Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/706

 682 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to provide for enemies in order that the unity of the elements may remain active and conscious as the vital interest.

The example last cited leads to the following additional emphasis upon the meaning of struggle as a means of cohesion in the group : namely, through struggle not merely an existing unity concentrates itself more energetically, and excludes radi- cally all elements which might tend to erase the sharp boundary distinctions against the enemy, but further struggle brings per- sons and groups that otherwise had nothing to do with each other into a coalition. The energy with which struggle operates in this direction will perhaps be most distinctly visible from the fact that the relationship between the two parties is strong enough to operate also in the reverse direction. Psychological associations in general display their strength in the fact that they are also retroactive. If, for example, a given personality is represented under the concept "hero," the connection between the two conceptions proves itself to be the strongest if it becomes impossible to think the notion "hero" in general without repro- ducing the image of that particular personality. In the same way, the combination for the purpose of struggle is a procedure so often experienced that frequently the mere combination of elements, even if it is not formed for any aggressive or other competitive purposes, seems to other groups to be a threatening or unfriendly act. The despotism of the modern state directed itself primarily against the mediaeval conception of unity. At last every association, as such, between cities, ranks, nobles, or any other elements in the state, counted in the eyes of the gov- ernment as a rebellion, as a latent struggle against itself. For instance, in Moravia an ordinance of 1628 provided: "Accord- ingly federations or coalitions, for whatever purpose, or against whomsoever directed, are the prerogative of no one else except the king." For the particular tendencies now in question his- torical instances are so close at hand that it would be superfluous to make any further inquiry, except as to the degree of unifica- tion which is feasible in this particular way. In the forefront must be placed the establishment of the unified state. France owes the consciousness of its national unity essentially to