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
In considering the psychological case of England we came to the
conclusion that her morale depended on mechanisms different from those
which were in action in Germany, and indicating that social development
had in her followed a different type. We saw reason to suppose that
this social type would be very much more resistant to discouragement
and disaster than the aggressive type embodied in Germany, and that
if England won the war it would be by virtue of the toughness of her
nerve. The form of social organization represented by England was seen
to contain a germ of strength not possessed by her enemy, an intensely
resistant nucleus of moral power that underlay the immeasurable waste
and the inextricable confusion of her methods. If the moral structure
of Germany was of its kind fully developed, it was also primitive; if
the moral structure of England was embryonic, it was also integrative
and still capable of growth. If it was very obvious at that time how
immensely responsive to intelligent and conscious direction the moral
powers of England would have been, if it was obvious how largely such
direction would have diminished the total cost of the war in time and
suffering, if it was obvious that such direction would not, and almost
certainly could not, be forthcoming, it was equally clear that the
muddle, the mediocrity, the vociferation with which the war was being
conducted were phenomena within the normal of the type and evolutionary
stage of our society, and were not much more than froth on the surface
of an invisible and unsounded stream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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