This suggests the ideal of society which is implicit in our minds as we study its development by means of conflicting, imitating and overlapping group minds. The desirable qualities which this process evokes are heterogeneity and progress. We thus steer midway between the equal dangers of uniformity and standardization, on the one hand, and the isolation of castes, on the other. The caste system of India provides plenty of heterogeneity, but because the groups are isolated from each other physically and mentally, because of the influence of “untouchability,” the mind of the group has never unified, never presented the possibility of change. The modern movement in India under Ghandi is precisely of this type, to unify India and introduce the concept of progress by a double process, by abolishing “untouchability” within and bringing the caste groups to imitate and emulate each other; by strengthening loyalty through united opposition to the common oppressor. It is a most significant example of the development of the group mind through union of sub-groups and by contrast to another hostile group. On the other hand, the beginning of modernity in Europe meant a radical opposition to the levelling influence of the Church universal, the rise of vernacular tongues, of national governments, of national churches—that is, the dissociation of the medieval mind, which was European, into the sub-groups, which are primarily national. That the reverse movement is now taking place is significant, for this reverse movement is a natural one by imitation and common interests, not forced by the union of the Inquisition and the secular arm. As Bernard Shaw remarks in the preface to “Saint Joan”:
[51]Though all society is founded on intolerance, all improvement is founded on tolerance. [52]We must persecute, even to the death; and all that we can do to mitigate the danger of persecution is, first, to be very careful what we persecute, and second, to bear in mind that unless there is a large liberty to shock conventional people, and a well informed sense of the value of originality, individuality and eccentricity, the result will be apparent stagnation covering a repression of evolutionary forces which will eventually explode with extravagant and probably destructive violence.
We must then, conceive modern society, not as a simple unity but as an integration of group minds, from that of the individual, the family, the clique, up to that of the nation, with a dawning international mind now in process. These group minds struggle for domination and for existence; they learn from each other at the same time. The double process constantly in evidence is group conflict, resulting in the mind of the sub-group, and group imitation, resulting in the integration of the sub-groups into a larger and more inclusive mental entity. In addition, the various groups are not all parallel, but very largely crossing each other; one individual or sub-group may belong to several of them. Economic classes cross national boundaries, for both capital and labor are international. Most conspicuous of all, religious groupings are international and interracial, so that a man belongs to a church as well as a nation. In peace times the national will to dominate and the church ideal of peace are kept carefully as far apart in his mind as possible; the one coming into the center of consciousness on Sundays, the other on election day or similar occasions. In time of war, the two actively conflict within the group mind, and thus within the individual minds which belong to the group.
The accumulation of knowledge and the advancement of reason are accompanied by a progressive widening of the circle of the group mind, to include an ever larger number and variety of sub-groups. Dr. Baldwin suggests this process: [53]“Group selection gives rise to what may be called the law of the widening unit, that as the circle of co-operation widens the unit of survival, the group, taken as a whole, becomes larger.” The other side of the same process is the increasing complexity of the mind of the individual and the sub-group because of the richer world in which they exist—in Dr. Vincent’s words, [54]“The person has as many selves as there are groups to which he belongs. He is simple or complex as his groups are few and harmonious or many and conflicting.” The actual growth of an international mind today is evident, through scientific, religious, artistic and economic influences; through the great alliances of the World War; through the ease of communication and the spread of news and propaganda. A world-wide group mind, if such is possible, cannot and should not eliminate its sub-groups, but include them in a wider synthesis; even enriching the complexity of the sub-groups by its further ramifications and their further imitations.
But the easy and natural way for such an international group mind is by conflict with a still different outside group. The white races would easily attain unity if there were a real race conflict against the colored races of the world; differences between French and German, between Russian and American, would be swallowed up in a day. Unity of the entire human race would come instantly if we were invaded from Mars. The slogans of our earth-wide unity would be the defense of our beloved planet and the common descent of all human beings. In default of such a threat from without, is the international mind an impossible hypothesis?
I suggest that actual contrasts exist which may make it possible for a world-wide group mind to grow through the normal mode of group conflict and group imitation and co-operation. Perhaps we can attain race unity by envisaging the forces of nature as the rival group, conceiving the inroads of the insect world as the threat against human domination which must make us spring to arms in a sense of our common unity and our common nature. Perhaps we can conceive the national group as the contrasting element, and the international group mind as, not its enemy, but its synthesis. Finally, one all-inclusive mind actually does exist in the faith of most of the race—the ideal self of the group to which we give the name of God. The God-idea of the group is not the group itself, but is its outgrowth, its ideal self. Perhaps the future unity of mankind may come at last through a summation of its highest ideals and the rational toleration of diverse interpretations, different personalities, and widely contrasting group customs and manners. At present, however, an outstanding phenomenon of the group mind is intolerance, and through a study of intolerance we can perceive much of group nature and of the actual life of human societies.
CHAPTER III.
INTOLERANCE
1.
Tolerance is the characteristic virtue of the modern era, just as intolerance has been typical of every age and almost every people in days gone by. Tolerance, we feel is the golden key which alone can open the door to the golden age. Tolerance is the one thing that can possibly wipe out the evils of hatred, warfare, and confusion, the age-old enemies of the progress of the race. When men and women learn tolerance for each other’s race, nationality, religion, and general attitudes, then they will be able to understand one another, and eventually to work with one another, even to love one another. Without that tolerance, we can never understand people of different race or religion or nationality, because we never even stop to look at them fairly and honestly. Certainly, without tolerance, co-operation, human sympathy, the brotherhood of man are empty words without possibility of realization.
But that only pushes the problem back a step. What is this tolerance, and how can it be attained? It is easy for us to be tolerant on matters we do not care about, but hard on matters that are deep in our hearts. Religious tolerance is growing because religious intensity of the old type is weakening. Religious wars, as practised in Europe three hundred years ago, will never be repeated because Christians are no longer certain that their fellow-Christians of different sects are going to burn in everlasting flames. Thomas Jefferson was tolerant on religion because he was fairly indifferent to the whole subject; his intolerance was reserved for political opponents, and for the aristocratic party in other lands as well. The rarest object in the whole museum of history is the man who has profound convictions of his own, and yet is tolerant of those who differ from him—a Roger Williams, for example, who was a pious clergyman but allowed liberty of conscience in his settlement of Rhode Island even to Catholics and Jews. Such a man is a symbol of what the whole world may become in the messianic age, a type of our strictly modern ideal.