Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/839

 THE BASIS OF SOCIAL SOLIDARITY 825

already in physical endowment nor included in social tradition. They are social novelties, new modes of thought and action, in- volving a greater or lesser degree of individual deliberation and choice. As such, they come into conflict, in many instances, with activities of the hereditary and plastic types. All social reform, for example, is accomplished by individuals who think and act outside the established conventions and traditions; it embodies a protest on the part of individuals — from the point of view of personal intelligence and moral sentiment — against the conven- tions which have been established by earlier social intercourse, and which are socially transmitted. The reformer must convince others in order to convert them; he must criticize the old as irrational in order to establish the more rational, the new. All this depends upon the successful appeal to the intelligence and sentiment — moral, aesthetic, etc. — of individuals, and leads them to rebel against the authority of society and the rule of plastic suggestion. The action of the crowd is often disorganizing, and at best unproductive; the action of the reflective group, such as the committee, the legislature, the administrative bureau, is progressive and organizing.

h) From the point of view of the group, therefore, solidarity of intelligence, of conviction, of higher sentiment, now takes the place of the solidarity of mere instinct or blind feeling. This is the form of organization which is truly to be called "social." It characterizes the human society in opposition to the animal com- pany, and the human crowd. For only in such a group, a society, is there an internal organization as such. The gregarious in- stincts do not issue in social organization ; each individual, on the contrary, acts as his nervous structures directly compels him to act. Further, there is no social organization in the plastic crowd, hypnotized by a demagogue or carried away by the suggestion of a social fellow. The group can be organized only through pro- cesses of a psychological sort, through which each individual becomes aware of his place and function in a greater or lesser social whole, and wills to maintain it by the exercise of his judg- ment.