Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/92

 80 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

"a consciousness of kind, a knowledge of resemblances, or a knowledge of like-mindedness" (Giddings).

Social life is mirrored in a football game. Each player has his function ; each player thinks and acts his separate part. The signal given, the ball is snapped, each man leaps to his place, the fake pass is made, the proper interference aids the man who makes the run down the side lines, and the touch-down is made to the cheering of enthusiastic partisans. Each man acts, I say, his part, and the element they have in common is the goal. The common aim the success of the team and the winning of the game does not necessarily mean a common or similar method of action. Solidarity does not of necessity mean similarity, nor does com- munity life mean common thoughts and actions. Nor in adult society, the training for which is the rational ground for play, do we find the process materially different. The material of social organization is not consciousness of kind, nor is it mainly such. The action of the mob, to which reference is so lovingly made by certain sociologists, is generally an instance in which the wel- fare of the whole is lost sight of, in which the single person becomes a unit in an aggregation, and in which there is a general return to the homogeneity of primitive conditions. The striking thing about a mob is not its social but its unsocial character. With the dispersion of the mob there begins again the process of differentiation and integration true sociality. Of certain pigeons it is reported that they become extraordinarily stupid and incautious as soon as they become a part of great numbers in flight, but that they become wary, intelligent, and cautious when they are alone. Identification of the individual with the collective mass reduces it to the average level and causes tem- porary atrophy of certain more highly specialized qualities. The same phenomena are often observable in men and women who take refuge from their doubts and uncertainties in the infallible doctrines of the Roman Catholic church.

Consciousness of kind is characteristic of the lowest stages of society, and indicates a low level in a more highly evolved society. The struggle for existence implies a struggle of con- flicting interests, different schools of thought and action. It is