Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/511

 THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONFLICT 493

from its actual results, determines the form of the group, the reciprocal position, and the distance of the elements; but it applies also where the unification rests upon the agreement of the individual minds. For example, the opposition of one indi- vidual element to another in the same association is by no means merely a negative social factor, but it is in many ways the only means through which coexistence with individuals intolerable in themselves could be possible. If we had not power and right to oppose tyranny and obstinacy, caprice and tactlessness, we could not endure relations with people who betray such characteristics. v We should be driven to deeds of desperation which would put the relationships to an end. This follows not alone for the self- evident reason which, however, is not here essential that such disagreeable circumstances tend to become intensified if they are endured quietly and without protest ;^but, more than this, opposition affords us a subjec. ,'e satisfaction, diversion, relief, just as under other psychological conditions, whose variations need not here be discussed, the same results are brought about by humility and patience. " Our opposition gives us the feeling that we are not completely crushed in the relationship. ' It per- mits us to preserve a consciousness of energy, and thus lends a vitality and a reciprocity to relationships from which, without this corrective, we should have extricated ourselves at any price. Moreover, opposition does this not alone when it does not lead to considerable consequences, but also when it does not even come to visible manifestation, when it remains purely subjective;' also when it does not give itself a practical expression. Even in such cases it can often produce a balance in the case of both factors in the relationship, and it may thus bring about a quiet- ing which may save relationships, the continuance of which is often incomprehensible to observers from the outside. ' In such case opposition is an integrating component of the relationship itself; it is entitled to quite equal rights with the other grounds of its existence. Opposition is not merely a means of conserving the total relationship, but it is one of the concrete functions in which the relationship in reality consists. In case the relation- ships are purely external, and consequently do not reach deeply