Freedom and dignity essential for humanity: Michaela Glöckler calls for a new humanism in the digital age

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 24 December 2021

The digital paradigm is one of perfection and efficiency. Human beings, on the other hand, need to be able to learn to live with insecurities and to keep evolving. Michaela Glöckler, former head of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum and president of Eliant, a Goetheanum partner organization, calls for a new humanism.

“Children and young people must be able to realize all their interests and talents, whether they are scientific and technological or artistic and spiritual,” Michaela Glöckler points out. As a pediatrician she knows that “all-round healthy maturation is a prerequisite for empathic participation and social responsibility in later life. These specifically human qualities are vital for mastering the big ecological, economic-political and social challenges that lie ahead.”

Michaela Glöckler speaks up for a culture that takes individual development as seriously as technological advances. She is convinced that it is essential to base education on values such as dignity and freedom. “The kinds of skills that are most effective in society depend on the quality of human co-existence, on our approach to nature and technology, democracy and the political life.” Without these values democracy was under threat and would sooner or later “have to give way to a digitalized surveillance state”.

As president of Eliant – the European Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy – Michaela Glöckler and her team are committed contributors to the Conference on the ‘Future of Europe’, which has been set up by the European Commission, and to champion a new humanism in the digital age.

(1606 characters/SJ; English by Margot M. Saar)

Contact person Michaela Glöckler