Society: Its Origin and Development

by Henry K. Rowe

368. Social Habits.—By such processes of aggregation, communication, imitation, and association, individuals learn from one another and come to constitute a like-minded group. Sometimes it is a genetic group like the family, sometimes an artificial group like a band of huntsmen; in either case the group is held together by a psychic unity and comes to have its peculiar group characteristics. Fixed ways of thinking and acting are revealed. Social habits they may be called, or folk-ways, as some prefer to name them. These habits are quickly learned by the members of the group, and are passed on from generation to generation by imitation or the teaching of tradition. There are numerous conservative forces at work in society. Custom crystallizes into law, tradition is fortified by religion, a system of morals develops out of the folk-ways, the group life tends to become static and uniform.

369. Adaptation.—Two influences are continually at work, however, to change social habits—the forces of the natural environment and interaction between different groups. Both of these compel adaptation to surroundings if permanence of group life is to be secured. Family life in the north country illustrates the working of this principle of adaptation. In the days of settlement there was a partial adaptation to the physical environment. Houses were built tight and warm to provide shelter, abundant food was supplied from the farm, on which men toiled long hours to make a living, homespun clothing was manufactured to protect against the rigors of winter, but ignorance and lack of sufficient means prevented complete adaptation, and society was punished for its failure to complete the adaptation. Climate was severe and the laws of health were not fully worked out or observed, therefore few children lived to maturity, although the birth-rate was high. Economic success came only as the reward of patient and unremitting toil, the shiftless family failed in the struggle for existence. Tradition taught certain agricultural methods, but diminishing returns threatened poverty, unless methods were better adapted to soil and climate. Thus the people were forced slowly to improve their methods and their manner of living to conform to what nature demanded.

No less powerful is the influence of the social environment. The authority of custom or government tends to make every family conform to certain methods of building a house, cooking food, cultivating land, selling crops, paying taxes, voting for local officials, but let one family change its habits and prove conclusively that it has improved on the old ways, and it is only a question of time when others will adapt themselves better to the situation that environs them. The countryman takes a city daily and notes the weather indications and the state of the market, he installs a rural telephone and is able to make contracts for his crops by long-distance conversation, he buys an improved piece of machinery for cultivating the farm, a gasolene engine, or a motor-wagon for quick delivery of produce; presently his neighbors discover that he is adapting himself more effectually to his environment than they are, and one by one they imitate him in adopting the new methods. By and by the community becomes known for its progressiveness, and it is imitated by neighboring communities.

This process of social adaptation is a mental process more or less definite. A particular family may not consciously follow a definite plan for improved adaptation, but little by little it alters its ways, until in the course of two or three generations it has changed the circumstances and habits that characterized the ancestral group. In that case the change is slow. Certain families may definitely determine to modify their habits, and within a few years accomplish a telic change. In either case there are constantly going on the processes of observation, discrimination, and decision, due to the impact of mind upon mind, both within and outside of the group, until mental reactions are moving through channels that are different from the old.

370. Genetic Progress.—The modification of folk-ways in the interest of better adaptation to environment constitutes progress. Such modification is caused by the action of various mental stimuli. The people of a hill village for generations have been contented with poor roads and rough side-paths, along which they find an uneasy way by the glimmer of a lantern at night. They are unaccustomed to sanitary conveniences in their houses or to ample heating arrangements or ventilation in school or church. They have thought little about these things, and if they wished to make improvements they would be handicapped by small numbers and lack of wealth. But after a time there comes an influx of summer visitors; some of them purchase property and take up their permanent residence in the village. They have been accustomed to conveniences; in other words, to a more complete adaptation to environment; they demand local improvements and are willing to help pay for them. More money can be raised for taxation, and when public opinion has crystallized so that social action is possible, the progressive steps are taken.

What takes place thus in a small way locally is typical of what is going on continually in all parts of the world. Accumulating wealth and increasing knowledge of the good things of the city make country people emigrate or provide themselves with a share of the good things at home. The influence of an enthusiastic individual or group who takes the lead in better schools, better housing, or better government is improving the cities. The growing cosmopolitanism of all peoples and their adoption of the best that each has achieved is being produced by commerce, migration, and "contact and cross-fertilization of cultures."

371. Telic Progress.—Most social progress has come without the full realization of the significance of the gradual changes that were taking place. Few if any individuals saw the end from the beginning. They are for the most part silent forces that have been modifying the folk-ways in Europe and America. There has been little conception of social obligation or social ideals, little more than a blind obedience to the stimuli that pressed upon the individual and the group. But with the awakening of the social consciousness and a quickening of the social conscience has come telic progress. There is purpose now in the action of associations and method in the enactments of legislatures and the acts of administrative officers. There are plans and programmes for all sorts of improvements that await only the proper means and the sanction of public opinion for their realization. Like a runner poised for a dash of speed, society seems to be on the eve of new achievement in the direction of progress.

372. Means of Social Progress.—There are three distinct means of telic progress. Society may be lifted to a higher level by compulsion, as a huge crane lifts a heavy girder to the place it is to occupy in the construction of a great building. A prohibitory law that forbids the erection of unhealthy tenements throughout the cities of a state or nation is a distinctly progressive step, compulsory in its nature. Or the group may be moved by persuasion. A board of conciliation may persuade conflicting industrial groups to adjust their differences by peaceful methods, and thus inaugurate an ethical movement in industry greatly to the advantage of all parties. Or progress may be achieved by the slow process of education. The average church has been accustomed to conceive of its functions as pertaining to the individual rather than to the whole social order. It cannot be compelled to change by governmental action, for the church is free and democratic in America. It cannot easily be persuaded to change its methods in favor of a social programme. By the slower process of training the young people it can and does gradually broaden its activities and make itself more efficiently useful to the community in which it finds its place.

373. Criticism as a Means of Social Education.—Education is not confined to the training of the schools. It is a continuous process going on through the life of the individual or the group. It is the intellectual process by which the mind is focussed on one problem after another that rises above the horizon of experience and uses its powers to improve the adaptation now existing between the situation and the person or the group. The educational process is complex. There must be first the incitement to thought. Most effective in this direction is criticism. If the roads are such a handicap to the comfort and safety of travel that there is caustic criticism at the next town meeting, public opinion begins to set definitely in the direction of improvement. If city government is corrupt and the tax rate mounts steadily without corresponding benefits to the taxpayers, the newspapers call the attention of citizens to the fact, and they begin to consider a change of administration. Criticism is the knife that cuts to the roots of social disease, and through the infliction of temporary pain effects a cure. Criticism has started many a reform in church and state. The presence of the critic in any group is an irritant that provokes to progressive action.

374. Discussion.—Criticism leads to discussion. There is sure to be a conflict of ideas in every group. Conservative and progressive contend with each other; sometimes it is a matter of belief, sometimes of practice. Knots of individuals talk matters over, leaders debate on the public platform, newspapers take part on one side or the other. In this way national policies are determined, first by Congress or Parliament, and then by the constituents of the legislators. Freedom of discussion is regarded as one of the safeguards of popular government. If social conduct should be analyzed on a large scale it would be found that discussion is a constant factor. In every business deal there is discussion of the pros and cons of the proposition, in every case that comes before the courts there are arguments made on both sides, in the maintenance of every social institution that costs money there is a consideration of its worth. Even if the discussion does not find voice, the human intellect debates the question in its silent halls. So universal is the practice of discussion and so prized is the privilege that this is sometimes called the Age of Discussion.