Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/577

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 561

So far as the next parliamentary elections are concerned, the new party may count with considerable certainty upon having twenty, perhaps thirty, and possibly even forty, representatives elected. EDWARD R. PEASE, " Die neue Arbeiterpartei in England," Archiv f&r Sosialtvissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. XIX (1904), p. 3. E. B. W.

Fashion. Two opposing tendencies are ever manifested in human life ; one sets in the direction of socialistic uniformity, of conformity to type, of passive acquiescence ; the other makes for change and innovation, for the restlessness of individual initiative struggling to pass beyond the bounds of social convention. The former tendency is generally maintained by the psychological principle of imitation.

Fashion combines and satisfies in an especial manner both of these contrasted and yet complementary tendencies ; for the essential of fashion is a specialized sort of conformity, which is nevertheless not without a certain individuality. Fashion signifies uniformity within a certain limited group, whose members are complacent in the assurance that they are conspicuously marked off and differenti- ated from all outside of the group.

Gothing, social conduct, amusements, constitute the specific field of fashion ; for here no dependence is placed on really vital motives of human action ; no objective justification is necessary, and these fields are accordingly relinquished to a rule which becomes unendurable in the matter of religious faith or scientific interests.

Fashion increases in mutability with the growth of civilization. The savage has a deep-rooted distrust of what is new and unfamiliar, but the civilized man has risen superior to this feeling of insecurity in the presence of the novel. He has, moreover, neither the deep-seated hostility which suffices to maintain group demarkations among the uncivilized, nor the mental stimulus of new and vivid impressions which satisfies the need of change among primitive men.

As was hinted at above, fashion makes possible a kind of social obedience which at the same time has elements of individual initiative. The dude, for example, who practices a variation from the prevailing style upon the quantitative side in that he goes to the last extreme in his use of the fashion, is both, in a sense, a leader and a follower. In this connection we may find a parallel in democracy, which leads persons to seek the dignity and sensation of command, but tends to a confusion and ambiguity of sensations and a failure to distinguish between ruling the mass and being ruled by it.

It is curious to note that the very negation of the dicta of fashion becomes at times fashionable, just as atheism has been made into a religion and freedom has grown intolerant and arbitrary.

In regard to woman, if one may venture to generalize, greater similarity among the different members of her sex, together with the weakness of her social position, at least until very recently, goes to explain her regard for custom, for what is generally accepted, and, at the same time, her anxiety for all the relative indi- vidualization and personal conspicuousness that remain. And these are elements which compensate in a certain sense for her lack of position in a class based on a calling or profession.

By a strict conformity to all outward social requirements, sensitive and deli- cate natures often throw a veil over their personal feelings and tastes, fearing lest a peculiarity in externals may betray a peculiarity of their innermost soul. The trivialities and commonplaces of conversation are but a mask which prevents one from looking into the depths of the individual soul. Thus by relinquishing to conventionality the externals of life, we save for ourselves, independent and intact, the citadel of our innermost experiences.

The feeling of shame results from the isolation of the individual ; hence it happens that as soon as he feels the sanction of fashion, that is, of concerted action, he loses the sense of embarrassment and modesty. Indeed, many fashions tolerate breaches of modesty which, if suggested to the individual alone, would be angrily repudiated. GEORG SIMMEL, International Quarterly, October, 1004.

E. B. W.