is still gratifying to see :)


New developments

Because the writing’s been so rewarding — because it’s helped grow the work in me — I’m opening up TWS to other writers who want to try to shed a light on current events from a whole society perspective. This has always been my goal, but I wanted to make sure I could sustain the writing before inviting others in. I don’t expect a huge influx of new writers over the next year, probably just one or two articles by others, but I think it’s time to open the door to anyone who wants to try.

TWS Article Proposal Guidelines
113KB ∙ PDF File
Read now
Read now

The other new development is that I now have a better option for donating. Substack is great for writers with a lot of readers who can give $50 (which is the minimum) but I know a lot of people can’t afford that. So I’m keeping everything free and asking people to either make a one-off donation or a recurring donation on my ko-fi page (recurring donations are especially helpful because they create a steady monthly income). Ko-fi is a nice option for a couple reasons, one of which is that they don’t take a slice of every donation (instead I just pay them a low yearly fee).

Please support me on my ko-fi page



Ideas on where it’s going from here

The work’s been great so far and I’m looking forward to what a second year will bring. I’m assuming it will be similar — writing articles on current events, connecting with people, growing this work… but also perhaps some different things.

For one, I’m working on an essay/pamphlet on social threefolding. I definitely want to stay focused on current events, but I also just need to bring threefolding directly (the closest so far was my article “Society’s open secret”), so I plan on doing a few such pamphlets in the next year or two.

With Covid easing back, I’m also starting to teach more in-person workshops again. I’ll be sending out an email about upcoming workshops (as well as a new online study group) sometime in the next month or two.

I’m also thinking about maybe switching up the format of the articles from time to time… and maybe doing some book reviews… and maybe doing some videos…. and maybe starting a Callin podcast (it’s like call-in radio, where I’d talk for a bit about a topic I’d written about and people would “call-in” and discuss it). That said, I’m not sure about any of those things… but maybe :)

I’ve got some other ideas simmering on the back burner too, but they’re even more speculative, so I’ll just share them when/if I decide to move on them.


That’s it for now. If you have any thoughts about this work, feel free to reply back or share them in the comment section below. It’s always great to be in conversation.

And if you want to help get this work farther out into the world you can do so by 1) liking the posts, 2) rating the audio articles wherever you listen to them, 3) donating to my ko-fi page, and 4) sharing the articles with others. That’s all super, super helpful in growing this work.

The main thing though is just continuing to read — if a picture of the whole social organism can grow in you, then TWS is doing its job. Thanks so much for engaging with it.

All the best,

Seth

Seth's tip jar

3
Share this post
The Whole Social's 1st year
thewholesocial.substack.com
3 Comments

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

Omri Elaad
Jun 29Liked by Seth Jordan

So nice to read this update! Wishing you many more good things to come!

I was very happy to know you and your wonderful work this year. Looking forward to see how things continue.

Omri

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
1 reply by Seth Jordan
Mart Malakoff
Writes Mart’s Newsletter Jun 29·edited Jun 29

i looked back at this partly because

1. this topic is still on my 'research agenda' . I had not heard of Dumezi!, but the idea that seeing society as an organism is new or unique to him, piketty or steiner 'triggered' a nerve in me. In the Jim Rutt interview i noticed that for Rutt the term 'woke' triggers him, as it does 'me too!' (maybe a book?) , but the concept social organism does too ( not to mention social physics, computation, brain...)

Dumezil was influenced by Durkheim who i sort of trace alot of ideas or metaphors about society to. This is a sort of academic completeness issue but even though im not one i think its an ok issue.

i think academic social sciences are split a bit into an older school where metaphors were ok ('group mind...') to more current supposedly rigorous ones which bans such ideas (this came up in academic discussions of whether covid vacc situation was mass or group psychoses).

(this is a pedantic issue like saying someone 1 day under some age limit is too young to have an informed opinion---'u are a baby').)

The rabbit hole of 3folding, steiner, etc just evolved in a complex system manner into a fractal. (many say the universe is an organism, and also has a fractal structure).

so i'll complete my treatise on this rabbit hole in a later comment.

2. so now i was really interested in the writing but less to explain something about society . i already sort of did that last year befote i ended up in hospital and my 1000s of pages of notes on issue dissapeared .

i sort of reduced the issue to one equation (to rule them all)--

google it.

(google actually reveals there many equations which have some claim to rule them all. which claim is true?)

(i still basicaly have the equation in my head...sort of like a disease or mental virus or meme. i would say like many such equations to an extent it doesnt say much more than its everything. devil is in details)

so i decided theres no point to writing---- except to make money so when or if i get out of here i have some. (my bank acct and apt also dissapeared.. Sort of a blessing, less to worry about, but those also could be useful).

but id like enough$ for maybe 2 weeks --say 200$. i have 10$ i found in parking lot, so that might have do.

anyway i looked at writing and it wouldnt fit. i need some gig with imediate gratification. ( a family member did say if i wanted to get out of here for an overnight, she was thinking maybe in the fall..)

---

i was thinking to get a big readership we'd need controversy. so instead of the 3fold , it would be the many vs the 3.

there would be referees..debates...elections..stolen elections..hearings..tv

sort of like a talk show with a fox news and a cnn person--- sparks fly!! money rolls in...

they say top sibstack writers avrrage maybe 700k.

----

The (sort of famous) mathematician l kauffman has a paper what is number in which he states 3 is an interesting num.ber. maybe il! look for link-- its on google.

l kauffman papers on. laws of form were one place my steiner rabbit hole led to.

someonehas a phd thesis on line they got at calif inst integral studies on steiner and goethe and other topics that lead naturally to l kauffman.

----this is like my favorite idea in the paper above--- the idea that 3 fold led to some phenomena which in turn implied 3fold.

thats the idea and although it sounds tautologogical it isnt.

it may be somewhar teleo!ogical but to me that just means something was happrnning that led to something that seemed miracukous but really wasnt.

------

celine: men only see what they look at

and they only look at

what they already have in mind.

whitehead. You are alone on a deserted island

and you follow tracks in sand

all ardound the island

only to discover they are your own

---

i noticed rhe Nature Center has phd immunologist on its board. that might be someone interesting to talk to about mind body medicine or psychoneuroimmunology.

--

(i'm not a 3folder as i may have implied because i see it as a bit limited, so im more agnostic and only loyal and devoted to n € C = {- 2^N_0 ,...,0,....2^N_0 } .

(from my song i came to teach u numbers: here C stands for continuum--

all the #s between 0,1 (or from - to + infinity ), that from which we are from )

i have to represent or stand up for all the numbers besides 3.

but one could say all numbers are a ternary system finite infinite transfinite.

Expand full comment
ReplyCollapse
1 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Seth Jordan
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing