Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/395

 SOCIAL CONTROL. XIX.

CLASS CONTROL.

IT was shown in the last paper that inhibiting impulses radi ate not only from the social mass, but also from certain centers of extraordinary prestige and influence. Control under these circumstances is still social. But when the chief center of such inhibition is a class living at the expense of the rest of the com- munity, we no longer have social control in the true sense, but class control. This may be defined as the exercise of power by a parasitic class in its own interest.

There are various devices by means of which a body of per- sons may sink their fangs into their fellows and subsist upon them. Slavery, or the immediate and absolute disposal over the labor force of another, is the primary form of the parasitic rela- tion. By modifying this into serfdom the parasitic class, without in the least abating its power of securing nourishment from others, places itself in a position more convenient to it and less irritating to the exploited. When the absolute state comes into being, that direct absorption of nutriment by the parasite from the host, which characterizes feudalism, falls a little into the background. For example, the French state, as it existed under the old regime, was a vast coercing apparatus that collected goods from the producers by means of taxation and redistributed them among the favored parasites by means of royal patronage. Finally, the institution of property is so shaped as to permit a slanting exploitation under which a class is able to live in idle- ness by monopolizing land or other indispensable natural means of production.

These successive modulations of parasitism obey the principle of economy. To economize coercion, to economize supervision, to economize direction these are the motives which lead masters to substitute for the coarse and direct kinds of exploita- tion refined and slanting kinds of exploitation. During this transition a great many personal rights come to be recognized

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