The Psychology of Nations: A Contribution to the Philosophy of HistoryPartridge, G. E. (George Everett)
Philosophy
The Psychology of Nations: A Contribution to the Philosophy of History
Partridge, G. E. (George Everett)
Education; History -- Philosophy; War
The third type is the bee type, well represented by England, although
still imperfectly. This is the type toward which the world as a whole
tends, but as yet there is no complete form of it. At present the
capacity for individual reactions to the same stimulus has far
outstripped the capacity for intercommunication. Intercommunication in
the biological sense has been allowed to run at haphazard. When once a
great gregarious unit of this type shall have been thoroughly
organized, and be subject to conscious direction as a whole, there
will appear in the world a new kind of social mechanism and a new
biological form. The interest in war will give way to a larger and
more dramatic field of interest and of conquest than the mere taking
and re-taking of land. But there is as yet no such society. Even in
times of a great war, there is an internal differentiation that cannot
be overcome, an individualism that creates antagonism, and a type of
leadership which is conservative and static rather than progressive.
If we may safely apply Trotter's generalization to the present
antagonism among groups (within nations, and also national groups) we
might say that the rapid differentiation of the human species has had
an effect of creating within the species _man_ a large number of types
of sub-specific value, and in this respect man differs greatly from
any other species. Differences recognized by groups of the same
species of animals are generally not sufficient to create antagonism
among the groups, but in the case of man these differences have had
precisely the effect of marking off groups with antagonistic
interests. The animal society dominated by a few instincts directed
for the most part toward external objects preserves a state of peace
within the species. Man by reason of his intelligence and his
capacities for specialization and the great number of his desires
tends to prey upon his own kind. This segregation is in part
artificial, becomes conventional and is subject to the effects of
leadership that tends to fixate artificial distinctions, but it is
also in part an effect of the exigencies of the wider life of man, of
his superiority of which variability of conduct is an essential
aspect. This differentiation is one of the conditions of a firmer
organization in the society of man than any animal society can attain,
but at the present time the two processes of differentiation and
organization are to some extent antagonistic to one another.
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