Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/347

 SOCIAL CONTROL 333

to integrate his choices into large wholes that he cannot easily pass over a lapse. Principles, standards, ideals, be they gener- ous or mean, assert their unifying force in character. Occasional recreancy to settled principles of choice under special temptation is usually the crack in the levee that ends in ruin. The favorite moral delusion is to trust that some darling sin, pet vice, or occasional yielding can be kept isolated and harmless in some corner of the soul. But " man is not built in water-tight com- partments." It is in order, therefore, to show the unripe that one kind of meanness, dishonesty, fraud, lie, unfairness, sensu- ality or selfishness, if granted lodgment, infects the rest of char- acter till there is a total degeneration. Again, many a one will recoil from a pet vice if confronted with the natural outcome. To show the coquette, the libertine, the gourmand, the cynic, the miser, ^the domestic tyrant, the sycophant or the fakir as the psychological consummation of vanity, lubricity, gluttony, con- tempt of others, greed, self-will, flattery or mendacity, is a well- tried and long-approved method of control.

c. Social cofisequences. Experience could teach most of the above, but society cannot let its members register in so dear a school. For its own sake it cannot afford to wait till under- mined health or corroded character shall drive home the lesson of consequences. In the social field, however, consequence treads so close on the heels of transgression that forewarning is scarcely necessary. Neighbors, if abused, react more promptly than do nerves or moral sentiments. The boy on the playground can find out in much less time than his teacher can tell him how others will react when he strikes, mocks or robs them. Hence the importance of association during childhood in order to acquaint with the reactions that follow over much self assertion The home often fails to provide them, but the playground never. The continuous tapping of companions on the plastic will span-s it later maiiv a heart-breaking blow on the anvil of practical life. This is why no system of national education In failed to provide association during youth with comrade or eldi