Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/252

 SOCIAL CONTROL. XVIII.

THE RADIANT POINTS OF SOCIAL CONTROL.

A CONTROL that we have any right to call social has behind it practically the whole weight of society. But still this control often wells up and spreads out from certain centers which we may term the radiant points of social control. Uniform as it is to the eye, the social substance when tested resolves itself into stuff of little density and stuff of greater density, into froth and liquid, into chaff and wheat, into protoplasm and nuclei. Our task now is to fix upon the nuclei that determine the principal lines social control may take. In plain terms, the question before us is : What is the ultimate seat of authority ? Where resides the will that guides the social energies ? Who are the directors of control ? Who hold the levers which set in motion the checks that hold a man back or the stimuli that push him on ?

That frequently these checks and stimuli are managed by a rather small knot of persons should not for a moment lead the reader to confuse social control with class control. Often enough, indeed, a minority in virtue of its superior strength, courage, craft, or organization leaps into the saddle and seizes the reins of power. But such domination always entails a rup- ture of social consciousness. Outwardly, to be sure, there is but one society. But in reality there are two or more societies which happen to interpenetrate as to substance. Between leaders and led there is a bond of good-will and trust, but between rulers and ruled there is no such bond. Distrust and hate come between exploiters and exploited, drones and workers, parasites and hosts, and their clash of interests is liable to pass at any moment into the clash of arms. In history the relations of Venetians and Cypriotes, Normans and Sicilians, Franks and Gauls, betray the presence of class control.

Totally different from class control in origin is the power of a minority to direct social control. Each category of people in

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