The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular governmentFollett, Mary Parker
Science
The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular government
Follett, Mary Parker
Democracy; Political participation; Social psychology; State, The
If it were true that we ought to increase the likenesses between
nations, then it would be legitimate for each nation to try to impose
its ideals upon others. In that case England would try to spread her
particular brand of civilization, and Germany hers, for if some one kind
of civilization has to prevail, each will want it to be his own. There
is not room on this planet for a lot of similar nations, but only for a
lot of different nations. A group of nations must create a group culture
which shall be broader than the culture of one nation alone. There must
be a world-ideal, a whole-civilization, in which the ideals and the
civilization of every nation can find a place. The ideal of one nation
is not antagonistic to the ideal of another, nor do these ideals exist
in a row side by side, but these different kinds of civilization are
bound up in one another. I am told that this is mysticism. It is the
most practical idea I have found in the world.
It is said that a mighty struggle is before us by-and-by when East meets
West, and in that shock will be decided which of these civilizations
shall rule the world—that this is to be the great world-decision. No,
the great world-decision is that each nation needs equally every other,
therefore each will not only protect, but foster and increase the other
that thereby it may increase its own stature.
Perhaps one of the most useful lessons to be learned from the group
process is a new definition of patriotism. Patriotism must not be
herd-instinct. Patriotism must be the individual’s rational,
self-conscious building of his country every moment. Loyalty means
always to create your group, not to wave a flag over it.[144] We need a
patriotism which is not “following the lead” but involved in a process
in which all take part. In the place of sentimental patriotism we want a
common purpose, a purpose evolved by the common life, to be used for the
common life. Some of our biologists mislead us when they talk of the
homogeneity of the herd as the aim of nations. The nation may be a herd
at present. What we have to do is to make it a true group.
Internationalism must be based upon group units, not upon herd or crowd
units, that is, upon people united not by herd instinct but by group
conviction. If a nation is a crowd, patriotism is mere hypnotism; if a
nation is a true federal state built up of interlocking and ascending
groups, then patriotism is self-evolved. When you are building up an
association or a nation you have to preach loyalty; later it is part of
the very substance which has been built.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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