PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGIC THOUGHT (CONTINUED)
In 1902, _Human Nature and the Social Order_ by Professor Charles H.
Cooley was published. This book was at once accepted as an authority
on the integral relationship of the individual self and the social
process. It was followed in 1909 by _Social Organization_, and in
1918 by _Social Process_. The three books constitute a chronological
development of a logical system of psycho-sociologic thought.
The first volume treats of the self in its reactions to group life;
the second explains the nature of primary groups, such as the family,
playground, and neighborhood, of the democratic mind, and of social
classes; the third analyzes the many elements in the processes by which
society is characterized. The chief thesis of the three volumes is that
the individual and society are aspects of the same phenomenon, and that
the individual and society are twin-born and twin-developed.[XXIII-1]
An individual has no separate existence. Through the hereditary
and social elements in his life he is inseparately bound up with
society.[XXIII-2] He cannot be considered apart from individuals. Even
the phenomena which are called individualistic “are always socialistic
in the sense that they are expressive of tendencies growing out of
the general life.”[XXIII-3] It is not only true that individuals make
society, but equally true that society makes individuals.
Professor Cooley has given an excellent presentation of what he calls
the looking-glass self. There are three distinct psychic elements in
this phenomenon: (1) the imagination of one’s appearance to another
person; (2) the imagined estimation of that appearance by the other
person; and (3) a sense of pride or chagrin that is felt by the
first person. The looking-glass self affects the daily life of all
individuals. “We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a
straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross
in the eyes of a refined one, and so on.”[XXIII-4] Even a person’s
consciousness of himself is largely a direct reflection of the opinions
and estimates which he believes that others hold of him.[XXIII-5]
Professor Cooley makes a lucid distinction between self consciousness,
social consciousness, and public consciousness. The first is what I
think of myself; the second, what I think of other people; and the
third, a collective view of the self and the social consciousness
of all the members of a group organized and integrated into
a communicating group.[XXIII-6] Moreover, all three types of
consciousness are parts of an organic whole. Even the moral life of
individuals is a part of the organic unity of society. Social knowledge
is the basis of morality. An upward endeavor is the essence of moral
progress.
The three groups which Professor Cooley has called primary are so
labeled because through them the individual gets “his earliest and
completest experience of social unity.”[XXIII-7] The family, play
groups, and neighborhoods remain throughout life as the experience
bases from which the more complex phases of life receive their
interpretation.
An unbounded faith in human nature is enjoyed by Professor Cooley.
Human nature comprises those sentiments and impulses which are
distinctly superior to those of the higher animals, such as sympathy,
love, resentment, ambition, the feeling of right and wrong.[XXIII-8]
The improvement of society, according to Professor Cooley, does not
involve any essential change in human nature but rather “a larger and
higher application of its familiar impulses.”[XXIII-9]
Communication is a fundamental concept in Professor Cooley’s system
of social thought. Communication is “the mechanism through which
human relations exist and develop.”[XXIII-10] Professor Cooley has
pointed out that not only does language constitute the symbols of the
mind, but that in a sense all objects and actions are mental symbols.
Communication is the means whereby the mind develops a true human
nature. The symbols of our social environment “supply the stimulus and
framework for all our growth.” Thus the communication concept furnishes
a substantial basis for understanding the psycho-sociologic phenomena
which are ordinarily called suggestion and imitation.
Personality has its origin partly in heredity and partly “in the stream
of communication, both of which flow from the corporate life of the
race.” A study of communication shows that the individual mind is not a
separate growth, but an integral development of the general mind.
The means of communication developed remarkably in the nineteenth
century, chiefly in the following ways: (1) in expressiveness, that
is, in the range of ideas and feelings they are competent to carry;
(2) in the permanence in recording; (3) in swiftness of communication;
and (4) in diffusion to all classes of people.[XXIII-12] Thus society
can be organized on the bases of intelligence and of rationalized and
systematized feelings rather than on authority, autocracy, and caste.
A free intercourse of ideas, that is, free and unimpeded communication,
will not produce uniformity. Self feeling will find enlarged
opportunities for expression. An increased degree of communication
furnishes the bases for making the individual conscious of the unique
part he can and should play in improving the quality of the social
whole. On the other hand, freedom of communication is tending to
produce “the disease of the century,” namely, the disease of excess, of
overwork, of prolonged worry, of a competitive race for which men are
not fully equipped.[XXIII-13]
Public opinion, according to Professor Cooley, is not merely an
aggregate of opinions of individuals, but “a co-operative product
of communication and reciprocal influence.”[XXIII-14] It is a
crystalization of diverse opinion, resulting in a certain stability
of thought. It is produced by discussion. Public opinion is usually
superior, in the sense of being more effective, than the average
opinion of the members of the public.
The masses make fundamental contributions to public opinion, not
through formulated ideas but through their sentiments. The masses
in their daily experiences are close to the salient facts of human
nature. They are not troubled with that preoccupation with ideas which
hinders them from immediate fellowship. Neither are they limited by
that attention to the hoarding of private property which prevents the
wealthy from keeping in touch with the common things of life.
The striking result of the social process is the development of
personalities. The social process affords opportunities which
individuals, ambitious and properly stimulated, may accept.
Education may perform a useful function in adjusting individuals to
opportunities. But education often fails because it requires too much
and inspires too little; it accents formal knowledge at the expense of
kindling the spirit.[XXIII-15]
Social stratification hinders.[XXIII-16] It cuts off communication.
It throws social ascendancy into the hands of a stable, communicating
minority. The majority are submerged in the morass of ignorance.
Degrading neighborhood associations, vicious parents, despised racial
connections--these all serve to produce stratification and to hinder
progress.
Professor Cooley holds that in the social process the institutional
element is as essential as the personal.[XXIII-17] Institutions
bequeath the standard gifts of the past to the individual; they give
stability. At the same time, if rationally controlled they leave energy
free for new conquests. Vigor in the individual commonly leads to
dissatisfaction on his part with institutions. Disorganization thus
arises from the reaction against institutional formalism manifested by
energetic individuals. It may be regarded as a lack of communication
between the individual and the institution. Formalism indicates that in
certain particulars there has been an excess of communication.
The economic concept of value has long been analyzed in individualistic
terms--the economic desires arise out of “the inscrutable depths of
the private mind.” To this explanation Professor Cooley replies that
economic wants, interests, and values are primarily of institutional
origin; they are socially created. Pecuniary valuations are largely
the products of group conditions and activities.
It is in a rational public will that Professor Cooley sees the
salvation of the social process. While he repeatedly expresses a
large degree of faith in human nature as it is, he looks forward to
a day, rather remote, when communication and education will enable
all individuals to take a large grasp of human situations and on the
basis of this grasp to express effectual social purposes. Unconscious
adaptation will be superseded by the deliberate self-direction of every
group along lines of broadening sympathy and widening intellectual
reaches.
Professor Cooley has earned the title of a sound, sane, and deep
sociological thinker. His contributions to social thought are found in
his lucid descriptions of the social process from which personalities
and social organizations arise, in his keen analysis of communication
as the fundamental element in progress, and in his emphasis upon
rational control through standards.
The year 1908 is a red letter year in the history of socio-psychologic
thought. In that year two important treatises appeared, one written by
William McDougall and the other by Edward Alsworth Ross. The former
was developed from the psychological standpoint; the latter, from the
sociological point of view.
Mr. McDougall considers social psychology largely as a study of the
social instincts of individuals; Professor Ross concentrates attention
upon the suggestion and imitation phases of societal life. In a sense
Professor Ross begins his analysis where Mr. McDougall concludes.
Mr. McDougall treats the instincts as the bases of social life.
He makes them the foundation of nearly all individual and social
activities.[XXIII-18] Instincts are biologically inherited; they cannot
be eradicated by the individual. Instincts constitute the materials out
of which habits are made. Consciousness arises only when an instinct or
a habit (that is, a modified instinct) fails to meet human needs.
The primary instincts are the sex and parental, the gregarious,
curiosity, flight, repulsion. Each is accompanied by its peculiar
emotion, for example, the instinct of flight by the emotion of
fear, the instinct of curiosity by the emotion of wonder. This
instinct-emotion theory is, however, drawn out until it seems to become
academic rather than actual in its details.
Professor McDougall points out that the instincts are the basic
elements upon which all social institutions are built.[XXIII-19] For
example, the sex and parental instincts are the foundations of the
family; the acquisitive instinct is an essential condition of the
accumulation of material wealth and of the rise of private property as
an institution. Pugnaciousness leads to war.
This emphasis upon the instincts reaches an extreme form in W.
Trotter’s _Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War_, where the herd
instinct is made all-dominant. According to Mr. Trotter the herd
instinct arouses fear in the individual and rules him through rigorous
conventional means--in a large percentages of cases to his detriment.
In conjunction with his theory of instincts, Professor McDougall has
advanced a noteworthy conception of the sentiments. The three leading
expressions of sentiment are love, hate, and respect. Sympathy is
regarded as an elemental sentiment, in fact, as an emotion in its
simplest form. A sentiment is “an organized system of emotional
tendencies centered about some object.” The sentiments comprise an
important phase of the self, and function powerfully in determining
social conduct.
It was in 1901 that Professor E. A. Ross made his initial contribution
to psycho-sociologic thought--seven years before his _Social
Psychology_ was published. His first great work was _Social Control_.
In this excursus he defined social psychology as the study of “the
psychic interplay between man and his environing society.”[XXIII-20]
This interplay is two-fold: the domination of society over the
individual (social ascendancy); and the domination of the individual
over society (individual ascendancy). Social ascendancy may be either
purposeless (social influence) or purposeful (social control). Social
psychology, according to Professor Ross, deals with psychic planes and
currents; it does not treat of groups, which is a part of the preserve
of psychological sociology.
The psycho-sociologic grounds of control are found in such factors as
sympathy, sociability, an elemental sense of justice, and particularly
in group needs. There are individuals whose conduct exasperates the
group. “In this common wrath and common vengeance lies the germ of a
social control of the person.”[XXIII-21]
Perhaps the best part of Professor Ross’ discussion of social control
is his analysis of the agents of control.[XXIII-22] Public opinion
and law are the two most important means of controlling individuals.
The weakness of one, in this connection, is its fitfulness; of the
other, its rigidity. Personal beliefs and ideals function widely and
effectively because of their subjective character. An individual may
escape the operation of law; he can hide away from the winds of public
opinion; but he cannot get away from his own ideas and conscience.
It is for this reason that religious convictions are powerful. Art
as a means of social control is commonly underrated. It arouses
the passions, kindles sympathies, creates a sense of the beautiful
and perfects social symbols, such as Columbia, La Belle France,
Britannia.[XXIII-23]
Systems of social control are political or moral.[XXIII-24] The
political form is more or less objective, is likely to be in the hands
of a few, is apt to be used for class benefit. The ethical arises from
sentiment rather than from utility; it is more or less subjective; it
permeates the hidden recesses of life. The ethical system is usually
mild, enlightening and suasive “rather than bold and fear-engendering.”
Individuals are ordinarily aware of political control, but the
far-reaching influences of ethical control they little suspect.
The two most difficult problems for society to solve in connection with
social control are these: (1) what measures of control may be best
imposed; and (2) how these measures should be imposed.[XXIII-25] The
variety of disciplines which society may use varies from epithets to
capital punishment. The methods vary from the democratic one of social
self-infliction to the direct autocratic procedure. Too much control
produces either stagnation or revolution, depending on the amount of
energy the rank and file may possess. Too little control leads to
anarchy, or at least to a reign of selfishness. A paternal social
control may cause resentment or a crushing of self-respect.
Suggestion and imitation are social elements that Professor Ross has
described in detail.[XXIII-26] He has demonstrated that the more
gregarious species are more suggestible than the species whose members
are more or less solitary; that southern races are more suggestible
than northern races, because of the different climatic effects upon
temperament; that children are more suggestible than adults, because
children possess a small store of facts and an undeveloped ability to
criticize; that people of a nervous temperament are more suggestible
than persons who are phlegmatic, because of difference in sensibility;
that women are more suggestible than men, because they have not had
the broadening influences which men have enjoyed, such as “higher
education, travel, self-direction, professional pursuits, participation
in intellectual and public life.”[XXIII-27]
The laws of imitation, particularly of fashion imitation and
rational imitation, which M. Tarde was the first to outline, have
been elucidated and illustrated by Professor Ross. He has cut boldly
into the shams of fashion, convention, and custom, and made a strong
plea for rationality in these fields. He has shown how mob mind,
the craze, and the fad sweep not simply the foolish and lightheaded
individuals off their feet, but also the persons who are counted as
sane and acquainted with common sense. In fact, he has made clear
that even the most level-headed are blindly or slavishly governed by
custom or fashion or both. He does not develop, however, the fact
that imitation is largely a result of like-mindedness and common
social stimuli. He implies an individual rather than a group origin of
suggestion-imitation phenomena.
It is in discussion that Professor Ross sees one of the main hopes of
progress.[XXIII-28] Discussion brings conflicts to a head, and leads
to group progress. Discussion changes a person’s opinions. Adequate
discussion leads to the settlement of a conflict and the creation of
an established public opinion, which remains in force until a new
invention occurs, a resultant conflict ensues, and a new public opinion
comes into power.
In 1920, Professor Ross made his largest and most important
contribution to social thought in his _Principles of Sociology_. This
work, however, is essentially a treatise in social psychology. The
original social forces are the human instincts, notably the fighting
instinct, the gregarious instinct, the parental instinct, the curiosity
instinct. The derivative social forces are societal complexes which
tend to satisfy instinctive cravings. Professor Ross’ classification
of the derivative social forces, or interests, is primarily fourfold.
These fundamental interests are wealth, government, religion, and
knowledge. This classification contains only two, or at best three,
of the six groups of interests which are found in Professor Small’s
exhibit.[XXIII-29]
Professor Ross’ analysis of the process of socialization has been
indicated in Chapter XXI. This phenomena is to be sharply distinguished
from ossification, which is the hardening of social life into
rigid forms.[XXIII-30] Groups often become unduly solidified. The
salvation of such a situation lies in individuation, which is a
process of pulverizing social lumps and releasing the action of their
members.[XXIII-31] Any movement that develops that spirit of personal
liberty leads to individuation.
“Commercialization is the increasing subjection of any calling or
function to the profits motive.”[XXIII-32] The various factors which
hold the profits motive in check are: (1) pleasure in creative
activity; (2) pride in the perfection of one’s product; (3) the desire
to live up to accepted standards of excellence; (4) abhorrence of sham
in one’s work; (5) interest in the welfare of the customer; (6) the
social service motive. The profits motive, however, receives support
from many social tendencies, notably: (1) the increasing distance
between producer and consumer; (2) the growing differentiation between
principals and subordinates; (3) the increasing importance of capital
in the practice of an art or occupation.
Professor Ross has set forth a valuable exhibit of the canons of social
reconstruction.[XXIII-33] (1) Reforms must not do violence to human
nature. (2) They must square with essential realities. (3) They should
be preceded by a close sociological study of the situation which it is
planned to change. (4) Reforms should be tried out on a small scale
before being adopted on a large scale. (5) A reform should be the
outcome of a social movement. (6) Under a popular government, reforms
should move according to legal and constitutional methods.
In regard to the improvement of social institutions, Professor Ross
rests his argument on the importance of standards. “Standards are,
perhaps, the most important things in society.”[XXIII-34] Although
invisible and intangible they reveal, better than anything else, the
quality of a society.
The current standards of the family may be improved through imparting
sound ideals of marriage, through fixing these ideals everywhere in
social tradition, and through making “the social atmosphere frosty
toward foolish and frivolous ideals of marriage.”[XXIII-35] Young
people may well be taught to look upon divorce as a moral shipwreck.
Loyalty to the state or society has its origin in the obedience of
children to parents in the family. A sound family life, thus, is rated
by our author as the bulwark of society.
In regard to industry, it is pointed out that the principle of
the sovyet is associated in an entirely accidental way with
Bolshevism.[XXIII-36] The sovyet may well be judged on its own merits.
The principle upon which citizens may be grouped for purposes of
securing representation in government is not yet settled. Is a given
geographical area a better unit for securing representation than
occupational areas?
State socialism is objected to by Professor Ross on the grounds that it
leaves the citizens so remote “from that which most vitally concerns
him, viz., the regulation of the industry in which he works, that his
yearly vote may be a mere fribble and he little better than a state
serf.”[XXIII-37] Guild socialism, on the other hand, urges that each
branch of industry shall organize itself democratically, and that
the state shall be organized not with provinces and localities as
semi-autonomies but with industries exercising a degree of autonomy.
Our author endorses the general shift which is occurring at the present
time from the coercive side to the service side of industrial life.
Professor Ross has deduced several important sociological principles
of general import. These he calls the principle of anticipation, the
principle of simulation, the principle of individualization, and the
principle of balance.
By the principle of anticipation, he means that a known policy of
an institution will come to be anticipated by the members of the
institution and will result in modifying behavior.[XXIII-38] Unfair
advantage is often taken of people on the basis of this principle.
For example, children frequently count on favor and leniency. The
false beggar’s whine is often effective. It is in this connection that
genuine social reform differs from a common conception of charity, for
the former method fits people to run, clears their course, and incites
them to make the race,[XXIII-39] while the latter fails to render
assistance of permanent value.
The principle of simulation refers to the common tendency of “the
unworthy to simulate every type or trait which has won social approval,
in order to steal prestige from it.”[XXIII-40] Commercial competition
has produced adulterations, misbrandings, counterfeiting. There is the
professional athlete, who sometimes poses as a sincere enthusiast for
physical development. Politicians are often expert dissemblers.
The principle of individualization refers to giving individuality
a reasonable chance for growth. As society grows more complex,
institutions more ossified, and life more standardized, the average
individual is increasingly in danger of being crushed; at least, his
opportunities for self-expression grow more slim. There is need of
constant vigilance in education in allowing for individual differences,
in industry for safeguarding the laborer in expressing his personality
in his work, in government in permitting free discussion.
The principle of balance is stated by Professor Ross as follows: “In
the guidance of society each social element should share according
to the intelligence and public spirit of its members and none should
predominate.”[XXIII-41] There has been in the past, and even now
there is in all countries, a bitter struggle taking place between
classes apparently on the basis that some one class should rule all
the other classes. Society has suffered immeasurably in this way.
Sometimes society has been the victim of the rulership of the dead,
of the rulership of masculinism, of clericalism, of militarism,
of commercialism, of legalism, of leisure class ascendancy, of
intellectualism, of proletarianism, but always by one class lording it
over the weaker classes until some one of the weaker classes acquires
strength enough to overthrow the class in power.
The socio-psychological thought of Professor Ross has penetrated
the farthermost reaches of human life. It has been stated in
lucid, stimulating language. It has commanded the attention of
socially-thinking persons in many lands. It has defined the field of
sociology, giving the psychological approach.
Special attention may be given to the concept of “the great society” as
used by Graham Wallas. The Great Society is a name for current human
society, the product of mechanical inventions, industrial production,
commercial expansion, democratic evolution--highly organized and
intricately complex. It is ruled, in the main, by men “who direct
enormous social power without attempting to form a social purpose,” and
it is composed to a surpassing degree of individuals who recognize the
power of society but dimly and who often treat society with distrust
and dislike.[XXIII-42]
Mr. Wallas substitutes organization for organism as a fundamental
social concept. He makes a distinction between thought organizations,
will organizations, and happiness organizations. Thought organizations
are those institutions in society whose main function is the
organization of thought, such as discussion groups, ranging from a
philosophical club to an ordinary committee that is called together
to plan new legislation. At this point Mr. Wallas asserts that he
has attended perhaps 3000 meetings of municipal committees, of
different sizes and for different purposes, and that he is sure that
at least half of the men and women with whom he has sat “were entirely
unaware that any conscious mental effort on their part was called
for.”[XXIII-43] They attended in the same spirit that many persons
attend church, namely, in the spirit that if they merely attend they
are doing their duty, and that some good must come of it.
Will organization comes into existence because of imperfect social
machinery. In industry three types of will organizations are striving
for mastery--the institution of private property, represented by
the individualists; the state, represented by collectivists; labor
organizations, represented perhaps by syndicalists. There is urgent
need for “the invention of means of organizing the conflicting wills of
individuals and classes within each nation more effective than reliance
upon any single ‘principle,’ whether representation, property, or
professionalism.”[XXIII-44]
The organization of happiness has not proceeded far. Efficiency has
supplanted happiness as a modern god. The ideal of making money has
shadowed the ideal of making people happy. A social system organized on
the basis of happiness avoids both destitution and superfluity, employs
the Mean as the standard for the representation of all social interests
as well as for all faculties of individuals, avoids the Extreme in all
things.[XXIII-45]
The writings of Charles A. Ellwood deal particularly with that part of
sociological thought which rests upon psychological theory. Professor
Ellwood defines a society as “a group of individuals carrying on a
collective life by means of mental interactions.”[XXIII-46] As a
result of mental interactions, co-ordination or co-adaptation of the
activities of the members is effected.
The psychological basis of social interactions is found in such
characteristics of the individual as spontaneity, instincts,
emotions, consciousness, mind. Organisms possess spontaneity, that
is, movements are set up in them without the apparent aid of external
causes.[XXIII-47] The organism, however, is dependent largely upon
the environment for the development of its potentialities, “but the
essential ground for the beginning of its activities lies within--in
its own organic needs.” Instincts, the product of natural selection,
represent preformed neurological pathways that developed “in response
to the demands of previous life conditions.” The emotions, also
hereditary, are complexes of feelings and sensations. The desires are
complex combinations of feelings and impulses which are accompanied by
an awareness of the objects that will satisfy the impulse.[XXIII-48]
Consciousness develops to solve problems which the instincts cannot
meet. At first, consciousness is largely a selective activity. It
develops, however, into a highly complex agency for mastering the
problems of life and the universe. Mind is a product of the social
life-process. It has arisen under conditions of association.
One of the most fundamental phases of the associational process
is communication. The need of acting together has given rise to
intercommunicative symbols.
Professor George H. Mead has given a thoroughgoing discussion of
communication, language, and the consciousness of meaning.[XXIII-49]
He begins with a social situation, where the actions of one person
serve as stimulations to other persons, whose responses in turn
act as stimulations to the first person. Thus life is a series of
actions, stimulations, responses, resultant stimulations--these
activities constitute gestures or symbols with meanings. Symbols and
the consciousness of meaning of these symbols are the main elements in
communication.
Communication, says Professor Ellwood, is “a device to carry on
a common life-process among several distinct, though psychically
interacting, individual units.”[XXIII-50] This definition probably
emphasizes unduly the “individual units,” which are doubtless a
product, in part, of the stream of social life. Suggestion is an
elemental, but quick form of communication, related in its simpler
phases to sympathetic emotion. Imitation is a common mechanism whereby
actions and ideas spread. Communication in the form of oral and written
language is the chief mechanistic factor in securing social change.
The contention of Ward that primitive man was anti-social is refuted by
Professor Ellwood, who points out that according to social anthropology
the so-called anti-social traits of earliest man are not found fully
developed among “savages” but among people of later ages. Primitives
were characterized by a narrow sociality, confined largely to the
family and small groups.[XXIII-51]
Professor Ellwood’s theory of social change is of a two-fold character:
unconscious and conscious,--the former being characteristic of the
lower stages of social evolution, and the latter, increasingly
characteristic of the higher stages.[XXIII-52] The forms of unconscious
social change are manifold.
Natural selection tends to crush and destroy the weaker individuals
and the weaker groups. Another type of unconscious social change is
that which comes through a gradual disuse of certain cultural elements.
One generation fails to copy the preceding in all particulars. Another
set of sources of unconscious social change is found in the shifting
relationships between individuals that is produced by “the increase of
population, a new physical environment, a new cultural contact, a new
discovery or a new invention.” In fact, Professor Ellwood states that
all social changes start in an unconscious way.[XXIII-53]
Conscious change begins with the awareness on the part of one or more
individuals that some social habit is not functioning well. Through
communication, this awareness spreads from individual to individual.
Discussion ensues. At first, discussion is largely critical of the
unsatisfactory social situation. The useless or harmful elements in the
situation receive first attention. As discussion proceeds, it takes on
a more constructive nature, that is, it becomes projective, planful,
positive. It suggests a change to be made. It becomes transformed into
a more or less stable public opinion, demanding a substitution of a
proposed way of doing for the old. The chief elements in guaranteeing
conscious readjustments are free communication, “free public
criticism, free discussion, untrammeled formation of public opinion,
free selection of social policies and social leaders.”[XXIII-54] The
selective process in conscious social change is public opinion, whose
social function it is to mediate in the transition from one social
habit to another.
Conscious social change in Western Civilization is endangered on one
hand by an excessive individualism, and on the other by a socialism
which threatens to suppress individual initiative and to underemphasize
the rôle of mental and moral character. Professor Ellwood urges the
importance of an education which will socialize the individual and at
the same time develop a high type of personal character.
Social change, also, takes place under socially abnormal conditions,
so long as societies fail to keep “a high degree of flexibility
in their habits and institutions.”[XXIII-55] Autocratic rulers,
propertied classes, ecclesiastical classes, special groups in power,
a general intellectual stagnation, are factors which tend to resist
institutional flexibility. If this adaptability does not exist, then
social conditions will produce revolutions. If the ruling autocracy
is so powerful that the lives of all objectors are snuffed out, then
revolution is indefinitely postponed. If the energetic forces within
a society are hampered greatly in securing constructive opportunities
for expression, they become forces of discontent and agents of revolt.
If a revolution comes, then much that is worthy in social organization
will be obliterated along with the unworthy, confusion will reign and a
reversion to the brutal stages of societal life is easily possible.
In his discussion of “the social problem,” Professor Ellwood points
out that the good fruits of the World War are in danger of being
destroyed by “the blindness and selfishness of some in our socially
privileged classes, the fanatic radicalism and class hatred of some
of the leaders of the non-privileged.”[XXIII-56] The forces which
are combining against making the world safe for democracy today are
national imperialism, commercialism, materialistic standards of life,
class conflicts, religious agnosticism, and a reckless attitude toward
marriage and the family.[XXIII-57] The social problem, from one angle,
becomes the problem of training people to live together justly,
constructively, and co-operatingly.
As Turgot indicated, the only way to avert social revolution is
through suitable and well-timed reforms. Today, the reforms most
urgently needed are three-fold: the substitution of an unselfish
internationalism for a selfish nationalism, of a spiritual civilization
for a rampant materialism, and of a socialized human race for
individualized peoples. To bring about these changes is a gigantic
task, namely _the_ social problem.
Civilization is a complex of social values. Professor Ellwood’s
classification of values is widely different from the analysis that
Professor Giddings has made (given in the preceding chapter). According
to Professor Ellwood, western civilization is represented by the
following groups of social values historically derived: (1) a set
of spiritual and ethical values, described by the ancient Hebrews;
(2) a set of esthetic and philosophic concepts from the Greeks; (3)
a set of administrative and legal forms of Roman origin; (4) a set
of personal liberty beliefs of early Teutonic derivation; (5) a
scientific spirit and technique, originating during the Renaissance;
(6) economic efficiency, born of the industrial revolution; and
(7) an extensive group of humanitarian values, the product of the
nineteenth century. This vast and complicated Western Civilization
needs, however, to remove from its structure the three “rotten pillars”
of hyper-individualism, materialism, and selfish nationalism,
substituting for each its spiritualized and socialized counterpart.
The nature of social control, according to the analysis by Professor
E. C. Hayes, is “to secure the completed and most harmonious
realization of good human experience, regarded as an end in
itself.”[XXIII-58] Social control should prevent activities which do
not bear the test of reason, and should elicit those which stand that
test, when judged by their own intrinsic value and by their effect
upon other values. This statement of the purpose of social control is
similar to that of other standard interpretations of the matter.
There are two types of social control.[XXIII-59] The first is control
by sanctions, and the second by social suggestion, sympathetic
radiation, and imitation. Social sanctions refer to proffered rewards
and threatened punishments. Professor Hayes, however, makes not law
but personality the ultimate basis of social order. Repression of
crime is a correct social procedure but of a distinctly lower grade
than the movement to raise the moral character of those who never go
to prison. _The_ problem of social control is to take the instinctive
tendencies of each individual when he is young and make them over into
a disposition that is characterized by the four following traits:
(1) reliability, or honesty; (2) controlled animalism, or temperance
regarding eating, drinking, and other animal propensities; (3)
steadiness in endeavor; (4) the social spirit, or justice.[XXIII-60]
Professor Hayes’ statement on the agencies of social control is similar
in purport to the list that Professor Ross has given. Education is
considered the chief agency of social control. Education can determine
the direction of ambition; education can shift the emphasis in social
valuations. Professor Hayes recognizes the import of heredity and how
the degree of individual achievement is “more dependent upon heredity
than upon the directions of effort.” Society, however, has the power
to decide which of its members shall develop as far as their potential
abilities will permit, and also the power to determine the direction
the activities of its members shall take.[XXIII-61]
Among educational agencies of control the family ranks first.[XXIII-62]
The power of the family at its best in building personality is
comparable to the influence in this connection of all other agencies
combined. The profession of mother-work is more important to society
than any other profession.
The social psychology of business enterprise, of the leisure classes,
of the machine process, of industry and workmanship have been indicated
by Thorstein Veblen. The unique, incisive work of Mr. Veblen is
presented in several books, chief of which are his _Theory of the
Leisure Class_, _Theory of Business Enterprise_, and _Instinct of
Workmanship_. Mr. Veblen’s ideas can best be illustrated by referring
to his “canons.”
The Canon of Pecuniary Emulation describes the restless straining of
certain individuals in society to outdo one another in the possession
of wealth.[XXIII-63] Such possession is interpreted as conferring honor
on its possessor. Wealth becomes intrinsically honorable. The Canon of
Pecuniary Beauty refers to the impression that things are beautiful in
proportion as they are costly.[XXIII-64] The marks of expensiveness
come to be regarded as beautiful features.
The Canon of Conspicuous Consumption is a term which describes a
method of showing off one’s wealth by an elaborate consumption of
goods.[XXIII-65] Conspicuous consumption is seen more in matters of
dress than in any other line of consumption. The Canon of Conspicuous
Leisure is the rule which some people are following when they live
a life of leisure as the readiest and most conclusive evidence of
pecuniary strength.[XXIII-66] Sometimes a man keeps his wife frittering
her time away in a doll’s house in order to show his wealth status.
The Canon of Leisure Class Conservatism is Veblen’s label for the
conservative tendencies of the wealthy. Those whom fortune has greatly
favored are likely to be content with things as they are. Such people
are averse to social change, for social innovation might upset their
comfortable existence. They have a dominant material interest in
letting things alone.
Mr. Veblen’s Canon of Pecuniary Efficiency means that many persons
conceive of efficiency largely in terms of price. The person who
can induce his fellows to pay him well is accounted efficient and
serviceable.[XXIII-67] The man who gains much wealth at little cost is
rated high in his neighbor’s esteem. The investor who at the turn of
his hand reaps $100,000 in a stock or bond deal is praised widely. In
other words, there is a common tendency to rate people high in direct
proportion to the amount of money that they are able to extract from
the aggregate product.
The Canon of Bellicoseness refers to the enthusiasm for war which the
hereditary leisure class displays. The very wealthy, not being obliged
to work for a living, find that time drags. Therefore, they seek
excitement and relief from ennui, and find these conditions in various
things, especially in war.
The Canon of Pecuniary Education covers the tendency to demand
“practical” education, which, upon examination, is education that will
guarantee individual success. “Success,” for which education is to fit
young people, turns out to be, in the eyes of the practical man, a
pecuniary success. “Practical” means useful for private gain. The test
that many persons would give to a course in education is this: Will
it help one to get an income? The Canon of Pecuniary Thinking denotes
that many occupations lead to habits of pecuniary thought. For numbers
of people the beginning and end of their more serious thought is of a
pecuniary nature.
The Canon of Machine Process Thinking is that mechanical employments
produce a type of thinking that is based more or less on material
cause and effect. The Machine knows neither morality nor dignity nor
prescriptive right. The machine process laborers, working in a world of
impersonal cause and effect, “are in danger of losing the point of view
of sin.”
Professor Veblen has developed the concept of the instinct of
workmanship at considerable length. According to this contention, it
is natural for individuals to do, to construct, to achieve, to work.
Through activity the individual expresses himself and, in so doing,
develops, and attains happiness. Every individual is a center of
unfolding impulsive activity; he is possessed of a taste for effective
work.[XXIII-68] Labor acquires a character of irksomeness by virtue of
the indignity that is falsely imputed to it by a hereditary leisure
class.[XXIII-69] It was the instinct of workmanship which brought the
life of mankind from the brute to the human plan.
The contributions of Mr. Veblen to social thought are always of a
thought-provoking nature. Sometimes they give rise to invidious
comparisons, often they antagonize, but as a rule, they are unique. No
brief reference such as is given in the foregoing paragraphs can do
justice to Mr. Veblen’s pungent criticisms of societal foibles.
It would be a decidedly incomplete treatment of the nature of
psycho-sociologic thought that did not make reference to the work of
George Elliott Howard, political scientist, historian, sociologist,
but above all, social psychologist. In each of the fields in which Dr.
Howard has achieved fame, his method of approach is psychological. He
has prepared an excellent outline of the field of social psychology,
together with a scholarly bibliography of the same. Perhaps the best
way to treat Professor Howard’s socio-psychologic thought, is to give a
sample of it, as found in his address before the American Sociological
Society when he was president of that body. The theme was, “Ideals
as a Factor in the Future Control of International Society.” This
_magnum opus_ served as an excellent introduction to the series of
papers on the subject of social control which were read at the annual
meeting of the Sociological Society in 1918, and which have been
published together with the presidential address as Volume XII of the
Publications of the Society.
By social control, Professor Howard means the standard conception of
the “ascendency of the social consciousness.”[XXIII-70] In the same
volume, however, Professor Carl Kelsey interprets social control as
“the organization and utilization of our wealth and citizens for
private purposes.”[XXIII-71] Professor Hutton Webster is inclined
to believe that the main feature of primitive social control is
“the superstitious fear of the new.”[XXIII-72] Professor F. Stuart
Chapin sees the essential element of primitive social ascendency in
the pressure upon the individual of social conditions, customs, and
conventions.[XXIII-73] Without giving additional interpretations of
social control, the reader will be referred directly to Volume XII of
the Publications as the best symposium that is available on the subject.
In discussing ideals as a phase of international control, Professor
Howard makes clear that certain ideals exert a baneful influence.
The ideal of the nation-state appears to be unmoral if not
immoral.[XXIII-74] Of four prevailing standards of ethics, namely,
personal morality, business morality, national morality for home
consumption, and “standards of international morality for use with
outlanders,” the scale is descending, and the fourth type is the
lowest. Nationalisms have been overdeveloped--at the expense of a
needed internationalism.
Another false ideal of which society needs to rid itself is its
conception of the function of war and militarism. War is not a good in
itself. War as war is not heroic. Race values constitute a third false
ideal. “Every race deems itself superior to every other race and every
race is mistaken.”[XXIII-75] Race conceit is contrary to the Christian
ideal and has steadily been supplanted by the new doctrine of the
potential equality of all races.
The ideal of democracy, on the other hand, rings true to the needs of
progress. It makes for peace. Democracy, however, must rid itself of
blemishes. Hereditary and class privilege must be abolished; political
corruption and race riots must be defeated; woman, “the original social
builder, the mother of industry, the first inventor of the arts of
peace,” must be granted a full voice in social control.
The ideal of education is exceedingly delicate, for it involves the
process of the changing of ideals. Education may prepare a people to
admire autocracy or to build a self-governing democracy.
Dr. Howard enters a strong plea for social idealism--the most effective
that has yet been written.[XXIII-76] “The idealist is the inspired
social architect, who dreams a plan for the sanitary or moral cleansing
of a great city; the campaign for purging politics of graft; a law
for saving little children from the tigerish man of the factory or
the sweatshop; a referendum for banishing from the commonwealth the
saloon, that chief breeder of pauperism, sin, and crime; a conference
for the rescuing from the hands of predacious greed, for the use of
the whole people, of the remnant of our country’s natural wealth. The
idealist is the statesman--the head of a nation--who dreams a scheme
for safeguarding democracy and guaranteeing peace throughout the world.”
It is evident from the introduction to the history of psycho-sociologic
thought that has been given in this and the preceding chapter,
supported by the materials in the chapters on social conflict and
social co-operation concepts, that psycho-sociologic thought holds
a place of first rank in the field of sociology. It bids fair to
become the central force in social thinking and to lead the social
sciences. It deals with the most vital social concepts, namely, groups,
personality, behavior, conflict, co-operation, and process. Of all the
main approaches to an understanding of societary problems, it promises
most.