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prove to be persons inadequately trained in group ideals and in whom some conflict of ideals has arisen. It is admitted that a great man might violate important standards through the acceptance of some new, and to him, higher ideal. In such cases when called before the bar of justice this type of criminal quietly accepts even extreme punishment without complaint, becoming a martyr for the sake of the future. Thus Socrates took the poisoned cup and Jesus the cross. In milder cases a new subgroup may be formed maintaining the essence of the old tradition but putting emphasis on some minor point or adding some ceremony about as important in itself as a new method of baptism, or laying on of hands, or washing of feet.

Considering the question from the other side, one of the most important and most difficult tasks undertaken by society is the proper selection of the rights to be granted individuals and of prohibition to be enacted. Historically, as von Ihering long ago pointed out, there has been a direct relationship between the general economic and social conditions and the crimes most severely punished.

Every state punishes those crimes most severely which threaten its own peculiar conditions of existence, while it allows a moderation to prevail in regard to other crimes which, not infrequently, presents a very strong contrast to its severity as against the former. A theocracy brands blasphemy and idolatry as crimes deserving of death, while it looks on a boundary violation as a mere misdemeanor. (Mosaic Law). The agricultural state, on the other hand, visits the latter with the severest punishment. (Old Roman Law). The commercial state punishes most severely the uttering of false coin; the military state, insubordination and breach of official duty; the absolute state, high treason; the republic, the striving after regal power; and they all manifest a severity in these points which contrasts greatly with the manner in which they punish other crimes. In short, the reaction of the feeling of legal right, both of states and individuals, is most violent when they feel themselves threatened in the conditions of existence peculiar to them.1

Many illustrations of the truth of this thesis are easily found. One has but to recall our constitutional prohibition of the granting of hereditary titles; the violent reaction of the South against anything threatening the existing relationship of blacks and whites. Contrast the punishment meted out to the horse thief in western pioneer days with the attitude on the Isle of Man where this was a trifling offense compared to the theft of pigs or chickens. No one could take the horse off the little island but stolen pigs or chickens quickly lost their identity.

Institutions to Serve Human Needs

Everywhere on earth we find man trying to develop insti tutions which will enable him to utilize existing conditions to his greatest advantage and with the least friction with fellow man. If this be true, we shall not expect to find identical functions assigned to institutions in different parts of the world, nor will we be overconcerned as to the accuracy of the explanations man offers for his procedures. If, therefore, we had full knowledge of human history we should doubtless find much divergency in the development. The Hopi Indian of the arid Southwest, being an agriculturist, develops a snake dance equivalent in our history to a week's prayer for rain. It is not likely that the hunting and fishing Indians of Alaska, a country of excessive rainfall, will present a similar ceremony, but since they have the same need for food and clothing a comparable ceremony is likely. That is to say that, all men being fundamentally alike in their equipment and needs, certain culture patterns are sure to appear.

Much to our regret we know but little of this culture history, and most of our information concerns recent periods. It is more than an assumption that as each group has developed and the institutions have become better organized, professional classes have arisen, warriors, priests,

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medicine men, just as in our day government employees and teachers have increased. The advent of the professional man has produced certain obvious advantages in standardization of technique and, let us assume, certain improvements in methods. It has also introduced certain real, though less obvious, dangers. There comes to be an emphasis on creeds hitherto lacking.

Creeds are valuable as evidence of present positions, but they are easily if not invariably twisted into tests of fitness for membership, and the older they are the greater the halo of sanctity about them. The United States is about to elect a President, but few people are asking what man is best fitted to be President. Instead they ask what man the Democrats or Republicans will nominate, though not one voter in a thousand can tell what being a Democrat or Republican involves and that rare man is probably wrong. All are agreed that to elect a Socialist would be un-American. The point is that shibboleths have replaced reasons.

Given a group of men whose duty it is to keep the machinery going, who have a vested interest due to the source of their incomes, a situation is created in which the machine rather than the result is emphasized. Those in power dislike change both because man gets into ruts in his daily conduct, and because a change may bring about a shift in officials, a replacement by others. The result is that man tends to emphasize forms. He talks of the superiority of democracy to monarchy, of democracy for which the world is to be made safe rather than through which the world is to be made peaceful. How our fabled visitor from Mars must laugh at the spectacle of men shouting for democracy in politics and at the same time organizing religion and education on a basis of autocracy. Compare the Roman Catholics and the Quakers.

The truth of the matter is that the opportunity to exercise power is involved in all organizations dealing with great

masses of men. It is power which calls forth man's ambitions. Yet history shows that few men have possessed unrestricted power for any length of time without exercising it for selfish ends. The fact that the man in power may be honest in his belief that he alone knows what is best and that God wants him to do his will in no wise minimizes the danger. The alliance of the bigot and God has been responsible for some of the worst episodes in history. Sincerity and despotism are often inseparable. Whether a man is inspired by God or possessed of a demon depends wholly on the viewpoint of the judge.

It is easy, also, for the administrative group to exalt the institution as an end in itself, and to subordinate the service to be rendered by the institution to the duty owed by the individual to the institution. This leads by easy steps to an emphasis on observance of forms rather than on the practice of virtues; on the letter rather than on the spirit. Το take a common instance, church attendance as an example for the young. Why not regular attendance at primary schools to show belief in education; or at police courts to show an interest in justice? In reality the place to show whatever education or religion a man may have is in the conduct of his daily life. Usually only a very small part of any life is spent in direct contact with any given institution. The church is the product of the religious spirit, not its cause. Most education is secured outside of the school, for the school is the result of a desire for education, not its

source.

Social Change

We started with the assumption that institutions were founded to meet human needs. It does not follow that any given form of institution actually meets them in adequate fashion. This may be due to the mistaken policies followed. Man's diagnosis of his troubles is seldom accurate.

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His sociology contains more than a tinge of emotional bias. Insanity is not caused by moonlight nor cured by the casting out of devils. The sign of the cross and the recital of the text, "The word was made flesh," did not put storms to flight as Luther believed. In part man's programs depend on the accuracy of his analysis, but old superstitions die hard. Our newspapers still print columns of forecasts of careers based on the signs of the zodiac and the location of planets.

A greater source of error lies, probably, in the fact that change, not fixity, characterizes human affairs as well as organic life. The good becomes the enemy of the better. In a later chapter we shall endeavor to pay our respects to the great god Progress, hence certain facts may be omitted here. All that is now required is the statement that any change in underlying conditions of life must ultimately produce changes in social organization, possibly in social ideals and theory. In many ways the crystallization of institutions appears to be the most serious problem in their careers. It is so much easier to follow old methods than to experiment with new that man drifts along hiding the facts from himself until some social revolution seems to break down the very foundation of his society.

Man is so conscious of the evils of his own day, so little informed as to the actual problems of earlier times, that he is constantly bewailing the downfall of his institutions, the lack of faith of the present generation. If the analysis here presented is at all correct this attitude is unwarranted. So long as the needs continue there is no reason to question the continued existence of institutions. I have never seen any suggestion that in the future children will not need education. Society without schools of some sort is a contradiction of terms. The bolshevists of Russia did not destroy government, did not even destroy autocracy. All they did was to replace the Czar by Lenin. What the man who

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