Part 21

Such ostensible direction as societies obtain derives its sanction from one or more of three {257} sources—the hereditary, the representative, and the official. No direction can be effective in the way needed for the preservation of society unless it comes from minds broad in outlook, deep in sympathy, sensitive to the new and strange in experience, capable of resisting habit, convention, and the other sterilizing influences of the herd, deeply learned in the human mind and vividly aware of the world. Plainly enough, neither of the classes enumerated above is any more likely to possess these characteristics than any one else. To the representative and official classes there even attaches, at any rate theoretically, the suspicion that the methods by which they are chosen and promoted, while they obviously in no way favour fitness, may actually tend to favour unfitness. Of the hereditary class it may at any rate be said that while it does not in any special degree include the fit, its composition is random and in no way tainted by popular standards of suitability or by the prejudices and conventions of the examination room. It would seem, then, that none of the methods by which society appoints its directors shows any promise of working towards the effective intervention of the intellect in social affairs. In reaching this conclusion we have perhaps passed too lightly over the claims of the trained official as a possible nucleus of an ultimate scientific statecraft. The present-day controversies as to the nationalization of various industries give an especial interest to this very problem, and illustrate how unpromising a source of knowledge is political discussion. One group of advocates points to the obvious economies of conducting industry on the great scale and without the destructive effects of competition; the other group points to the infirmities which always have infected officially conducted enterprises. Both sides would seem to be perfectly right so far and both to be wrong when {258} the first goes on to affirm that governments as they now are can and do conduct industrial affairs quite satisfactorily, and the second goes on to affirm that the only mechanism by which society can get its work effectively done is commercial competition, and that the only adequate motive is greed. It seems to have escaped the notice of both parties to the controversy that no civilized country has evolved, or begun to evolve, or thought of evolving a method of selecting and training its public servants that bears any rational relation to their fitness for the art of government. It is not here denied that selection and training are both of them severe in many countries. Mere severity, however, as long as it is quite without relevance, is manifestly worthless. We are forced to the conclusion, therefore, that to expect an effective statecraft to be evolved from the official, whether of the Chinese, the Prussian, or any other type, is a mere dream. To encourage such a hope would be to strengthen the grip of the unsatisfactory stable-minded class upon the gullet of society. The evidence then shows that among the mechanisms whereby the directors of society are chosen there is none that favours that intervention of the conscious and instructed intellect that we have suggested is necessary to the effective evolution of civilization. Nowhere in the structure of society is there a class tending to develop towards this goal. Since from the point of view of social effectiveness segregation into classes has been entirely random, the appearance of such a class would have been indeed an extraordinary accident. Good as are the grounds for hoping that human society may ultimately mature into a coherent structure possessed of comprehensive and intelligent direction, it would be no more than idle optimism to suppose that there is any institution or class now existing which promises to inspire a fundamental {259} reconstruction. If the effective intrusion of the intellect into social affairs does happily occur, it will come from no organ of society now recognizable, but through a slow elevation of the general standard of consciousness up to the level at which will be possible a kind of freemasonry and syndicalism of the intellect. Under such circumstances free communication through class barriers would be possible, and an orientation of feeling quite independent of the current social segregation would become manifest.

* * * * *

Throughout the enormously long period during which modern man has been established on the earth human society has been left to the uncontrolled contention of constructive and destructive forces, and in the long run the destructive have always proved the stronger. Whether the general level of consciousness will reach the height necessary to give a decisive predominance to constructive tendencies, and whether such a development will occur in time to save Western civilization from the fate of its predecessors, are open questions. The small segment of the social process of which we have direct knowledge in the events of the day has no very encouraging appearance. Segregation has reasserted itself effectively; the dominion of the stable and resistive mind is as firmly established as ever, and no less dull and dangerous; while it is plain how far, in the atmosphere of relaxation and fatigue, the social inspiration of the common man has sunk from the high constancy of spirit by which throughout the long pilgrimage of war so many weary feet have been upborne, so many dry lips refreshed.

{261} INDEX

AFFIRMATIONS of the herd, belief in normal, 39

AGE and the herd instinct, 86

――, the predominance of, 87

AGE AND YOUTH, jealousy between, 86

――, reactions of, in relation to sex, 84, 85

ALCOHOLISM, psychological meaning of, 58

ALTRUISM, instinctive meaning of, 122–124

――, a natural instinctive product, 46

――, not a judgment, 46

――, energy of, 47

ANARCHISM, psychological basis of, 253

ANTHROPOMORPHISM in psychology, 14

BEER, and comparative psychology, 14

BELIEF, non-rational and rational, distinction of, 43, 44

――, characters of, 44

BETHE, and comparative psychology, 14

BINET, 34

BREEDING against degeneracy, objections to, 64

―― for rationality, objections to, 45

CAT AND DOG, instinctive differences in feeling, 98

CERTITUDE and knowledge, 35

CHURCH, the, in wartime, 154

CIVILIZATION, its influence on instinct in man, 93

CIVILIZATIONS, the decline of, 241, 242

COMMUNISM, psychological basis of, 254

CONFLICT in the adult, superficial aspects of, 52, 53

―― in childhood and adolescence, 49

―― in civilized man, 49

CONSCIENCE, peculiar to gregarious animals, 40

CONVERSATION as a mode of recognition, 119

DARWINISM as a herd affirmation, 39

DEDUCTIVE METHOD in psychology, 14

DUTY, 48

ENGLAND, social type, 201, 202

――, morale of, 207–209

――, and the spirit of the hive, 203–206

ENVIRONMENT OF THE MIND, importance of, 63

――, need for rational adjustment of, 64

FREUD’S PSYCHOLOGY, general discussion of, 76

――, as an embryology of the mind, 88

――, biological criticism of, 77, 78

――, evolution of the “normal” mind, 73

――, hypothesis of mental development, 72

――, importance of conflict, 72

――, nature of mental conflict, 73

――, suggested deficiencies of, 88, 89

――, the unconscious, 74

GERMANY, features of government, 163–165

――, aggressive social type, 167, 168

――, social structure, 169, 170

――, observed mental characters, 173 _et seq._

――, conscious direction of the State, 163, 169, 191

――, in relation to other nations, 179–182

――, morale of, 182–188

――, discipline, 189–191

――, conditions of morale in, 193, 194

――, objects of war with, 194–201

GOVERNMENT, Sources of, 257

GREGARIOUSNESS, not a superficial character, 19

――, widespread occurrence in nature, 20

―― in man, probably primitive, 22

――, mental equivalents of, 31–33

――, biological meaning of, 101, 102

――, analogy to multicellular structure, 103

――, meaning of wide distribution of, 103, 104

――, specialization and co-ordination, 105, 106

――, varieties of, 107, 108

――, in insects, 105–107

――, in mammals, 107, 108

――, protective and aggressive, 110, 111

―― in man, disadvantages of: disease, 133; resistiveness, 133

―― in man, defects of specialization, 135; of homogeneity, 137

――, aggressive, protective, socialized, 166, 167

GREGARIOUS ANIMAL, special characteristics of, 28

――, general characteristics of, 29

――, characters of, 108, 109

――, fear in, 111

GREGARIOUS CHARACTERS IN MAN: intolerance of solitude, 113; religion, 113; sensitiveness to the herd, 114; mob violence and panic, 115; susceptibility to leadership, 115; recognition by the herd, 118

HAECKEL, 24

HERD INSTINCT, contrasted with other instincts, 47

――, mode of action of, 48

―― in the individual, special character of, 98

HISTORY, biological interpretation of, 99, 100

HUMAN CONDUCT, apparent complexity of, 13, 14

HUXLEY, antithesis of cosmical and ethical processes, 24

INSTINCT, definition of, 94

――, mental manifestations of, 95

――, disguised but not diminished in man, 99

INSTINCTIVE ACTIVITIES, obscured in proportion to brain-power, 97

INSTINCTIVE EXPRESSION, essential to mental health, 244, 245

INTELLECT, the, essential function of, 243

――, biological aspect of, 255

JAMES, WILLIAM, introspective aspect of instinct, 15

LEADERSHIP, 116, 117

―― in society, 246

―― a substitute for common impulse, 247

――, defects of, 247

―― in Germany and in England, 248–250

LE BON, GUSTAVE, 26

MAN as an animal, a fundamental conception, 66, 67, 243

―― as a gregarious animal, vagueness of earlier conceptions, 21

―― as an instinctive animal, current view of, 93

MENTAL CAPACITY and instinctive expression, 121

MENTAL CONFLICT, discussed in relation to Freud’s doctrines, 79–81

――, the antagonism to instinctive impulses, 82

MENTAL CONFLICT, source of the repressive impulse in, 82, 83

MENTAL INSTABILITY, and conflict, 57

――, in modern society, 56, 57

MINORITIES and prejudice, 216, 217

MORALE, in England, 207–209

――, in Germany, 182–188

――, maintenance of, 147–155

――, relation of homogeneity to, 144–147

―― and officialism, 155

MULTICELLULARITY and natural selection, 18

MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS, the, 18

NATIONAL consciousness, 228

――, simplicity of, in England, 228

NATIONAL feeling in war, 216–218

――, growth and common impulse, 245, 246

NATIONAL industry and private enterprise, 257

NATIONAL types contrasted, 232

NON-RATIONAL OPINION, frequency of, 35, 36, 93, 94

“NORMAL” type of mind, 53, 54

NUEL and comparative psychology, 14

PACIFISM, 125

PEARSON, KARL, biological significance of gregariousness, 23, 24

――, possibility of sociology as a science, 12

PERSONALITY, elements in the evolution of, 87

PREJUDICE, precautions against, 220–222

PRIMITIVE MAN, rigidity of mental life, 34

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS, characteristics of, 70, 71

PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY, biological method, 91, 92

――, primitive introspective method, 68, 69

――, objective introspective method of Freud, 70

PSYCHOLOGY of instinctive man, failure of earlier speculations, 16

RATIONALIZATION, 38

RATIONAL statecraft, need of, 241, 251

――, basis of, 252, 253

RECOGNITION, 118, 119

RELIGION and the social animal, 50, 51

SEGREGATION of society, effects of, 215

SENSITIVENESS to feeling, importance and danger of, 64

SIDIS, BORIS, and the social instinct in man, 26, 27

SOCIAL EVOLUTION, in insects, relation to brain-power, 62

――, in man, delayed by capacity for reaction, 62

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, continuous with individual psychology, 12

SOCIAL stability, an effect of war, 235, 236

SOCIAL instability, a sequel of war, 236, 237

SOCIOLOGY, definition of, 11

――, psychological principles of, 255

SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS ANIMALS, elementary differences, 17

SOMBART, WERNER, Germans the representatives of God, 177

SPEECH in man, and gregariousness, 34, 40

SPENCER, 24

STABLE-MINDED type, 54, 55

SUGGESTION and reason not necessarily opposed, 45

UEXKÜLL and comparative psychology, 14

UNSTABLE-MINDED type, 58, 59

VARIED REACTION and capacity for communication, importance to the herd of, 61

WAR, instinctive reactions to, 140–143

―― and rumour, 144

―― as a biological necessity, 126–132

WARD, LESTER, views on gregariousness in man, 24, 25

WELLS, H. G., impossibility of sociology as a science, 12

WOLF PACK, the, as an organism, 29

_Printed in Great Britain by_

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown like this: {52}. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics look _like this_. Footnotes have been relabeled A–W, and moved from within paragraphs to nearby locations between paragraphs. A few full stops and commas were added where they were required but were not clearly visible in the original print. The transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns it to the public domain. Original page images are available from archive.org—search for "instinctsofherdi00trot".

Page 239. The phrase “but it is must be remembered” was changed to “but it must be remembered”.

Page 264. Index entry “UEXKULL” was changed to “UEXKÜLL” to agree with the text on page 14.