Instincts of the Herd in Peace and WarTrotter, W. (Wilfred)
Science
Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War
Trotter, W. (Wilfred)
Collective behavior; Crowds; Social psychology; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
The problem of the function of the common citizen in war was of course
left unsolved. It was accepted that if a man were unfit for service
and not a skilled worker, he himself was a mere dead weight, and
his intense longing for direct service, of however humble a kind, a
by-product of which the State could make no use.
That the working classes have to a certain extent failed to develop a
complete sense of national unity is obvious enough. It is contended
here that what would have been easy in the early days of the war and
actually inexpensive to prescriptive right, has steadily become more
and more costly to effect {148} and less and less efficiently done.
We are already faced with the possibility of having to make profound
changes in the social system to convince the working-man effectually
that his interests and ours in this war are one.
That a very large class of common citizens, incapable of direct
military work, has been left morally derelict during all these
agonizing months of war has probably not been any less serious a fact,
although the recognition of it has not been forced unavoidably on
public notice. It must surely be clear that in a nation engaged in an
urgent struggle for existence, the presence of a large class who are
as sensitive as any to the call of the herd, and yet cannot respond in
any active way, contains very grave possibilities. The only response to
that relentless calling that can give peace is in service; if that be
denied, restlessness, uneasiness, and anxiety must necessarily follow.
To such a mental state are very easily added impatience, discontent,
exaggerated fears, pessimism, and irritability. It must be remembered
that large numbers of such individuals were persons of importance in
peace time and retain a great deal of their prestige under the social
system we have decided to maintain, although in war time they are
obviously without function. This group of idle and flustered parasites
has formed a nucleus from which have proceeded some of the many
outbursts of disunion which have done so much to prevent this country
from developing her resources with smoothness and continuity. It is not
suggested that these eruptions of discontent are due to any kind of
disloyalty; they are the result of defective morale, and bear all the
evidences of coming from persons whose instinctive response to the call
of the herd has been frustrated and who, therefore, lack the strength
and composure of those whose souls are uplifted by a satisfactory
{149} instinctive activity. Moral instability has been characteristic
of all the phenomena of disunion we are now considering, such as
recrudescences of political animus, attacks on individual members
of the Government, outbursts of spy mania, campaigns of incitement
against aliens and of blustering about reprisals. Similar though less
conspicuous manifestations are the delighted circulation of rumours,
the wild scandalmongering, the eager dissemination of pessimistic
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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