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
There is, however, reason to suppose that susceptibility to leadership
is a characteristic of relatively primitive social types, and tends
to diminish with increasing social complexity. I have already
called attention to and attempted to define the apparently specific
psychological differences between Germany and England before and
during the war. These differences I attributed to variations in the
type of reaction to herd instinct shown by the two peoples. The
aggressive social type represented by Germany and analogous with that
characteristic of the predaceous social animals I regarded as being
relatively primitive and simple. The socialized type represented by
England and presenting analogies with that characteristic of many
social insects I regarded as being, though imperfect as are all the
human examples available for study up to the present time, more
complex and less primitive, and representing at any rate a tendency
towards a satisfactory solution of the problems with which man as a
gregarious animal is surrounded. Now, it is a very obvious fact that
the susceptibility to leadership shown by Germany and by England
before the war was remarkably different. The common citizen of Germany
was strikingly open to and dependent upon discipline and leadership,
and seemed to have a positive satisfaction in leaving to his masters
the management of his social problems and accepting with alacrity
the solutions that were imposed upon him. The nation consequently
presented a close knit uniformity of purpose, a singleness of national
consciousness and effort that gave it an aspect of moral power of the
most formidable kind. In England a very different state of affairs
prevailed. The common citizen was apt to meet with indifference or
resentment all efforts to change the social {249} structure, and it
had long been a political axiom that “reform” should always await
an irresistible demand for it. Instances will be within every one’s
memory of politicians who met with crushing rebuffs through regarding
the supposed desirability of a reform as a justification for imposing
it. This almost sullen indifference to great projects and ideals,
this unwillingness to take thought in the interests of the nation
and the empire in spite of the apostolic zeal of the most eloquent
political prophets, was generally regarded as evidence of a weakness
and slackness in the body politic that could not but threaten disaster.
And yet in the trials of the war the moral stability of England showed
itself to be superior to that of Germany, which, in those rough waters,
it jostled as mercilessly and as effectually as did the brass pot the
earthen crock in the fable.
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