A friend and a great advocate of threefolding has crossed the threshold.
Crossing thresholds and boundaries was one of Nicanor’s constant practices. He never ran away from the powerful manifestations of evil in our world teetering on the brink of the abyss; he explored them, wrestled with them, stood up to them, confronted them, and opposed them, always in a determined effort to stand up for the good and keep open the paths to freedom, justice, and community. In doing so, he crossed many boundaries—of countries, customs, thinking, fields of expertise, claims to power, of what’s permitted by the powerful, and of what’s customary. With these strides, he encouraged many to do the same and became a pioneer and a role model for people all around the world.
Nicanor studied agricultural science and fought against nuclear power plants, pesticides, and the gradual destruction of the Earth and humanity from chemical-based and industrialized agriculture. Born on January 10, 1950, he was forced to leave his homeland, the Philippines, at the age of 28 for an indefinite period, as it was then under the control of the totalitarian dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He was only able to return after Marcos’ death. Then, he began to organize a long-term resistance against the destruction of livelihoods and to campaign for viable alternatives for society as a whole. He founded the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI), which promotes ecologically oriented agriculture (permaculture, biodiversity) and sustainable development that overcomes undesirable forms of unbridled growth. He also established a banking system (Lifebank) designed to ensure the survival of small farmers. An important element of Perlas’ concept was the development of the tri-sectoral partnership, a roundtable of civil society, government, and business.
In the last decade of his life, Nicanor was particularly concerned with the forces behind digitalization and “artificial intelligence” (AI), which he sought to understand as thoroughly as possible, along with its rise to power that he wanted to oppose. To this end, he lived and conducted research in the US for an extended period, primarily in Silicon Valley. Nicanor was especially concerned with the question of what human qualities we can develop and use to counteract the forces of machines in order to control them and not be controlled by them (see his book Humanity’s Last Stand: The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence: A Spiritual-Scientific Response (Forest Row, East Sussex: Temple Lodge, 2018)).
Nicanor soon became perhaps the most important environmental activist in the Philippines and a key figure worldwide in the effort to shape globalization in a participatory manner at all levels of society. His lectures attracted worldwide interest, and his books found readers in many countries. He was active around the world for as long as he was able. I personally sent him several invitations to speak, most recently on behalf of the Social Sciences Section in 2019 for the celebration of one hundred years of threefolding. We rarely saw each other, but that made us feel all the more spiritually connected. So, whenever possible, we met, talked on the phone, and exchanged ideas. Nicanor, like all aspects of his work, was deeply imbued with Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy and his concept of the threefolding of the social organism.
So, I would like to commemorate Nicanor once again by highlighting some important elements of his understanding of the threefold social order. Nicanor stood for a global, modern, dynamic, and integrative understanding of the threefold social order. He saw civil society as the decisive agent of change, which has only become locally and globally networked since the latter part of the twentieth century. He wrote, “In its contemporary form, civil society is the most important social innovation of the twentieth century. It ranks in importance with the invention of the nation state beginning in the seventeenth century and the creation of the modern market in the eighteenth century.”1 He saw association, self-organization, and organized communication as its practices and norms. Only through the balancing third force of the civil sphere between the state and the market could a process towards a social threefolding of politics, culture, and economics emerge. Otherwise, it would become one-sided and distorted under the influence of neoliberal globalization that gives the market dominance, enslaving the other spheres.2
Nicanor believed that reflection on and conscious presentation of this new idea of threefolding was necessary to enable civil society to become aware of its influence and its independent role as a social and cultural force. The more this happens, the more a conscious threefolding emerges—one that turns into an even more advanced threefolding once civil society develops and presents its alternatives for society as a whole. In recent years, Nicanor Perlas became increasingly committed to viewing globalization as a spiritual task. His ideas were noticed worldwide and provided direction for many people and initiatives.
Nicanor received numerous awards for his global work. He was a member of the Club of Budapest and an advisor on sustainable development to the UN. In 2003, he received the Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) for his outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalization, and how alternatives to it can be implemented.”3
Nicanor Perlas crossed many thresholds on behalf of all of us. On August 15, he crossed the threshold into the spiritual world in Bulacan, the Philippines. We thank you, Nicanor, for your earthly work and your earthly being!
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Nicanor Perlas, Photo: Wolfgang Schmidt
Footnotes
- Nicanor Perlas, Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power, and Threefolding (Forest Row, East Sussex: Temple Lodge, 2019), p. 27.
- Ibid.
- Right Livelihood Foundation, “Nicanor Perlas,” The Change‑Makers: Find a Laureate, Right Livelihood, accessed August 31, 2025.
Thankyou