The Group Mind

Chapter VIII.

[58] Cf. _The Black Republic_, by Sir Spencer St John and _Where Black rules White_, by H. Hesketh Prichard.

[59] M. le Bon and more than one Indian civil servant in conversation.

[60] By G. Lowes d.i.c.kinson, _Hibbert Journal_, Jan. 1911.

[61] In the _Fortnightly Review_, Jan. 1910, and in his _Social Environment and Moral Progress_, London, 1913.

[62] _Physics and Politics._



[63] Cp. Ripley, _op. cit._ and Fleure, _op. cit._

[64] This was written in 1910, and now in 1919 the dissolution which was so obviously impending is an accomplished fact.

[65] The great myth of the racial unity and superiority of the German people, which we have noticed above, has been cultivated and propagated, with elaborate disregard for fact by the German State and its henchmen in the universities and elsewhere, in a deliberate effort to remedy by art the lack of natural boundaries and of true national h.o.m.ogeneity.

[66] In his _Works of Man_ Mr March Philips shews clearly the influence of the Egyptian landscape upon the arts of sculpture and architecture.

[67] Cf. Sir S. Dill"s _The Roman Empire from Nero to Augustus_, London, 1905.

[68] Since these lines were written a new mode of rapid locomotion, namely the aerial, which has resulted from the invention and rapid development of the internal combustion engine, threatens to eclipse all others in its effects upon the organisation of the world.

[69] This state of affairs has no doubt been considerably altered during the great war; the political education of Germany, a painful but salutary process, is progressing rapidly.

[70] Cf. N. Angell, _The Great Illusion_.

[71] Incipient nations have appeared where the Bantu stock has produced occasionally great warrior chiefs such as Chaka and Cetewayo.

[72] _Psychological Laws of the Evolution of Peoples._

[73] I do not propose to examine in this book the much discussed question-Are the leaders of a nation to be regarded as produced by the nation according to the general laws of biology and psychology, or as given to them by some supernatural process? This question belongs to a branch of Social Psychology which is not included in the volume.

[74] _Psychologie du peuple francais_, p. 13.

[75] Ramsay Muir, _op. cit._ and J. Holland Rose, _The Development of the European Nations_. London, 1905.

[76] J. Holland Rose, _op. cit._

[77] I suggest that international emulation in this sphere may prove to be an effective, probably the only effective, subst.i.tute for war.

[78] _Bau und Leben des socialen Korpers._

[79] _Decadence._

[80] Cf. A. Smith"s _Village Life in China_. The author insists on the lack of public spirit, of the idea of action _pro bono publico_.

[81] 1906.

[82] In his _Theory of the State_.

[83] By Schaffle, _op. cit._, and all the school of German "idealism".

[84] The substance of this chapter was contained in a paper ent.i.tled "The Will of the People," read before the Sociological Society and published in the _Sociological Review_, 1912.

[85] _Philosophical Theory of the State_ and Article in _International Journal of Ethics_, 1907.

[86] Cf. H. Rose, _The Development of the European Nations_ and Ramsay Muir, _Nationalism and Internationalism_.

[87] _The Russo-j.a.panese War_, Vol. II, p. 25.

[88] _La Science Sociale contemporaine_, p. 115.

[89] _Social Psychology_, Chapters V-IX. Dr Bosanquet"s failure (as it seems to me) to achieve a satisfactory account of the social will is the inevitable consequence of the inadequacy of his conception of individual volition. This is set out in his _Psychology of the Moral Self_, where he shews himself to be an uncompromising adherent of the intellectualist tradition. He totally ignores the existence and organisation of the conative side of the mind. His notion of volition is based upon the now discredited theory of ideo-motor action.

[90] This was written before the war with Germany.

[91] Emulation in the administration of backward peoples offers perhaps the greatest possibilities as "a moral equivalent for war."

[92] Cp. Princ.i.p.al L. P. Jacks on the j.a.panese in his _Alchemy of Thought_.

[93] W. L. George, _English Review_, May, 1915, "The Price of Nationality." "Anger, indeed, is the soul of what is called the national will. To call it a will is perhaps too much, it is an instinct and mainly an instinct to hate.... Love of country is mainly hatred of other countries."

[94] Cf. Gilbert Murray, _Collection of Addresses on The War given at Bedford College_, 1915.

[95] Incidentally he holds up my _Social Psychology_ as a dreadful example of such an attempt and a woeful evidence of the parlous state of present-day culture in England. Such dislike of any attempt to understand that which we hold sacred is intelligible enough in the vulgar, for whom all a.n.a.lysis is destructive of the values they unreasoningly cherish. But it may be hoped that men of letters who set out to defend patriotism will learn to rise above this att.i.tude, just as the more enlightened leaders of religion are learning to welcome psychological inquiry in their domain.

[96] In these respects the Church alone can enter into serious rivalry as an object of loyalty.

[97] As Dean Inge has remarked-"If they love not those whom they have seen, how shall they love those whom they have not seen?"

[98] Cp. Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_.

[99] This, as President Lowell clearly shows in his _Public Opinion and Popular Government_, is carried to an extreme in America and lies at the root of many administrative evils.

[100] President Lowell (_op. cit._) has clearly shown other benefits resulting from the party system; he shows especially how the party is needed to prepare a program and select candidates, if the popular vote is to give expression to the dominant opinion of the people.

[101] Cp. his _Civilisation and Progress_.

[102] On the nature and development of the moral sentiments in the individual mind, see my _Social Psychology_, Chapter VIII.

[103] _Op. cit._ p. 210.

[104] In this connexion I would refer the reader to _The New State_ by M. P. Follett (London, 1918), an interesting book in which the true nature and function of collective deliberation is forcibly expounded.

[105] Cf. W. R. Patterson, _The Nemesis of Nations_, London, 1906.

[106] _Social Evolution_, _Principle of Western Civilisation_, and _The Science of Power_.

[107] _Essai d"une Psychologie politique du Peuple Anglais_, Paris, 1903.

© 2024 www.topnovel.cc