Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/561

 SOCIAL CONTROL. VI.

IDEALS.

IN a small and very simple group like the family, sept or tribe, that sense of being related which is the moral core of reli- gion may do very well as a basis for harmonious living. But for a large and highly organized society acquired sympathy has just the shortcomings I pointed out in a spontaneous sympathy in the first paper of this series. It establishes general bonds and sees to it that no social class is exploited or left behind, but it is not fit to be charged with the immediate regulation of men. The reason for this lies in the nature of the social order.

Taking the society we are in, this social order presents itself as a system of active individuals, unlike in respect to depend- ence, desires, abilities and occupation, engaged in the strenuous pursuit of personal ends, but nevertheless so ordering their activities and conduct as to realize a certain equilibrium which can be indefinitely maintained. People are constantly dropping out of this system, new people are constantly maturing into it, and these after entering frequently change their places in it. But whatever be a person's place in the system, there are required of him in that place certain definite relations to other persons and to other parts of the system. The individual as daughter- is to defer in certain ways, as wife must assume certain relations of mutuality, as mother is expected to become care-taker of her children, as nurse is called upon to meet unflinchingly certain responsibilities. As one passes from youth to manhood, from minority to citizenship, from study to work, from bachelor to father, from subordinate to chief, many definite changes at once take place in social requirement. At times these requirements are so unlike as to call up precisely opposite sentiments. Con- sider the contrast between the individual as diplomat and as man of science, as advocate and as judge, as business man and

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