Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/343

 SOCIAL CONTROL 329

We have next to examine those means by which \hejudg- ment of the individual is modified to the advantage of society. This calls for a' consideration of Enlightenment, Illusion, and Social Valuation as instruments of social control.

I.

I.NLIGHTENMENT.

Undoubtedly the asses' bridge in this field of study is the recognition of the conflict between society's purposes for the individual and the individual's purposes for himself. Yet the deadlock is not quite so desperate as some imagine. Often it is mere shortsightedness that brings a man into clash with social injunctions, and if we can get the myope to regard his welfare in the long run, he will become a well-conducted member of the community. It is true that corporate and private interests are not always parallel as the tribe of moralists would have us believe ; but neither are they quite so divergent as the unre- flective man is apt to imagine. Other virtues as well as honesty, if pursued in due moderation, are matters of good policy in peaceful and settled socities, and it is not at all ineffectual to point this out to the would-be transgressor. In other words, the enlightenment of a person as to the prude fit ordering of his life for his own ends is a means of moralization.

The social appeal to reason presupposes that reason is already installed as the guide of life. This, however, should not be taken to mean that reason must prescribe the goals of endeavor. Desire is, after all, the propeller of life, while intel- lect is merely the rudder. Liking rules ultimate choices and the paragon of prudence is still aiming at some form of feeling. But the inevitable interference of desires suggests to the thought- ful the necessity of inhibiting some impulses and subordinating others to larger aims. Primitive folk, for instance, are so unstably poised between laughter and tears, smiles and frowns, that their affective mobility denies them mastery over their actions and puts them at the mercy of incident and circumstance. With the growth of intelligence it comes to be seen that the