The truth is, of course, that the will is not master of us at all
times, and in fact at few times. The findings of modern psychology
indicate how much we are creatures of instinct and emotion.
The grave error as to saving which most people make is the failure to
hitch the saving idea to a really powerful instinct or emotion. It
is true that Acquisition, Economy and Accumulation are authentically
listed among the human instincts. But there are so many _other_
instincts which in a prosperous country like ours dull and diminish
the accumulation instinct, that there is a losing fight put up by
the saving instinct. For instance, among the other human instincts
are Rivalry, Curiosity, Family Affection, Sex Love, Ego, Display,
Construction, Imitation, Play, Pugnacity, Social Cooperation,
Leadership, Pride, Hospitality, Sympathy. These instincts are
constantly breaking down the Economy and Accumulation instincts,
_except insofar as they cater to the satisfaction of these other
instincts_. Thus we have millions of people in America who work hard
and earn a great deal of money, but who are also the most prodigious
_spenders_ in the world. They are not great savers.
Psychologically, what has happened is that, like our sense of smell,
our sense of accumulation and economy is blunted by disuse. It is
always in a country where living conditions are _hard_ that the
instinct of accumulation and economy sharpens and develops. The Scotch
and the New Englander (both living in stony countries) have developed
these qualities to a point where it is part of their tradition. The
old joke about the Scotchman’s purse, out of which, when he opened it,
flew a moth, is one of hundreds of similar jokes. President Coolidge,
as embodying the New England Yankee tradition of “closeness,” has the
authentic tradition of Yankee thrift behind him, based also upon the
hard-won accumulations of our Puritan ancestors.
Disuse of an instinct relaxes and rusts it, and in the last twenty
years this has occurred to large numbers of Americans. The savage who
lives in a land of luxury soon dulls his hunting instinct and his
marksmanship; and if he suddenly is again thrust into hard conditions
he dies. Whole tribes and even whole races of men have disappeared,
for probably no other reason than that of living in soft luxury until
a natural cataclysm put them up against conditions of which they were
once masters, but had lost the power to conquer.
_The instinct to accumulate is basic and should not be permitted to
atrophy in any human being._ The span of life inevitably brings
most of us at some period to a point where we suffer if we do let it
atrophy. (Naturally, of course, it should not be permitted to become
abnormal or obsessing, either.)
How shall this atrophy be prevented, psychologically? It is best
accomplished by routing all instincts over the “long circuit” in the
mind; that is, subjecting all of them to review before the tribunal of
reason. Most instincts are permitted to travel over the “short circuit”
of the mind; that is, the feeling is permitted to arise and flow into
expression and action before there is any attempt at correlation of
ideas or the use of judgment. The ideal that made the Greeks the most
balanced super-humans of all history was undoubtedly their dictum
“_of nothing too much_.” This required long circuit mental
processes; a brake of reason upon the crude excrescences of instinct
and emotion. As Christopher Morley says in _Thunder on the Left_,
if hunger can keep from taking the food within its reach, then is the
life of the spirit begun. Also, then, is the saving instinct preserved
in the modern welter of plenty; together with the fine character
balance which is represented by “thought for the morrow.”
It should be pointed out also that _decision_ plays a vital part
in saving. Psychologically speaking, decision (in the words of Prof.
H. L. Hollingsworth, of Columbia), is “only another name for the final
outcome of the rivalry of competing ideas or instincts.” Thus we see
how important it is that the rivalry against the saving idea be not
made unfair and disastrous, by opposing against it Display, Imitation,
Hospitality, Ego, Rivalry, Ostentation, Curiosity, Envy, Jealousy
and other instincts which break any decision to save. The instincts
which _aid_ the saving instinct are Love of Family and Home,
Construction, Social Cooperation, Leadership, Civic and National Pride,
Self-Dependence, Sex Love. Many a young man never saves a penny until
he meets a nice girl he wants to marry; or until he gets tired of
wandering and develops a desire for a fireside.