Society: Its Origin and Development Part 25

CHAPTER XLVI

SOCIAL PSYCHIC FACTORS

366. =The Social Mind.=--As individual life is compounded of many psychic elements that make up one mind, so the life of every group involves various factors of a psychic nature that const.i.tute the social mind. The social mind does not exist apart from individual minds, but it is nevertheless real. When emotional excitement stirs a mob to action, the unity of feeling is evidence of a social mind. When a congregation recites a creed of the church the unity of belief shows the existence of a social mind. When a political land-slide occurs on the occasion of a presidential election in the United States, the unity of will expresses the social mind. The emotional phase is temporary, public opinion changes more slowly; all the time the social mind is gaining experience and learning wisdom, as does the individual. Social consciousness, which at first is slight, increases gradually, until it fructifies in social purpose which results in achievement. History is full of ill.u.s.trations of such development.

367. =How the Social Mind is Formed.=--The formation of this social mind and its subsequent workings may be ill.u.s.trated from a common occurrence in frontier history. Imagine three hunters meeting for the first time around a camp-fire, and a.n.a.lyze their mental processes. The first man was tired and hungry and camped to rest and eat. The second happened to come upon the camp just as a storm was breaking, saw the smoke of the fire, and turned aside for its comfort. The third picked up the trail of the second and followed it to find companionship. Each obeying a primal instinct and conscious of his kind, came into a.s.sociation with others, and thus by the process of aggregation a temporary group was formed. Sitting about the fire, each lighted his pipe in imitation of one another; they communicated with one another in language familiar to all; one became drowsy and the others yielded to the suggestion to sleep. Waking in the morning, they continued their conversation, and in sympathy with a common purpose and in recognition of the advantages of a.s.sociation, they decided to keep together for the remainder of the hunt. Thus was const.i.tuted the group or social mind.

With the consciousness that they were congenial spirits and shared a common purpose, each was willing to sacrifice some of his own habits and preferences in the interest of the group. One man might prefer bacon and coffee for breakfast, while a second wished tea; one might wish to break camp at sunrise, another an hour later; each subordinated his own desires for the greater satisfaction of camp comradeship. The strongest personality in the group is the determining factor in forming the habits of the group, though it may be an unconscious leadership. The mind of the group is not the same as that of the leader, for the mutual mental interaction produces changes in all, but it approaches most nearly to his mind.

368. =Social Habits.=--By such processes of aggregation, communication, imitation, and a.s.sociation, individuals learn from one another and come to const.i.tute a like-minded group. Sometimes it is a genetic group like the family, sometimes an artificial group like a band of huntsmen; in either case the group is held together by a psychic unity and comes to have its peculiar group characteristics.

Fixed ways of thinking and acting are revealed. Social habits they may be called, or folk-ways, as some prefer to name them. These habits are quickly learned by the members of the group, and are pa.s.sed on from generation to generation by imitation or the teaching of tradition.

There are numerous conservative forces at work in society. Custom crystallizes into law, tradition is fortified by religion, a system of morals develops out of the folk-ways, the group life tends to become static and uniform.

369. =Adaptation.=--Two influences are continually at work, however, to change social habits--the forces of the natural environment and interaction between different groups. Both of these compel adaptation to surroundings if permanence of group life is to be secured. Family life in the north country ill.u.s.trates the working of this principle of adaptation. In the days of settlement there was a partial adaptation to the physical environment. Houses were built tight and warm to provide shelter, abundant food was supplied from the farm, on which men toiled long hours to make a living, homespun clothing was manufactured to protect against the rigors of winter, but ignorance and lack of sufficient means prevented complete adaptation, and society was punished for its failure to complete the adaptation.

Climate was severe and the laws of health were not fully worked out or observed, therefore few children lived to maturity, although the birth-rate was high. Economic success came only as the reward of patient and unremitting toil, the shiftless family failed in the struggle for existence. Tradition taught certain agricultural methods, but diminishing returns threatened poverty, unless methods were better adapted to soil and climate. Thus the people were forced slowly to improve their methods and their manner of living to conform to what nature demanded.

No less powerful is the influence of the social environment. The authority of custom or government tends to make every family conform to certain methods of building a house, cooking food, cultivating land, selling crops, paying taxes, voting for local officials, but let one family change its habits and prove conclusively that it has improved on the old ways, and it is only a question of time when others will adapt themselves better to the situation that environs them. The countryman takes a city daily and notes the weather indications and the state of the market, he installs a rural telephone and is able to make contracts for his crops by long-distance conversation, he buys an improved piece of machinery for cultivating the farm, a gasolene engine, or a motor-wagon for quick delivery of produce; presently his neighbors discover that he is adapting himself more effectually to his environment than they are, and one by one they imitate him in adopting the new methods. By and by the community becomes known for its progressiveness, and it is imitated by neighboring communities.

This process of social adaptation is a mental process more or less definite. A particular family may not consciously follow a definite plan for improved adaptation, but little by little it alters its ways, until in the course of two or three generations it has changed the circ.u.mstances and habits that characterized the ancestral group. In that case the change is slow. Certain families may definitely determine to modify their habits, and within a few years accomplish a telic change. In either case there are constantly going on the processes of observation, discrimination, and decision, due to the impact of mind upon mind, both within and outside of the group, until mental reactions are moving through channels that are different from the old.

370. =Genetic Progress.=--The modification of folk-ways in the interest of better adaptation to environment const.i.tutes progress.

Such modification is caused by the action of various mental stimuli.

The people of a hill village for generations have been contented with poor roads and rough side-paths, along which they find an uneasy way by the glimmer of a lantern at night. They are unaccustomed to sanitary conveniences in their houses or to ample heating arrangements or ventilation in school or church. They have thought little about these things, and if they wished to make improvements they would be handicapped by small numbers and lack of wealth. But after a time there comes an influx of summer visitors; some of them purchase property and take up their permanent residence in the village. They have been accustomed to conveniences; in other words, to a more complete adaptation to environment; they demand local improvements and are willing to help pay for them. More money can be raised for taxation, and when public opinion has crystallized so that social action is possible, the progressive steps are taken.

What takes place thus in a small way locally is typical of what is going on continually in all parts of the world. Acc.u.mulating wealth and increasing knowledge of the good things of the city make country people emigrate or provide themselves with a share of the good things at home. The influence of an enthusiastic individual or group who takes the lead in better schools, better housing, or better government is improving the cities. The growing cosmopolitanism of all peoples and their adoption of the best that each has achieved is being produced by commerce, migration, and "contact and cross-fertilization of cultures."

371. =Telic Progress.=--Most social progress has come without the full realization of the significance of the gradual changes that were taking place. Few if any individuals saw the end from the beginning.

They are for the most part silent forces that have been modifying the folk-ways in Europe and America. There has been little conception of social obligation or social ideals, little more than a blind obedience to the stimuli that pressed upon the individual and the group. But with the awakening of the social consciousness and a quickening of the social conscience has come telic progress. There is purpose now in the action of a.s.sociations and method in the enactments of legislatures and the acts of administrative officers. There are plans and programmes for all sorts of improvements that await only the proper means and the sanction of public opinion for their realization. Like a runner poised for a dash of speed, society seems to be on the eve of new achievement in the direction of progress.

372. =Means of Social Progress.=--There are three distinct means of telic progress. Society may be lifted to a higher level by compulsion, as a huge crane lifts a heavy girder to the place it is to occupy in the construction of a great building. A prohibitory law that forbids the erection of unhealthy tenements throughout the cities of a state or nation is a distinctly progressive step, compulsory in its nature.

Or the group may be moved by persuasion. A board of conciliation may persuade conflicting industrial groups to adjust their differences by peaceful methods, and thus inaugurate an ethical movement in industry greatly to the advantage of all parties. Or progress may be achieved by the slow process of education. The average church has been accustomed to conceive of its functions as pertaining to the individual rather than to the whole social order. It cannot be compelled to change by governmental action, for the church is free and democratic in America. It cannot easily be persuaded to change its methods in favor of a social programme. By the slower process of training the young people it can and does gradually broaden its activities and make itself more efficiently useful to the community in which it finds its place.

373. =Criticism as a Means of Social Education.=--Education is not confined to the training of the schools. It is a continuous process going on through the life of the individual or the group. It is the intellectual process by which the mind is focussed on one problem after another that rises above the horizon of experience and uses its powers to improve the adaptation now existing between the situation and the person or the group. The educational process is complex. There must be first the incitement to thought. Most effective in this direction is criticism. If the roads are such a handicap to the comfort and safety of travel that there is caustic criticism at the next town meeting, public opinion begins to set definitely in the direction of improvement. If city government is corrupt and the tax rate mounts steadily without corresponding benefits to the taxpayers, the newspapers call the attention of citizens to the fact, and they begin to consider a change of administration. Criticism is the knife that cuts to the roots of social disease, and through the infliction of temporary pain effects a cure. Criticism has started many a reform in church and state. The presence of the critic in any group is an irritant that provokes to progressive action.

374. =Discussion.=--Criticism leads to discussion. There is sure to be a conflict of ideas in every group. Conservative and progressive contend with each other; sometimes it is a matter of belief, sometimes of practice. Knots of individuals talk matters over, leaders debate on the public platform, newspapers take part on one side or the other.

In this way national policies are determined, first by Congress or Parliament, and then by the const.i.tuents of the legislators. Freedom of discussion is regarded as one of the safeguards of popular government. If social conduct should be a.n.a.lyzed on a large scale it would be found that discussion is a constant factor. In every business deal there is discussion of the pros and cons of the proposition, in every case that comes before the courts there are arguments made on both sides, in the maintenance of every social inst.i.tution that costs money there is a consideration of its worth. Even if the discussion does not find voice, the human intellect debates the question in its silent halls. So universal is the practice of discussion and so prized is the privilege that this is sometimes called the Age of Discussion.

375. =Decision.=--Determination of action follows criticism and discussion in the group, as volition follows thinking in the case of the individual. One hundred years ago college education was cla.s.sical.

In the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation a revival of interest in the cla.s.sics produced a reaction against mediaevalism, and in time fastened a curriculum upon the universities that was composed mainly of the ancient languages, mathematics, and a deductive philosophy and theology. In the nineteenth century there began a criticism of the cla.s.sical curriculum. It was declared that such a course of study was narrow and antiquated, that new subjects, such as history, the modern languages, and the sciences were better worth attention, and presently it was argued that a person could not be truly educated until he knew his own times by the study of sociology, politics, economics, and other social sciences. Of course, there was earnest resentment of such criticism, and discussion ensued. The argument for the plaintiff seemed to be well sustained, and one by one the governing boards of the colleges decided to admit new studies to the curriculum, at first grudgingly and then generously, until cla.s.sical education has become relatively unpopular. Public opinion has accepted the verdict, and many schools have gone so far as to make vocational education supplant numerous academic courses. Similarly criticism, discussion, and change of front have occurred in political theories, in the att.i.tude of theologians to science, in the practice of medicine, and even in methods of athletic training.

Criticism and discussion, therefore, instead of being deprecated, ought to be welcome everywhere. Without them society stagnates, the intellect grows rusty, and prejudice takes the place of rational thought and volition. Feeling is bottled up and is likely to ferment until it bursts its confinement and spreads havoc around like a volcano. Free speech and a free press are safety-valves of democracy, the sure hope of progress throughout society.

376. =Socialized Education.=--A second step in the educational process is incitement to action. As criticism and discussion are necessary to stimulate thought, so knowledge and conviction are essential to action. The educational system that is familiar is individualistic in type because it emphasizes individual achievement, and is based on the conviction that individual success is of greatest consequence in life.

There is increasing demand for a socialized education which will have as its foundation a body of sociological information that will teach individuals their social relations, a fund of ideas that will be bequeathed from generation to generation as the finest heritage, and a system of social ethics that will produce a conviction of social obligation. The will to do good is the most effective factor that plays a part in social life. This socializing education has its place in the school grades, properly becomes a major subject of study in the higher schools, and ideally belongs to every scheme of continued education in later life. The social sciences seem likely to vie with the physical sciences, if not eventually to surpa.s.s them as the most important department of human knowledge, for while the physical sciences unlock the mysteries of the natural world the social sciences hold the key to the meaning of ideal human life.

READING REFERENCES

ELLWOOD: _Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects_, pages 329-340.

GIDDINGS: _Principles of Sociology_, pages 132-152, 376-399.

GIDDINGS: _Descriptive and Historical Sociology_, pages 124-185.

COOLEY: _Social Organization_, pages 3-22.

WARD: _Psychic Factors of Civilization_, pages 291-312.

BLACKMAR AND GILLIN: _Outlines of Sociology_, pages 329-348.

DEALEY: _Sociology_, pages 67-68, 84-87, 243-257.

ELLWOOD: _Sociology and Modern Social Problems_, revised edition, pages 354-367.

CHAPTER XLVII

SOCIAL THEORIES

377. =Theories of Social Order and Efficiency.=--Out of social experience and social study have emerged certain theories of social order and efficiency which have received marked attention and which to-day are supported by cogent arguments. These theories fall under the three following heads: (1) Those theories that make social order and efficiency dependent upon the control of external authority; (2) those theories that trust to the force of public opinion trained by social education; (3) those theories that regard self-control coming through the development of personality as the one essential for a better social order.

378. =External Authority in History.=--The first theory rests its case on the facts of history. Certain social inst.i.tutions like the family, the state, and the church have thrown restraint about the individual, and when this restraint is removed he tends to run amuck. From the beginning the family was the unit of the social order, and the authority of its head was the source of wisdom. Self-control was not a subst.i.tute for paternal discipline, but was a fact only in presence of the dread of paternal discipline. The idea of absolute authority pa.s.sed over into the state, and absolutism was the theory of efficiency in the ancient state, down to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. It was a theory that made slavery possible. It strengthened the position of the high priest of every religious cult, created the thought of the kingdom of G.o.d and moulded the Christian creeds, and made possible the mediaeval papacy. It has been the fundamental principle of all monarchical government. It has remained a royal theory in eastern Europe and Asia until our own day, and survives in the political notion of the right of the strongest and in the business principle that capital must control the industrial system if prosperity and efficiency are to endure.

Irresponsible absolutism has been giving way slowly to paternalism.

This showed itself first in a growing conviction that kings owed it to their subjects to rule well. Certain enlightened monarchs consulted the interests of the people and, relying on their own wisdom, inst.i.tuted measures of reform. This type of paternalism was not successful, but it has been imitated by modern states, even republics like the United States, in various paternalistic measures of economic and social regulation. Those who hold the theory that external authority is necessary have been urgent in calling for the regulation of railroads, of trusts, and of combinations of labor, until some have felt that the authority of representative democracy bore more heavily than the authority of monarchy. It is the principle of those who favor government regulation that only by governmental restraint can free compet.i.tion continue, and everybody be a.s.sured of a square deal; their opponents argue that such restraint throttles ambition and is destructive of the highest efficiency that comes as a survival of the fittest in the economic struggle.

379. =Socialism.=--Socialism is a third variety of the theory that social order and efficiency depend on external authority. Socialists aim at improving the social welfare by the collective control of industry. While the advocates of government regulation give their main attention to problems of production, the Socialists emphasize the importance of the proper distribution of products to the consumers, and would exercise authority in the part.i.tion of the rewards of labor.

They propose that collective ownership of the means of production take the place of private ownership, that industry be managed by representatives of the people, that products be distributed on some just basis yet to be devised by the people. All that will be left to them as individuals will be the right to consume and the possession of material things not essential to the socialistic economy. Certain Socialist theories go farther than this, but this is the essence of Socialism. Socialists vary, also, as to the use of revolutionary or evolutionary means of obtaining their ends.

The main objections that are made to the theory of Socialism are: (1) That it is contrary to nature, which develops character and progress through struggle; (2) that private property is a natural right, and that it would be unjust to deprive individuals of what they have secured through thrift and foresight, even in the interest of the whole of society; (3) that an equitable distribution of wealth would be impossible in any arbitrary division; (4) that no government can possibly conduct successfully such huge enterprises as would fall to it; (5) that Socialism would destroy private incentive and enterprise by taking away the individual rewards of effort; (6) that a socialistic regime would be as unendurable an interference with individual liberty as any absolutist or paternal government that the past has seen.

380. =Educated Public Opinion.=--The second group of theorists is composed of those who would get rid of prohibitions and regulations as far as possible, and trust to the force of an educated public opinion to maintain a high level of social order and efficiency. It is a part of the theory that constraint exercised by a government established by law marks a stage of lower social development than restraint exercised by the force of public opinion. But it must be an educated public opinion, trained to appreciate the importance of society and its claims upon the individual, to function rationally instead of impulsively, and to seek the methods that will be most useful and least expensive for the social body. This training of public opinion is the task of the school first and then of the press, the pulpit, and the public forum. Public and private commissions, organized and maintained to furnish information and suggest better methods, make useful contributions; public reports, if presented intelligibly, impartially, and concisely, are among the helpful instruments of instruction; reform pamphlets will again perform valuable service, as they have in past days of moral and social intensity; but it is especially through the newspapers and the forums for public discussion that the social thinker can best reach his audience, and through these means that commission reports can best be brought to the attention of the people. It may very likely be necessary that press and platform be subsidized either by government or by private endowment to do this work of social training.

381. =Individualism.=--The third group of theorists rejects all varieties of external control as of secondary value, and has no faith in the working of public opinion, however well educated, unless the character of the individuals that make up the group is what it should be. These theorists regard self-control coming through the development of personal worth as the one essential for a better social order. This individualist theory is held by those who are still in bondage to the individualism that has characterized social thinking in the last four hundred years. There is much in the history of that period that justifies faith in the worth of the individual. Along the lines of material progress, especially, the individualist has made good.

Looking upon what has been achieved the modern democrat expects further improvement in society through individual betterment.

The arguments in defense of the individualist theory are: (1) That natural science has proved that social development is achieved only through individual compet.i.tion, and that the best man wins; (2) that experience has shown that progress has been most rapid where the individual has had largest scope; (3) that it is the teaching of Christian ethics that the individual must work out the salvation of his own character, must learn by experience how to gain self-reliance and strength of will, and so has the right to fashion his own course of conduct.

382. =The Development of Personal Worth.=--It is evident, however, that the usefulness of the individual, both to himself and to others, depends on his personal worth. The self-controlled man is the man of personal worth, but self-control is not easy to secure. Defendants of the first two theories may admit that self-control is an ideal, but they claim that in the progress of society it must follow, not antedate, external authority and the cultivation of public opinion, and that time is not yet come. Only the few can be trusted yet to follow their best judgment on all occasions, to be on the alert to maintain in themselves and others highest efficiency. Human nature is slowly in the making. One by one men and women rise to higher levels; social regeneration must therefore wait on individual regeneration.

Seeing the need of a dynamic that will create personal worth, the individualist has turned to religion and preached a doctrine of personal salvation. He has seen what religion has done to transform character, and he believes with confidence that it and it alone can create social salvation if we give it time.

At the present time there is an increasing number of social thinkers who regard each of these three theories as containing elements of value, but believe that there is something beyond them that is necessary to the highest efficiency. They consider that external authority has been necessary, and look upon a strong centralized government with power to create social efficiency as essential, but they expect that an increasing social consciousness will make the exercise of authority gradually less necessary. They have great confidence in trained public opinion, but do not forget that opinion must be vitalized by a strong motive, and mere education does not readily supply the motive. They look for a time when individual worth will be greater than now, and they recognize religion as a powerful dynamic in the building of character, but they regard religion as turned inward too much upon the individual. They would develop individual character for the sake of society, and make a socialized religion the motive power to vitalize public opinion so that it shall function with increasing efficiency. A socialized religion supplies a principle, a method, and a power. The Hebrew prophets and Jesus laid down the principle that there is a solidarity of interests to which the claims of the individual must be subordinate and must be sacrificed on occasion. The prophets and Jesus taught a method of experimentation, calling upon the people whom they addressed to test the principle and see if it worked. The prophets and Jesus showed that power comes in the will to do and in actual obedience to the principle. They looked for an improved social system reared on this basis which would be a real "kingdom of G.o.d," not merely the economic commonwealth of the Socialist, but a commonwealth governed by the principle of consecration to the social welfare, spiritual as well as physical.

383. =Social Ideals.=--At the basis of every theory lies the individual with social relations. To socialize him external authority is the primitive agent. This authority may give way in time to the restraint of public opinion made intelligent by a socialized education, but effective public opinion is dependent on the development of personal worth in the individual. The most powerful dynamic for such development and for social welfare in general is a socialized religion. If all this be true, what is it that comprises social welfare? In a word, it is the efficient functioning of every social group. The family, the community, the nation, and every minor group, will serve effectually the economic, cultural, social, and spiritual needs of the individuals of whom it is composed. Perfect functioning can follow only after a long period of progress. Such progress is the ideal that society sets for itself. In that process there must be full recognition of all the factors that enter into social life. There is the individual with his rights and obligations, who must be protected and encouraged to grow. There are the inst.i.tutions like the family, the church, and the state that must receive recognition and maintenance. There must be liberty for each group to function freely without arbitrary interference, as long as its privileges and acts do not interfere with the public good. Ideal social control is to be exercised by an enlightened and self-restrained public opinion energized by a socialized religion. All improvements must not be looked for in a moment, but can come only slowly and by frequent testing if they are to be permanently accepted. The system that would result would be neither absolutist, socialistic, nor individualistic, but would contain the best elements of all. It would not be forced upon a people, but would be worked out slowly by education and experiment. Social inst.i.tutions would not be tyrannous but helpful, and human happiness would be materially increased.