Modern Wars not Mere tions of the Manifesta Instinct The instinct of pugnacity, however, is not at the root of most modern wars. The World War sprang from the conflict of rival imperialisms. Behind these imperialisms was the greed of certain influential financial or business groups secretly molding the foreign policy of government. The instinct of pugnacity came Fighting into the situation only at the stage when it was necessary to win wide support for aggressions which could bring the common people nothing but peril. Then came politicians, orators, song writers and newspapers playing artfully upon the popular mind to evoke well-timed outbursts of Jingoism. Politics has been a male affair and male pugnacity cropped out in American politics as soon as the Jacksonian movement brought to self-consciousness masses of unthinking instinctive voters. The citizens divided into two hostile camps, filled political discussion with fighting words like "campaign," "battle," "enemy," “chiefs,”“ slogan " and " banner," and imported military features such as uniforms, marching companies and torchlight processions. The one dread of politicians was the judicial attitude, and their one hope was "spirit," i.e., a groundless hatred of opponents. The winning party celebrated a "victory," declared "To the victors belong the spoils," and with the general approval of the voters of both parties proceeded to convert the salaried offices to private or party advantage. It is to be hoped that women voters. w: rid politics of these childish manifestations of male pugnacity. A skillful teacher controls unruly children by various means argument, appeal, example, sarcasm, humor, etc. The rod will t be his chief reliance. Can any one doubt that society would be equally resourceful in dealing with offenders were it not that the easily aroused emotions of anger and vengeance have stood nstantly at the elbow of Justice, suggesting pain and ever more an in dealing with the recalcitrant? If the agents of justice used as much ingenuity as the skillful teacher, there would be more management in our dealings with trouble-givers and less. tunishment. Here again, where male instinct has botched the job, As an opportunity for the managing sex to try its hand. THE GREGARIOUS INSTINCT IN SOCIETY The gregarious instinct is one of the chief architects of modern society. The sensational growth of cities is not due solely to The Mil tarization of Politics The Tradi tional Treatment fender Re of the Of ects Male Pugnacity CHAP. IV economic causes. The Growth of The multitude attracts men as the candle at tracts moths. Many who grew up in the country and never found it dull, become restless in it after they have learned to vibrate Wholly an with the crowd. Slum dwellers develop a morbid passion for Economic Phenom enon Society may Feel Check the Why Domestic Service Cannot Attract Women from Fac huddling and no "garden city" apostle can persuade them to exchange the slum with its high rents, congestion, ugliness, dirt and disease for the roomy and wholesome suburb. Formerly custom bound the country-born to the place and calling of his forefathers. But universal newspapers and cheap travel have extended to the remotest hamlet the solar pull of the herd. Even in thinly settled Australia and South America the country-born pile into the city as if the furrow had no need of them. Until near the close of the nineteenth century this drift was balanced by the flooding of settlers into virgin lands in the temperate zone. Now that we are at the bottom of this sack, the rising cost of living warns that too many have abandoned food production. To restore the balance it may be necessary to teach the children of the farm the risks and drawbacks of urban life and even to require cities to contribute to the expense of making country life more attractive. The swarming of young women out from the home into places of congregate work owes something to the gregarious impulse. The factory, which pays only three-fifths as much as domestic service, never lacks hands while the kitchens stand empty because tory Work they are lonely. Mr. Wallas induced a lady who possessed the young women's confidence to ask of the girls employed in the laundries and poorer factories of Boston, “Are you happy?" They took the question as meaning, "Are you happier than if you had stayed at home instead of going to work?" And almost every one of them answered, "Yes." Their reasons were that "the work takes up your mind," You are of some use," "It's awful lonesome at home," or " There's an awful emptiness at home.' The Is at Work 99 66 SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE PARENTAL INSTINCT It is probable that philanthropy, anti-vice crusades, the prevention of cruelty to animals, and the protection of children are largely manifestations of the parental instinct. It is significant that many of the prime movers are childless or have lost their children, so that, finding no object at home, their tenderness occu5 The Great Society, pp. 341-2. res itself with the helpless outside. Moreover, the support of CHAP. IV such movements is chiefly among those who in their own homes zive evidence of possessing strong parental feelings. The zeal of women for protecting child life and their indignation toward oftenders against children spring, no doubt, from their maternal stinct. SOCIAL ROLE OF CURIOSITY The original driving force behind the scientific movement was the instinct of curiosity. It was also behind the religious speculans which, when they had crystallized into a regulative dogmatic ystem, obstructed further inquiry. The passion to probe deeper is so imperious in the stronger minds that every persecution of research and sceptical speculation has produced its martyrs. The aling of this passion, whether by violence or by the prestige of the ancients, as in the Silver Age of Greece, in China and under ecclesiasticism, leaves the intellectual elite restless and unhappy, hereas the stimulation it meets with in an age like ours, which realizes the money worth of scientific progress, inspires men of genius with self-confidence and optimism. RELEASE OF THE INSTINCT OF SELF-EXPRESSION The strength of the instinct of self-expression may be gauged what happens when it is released after being long pent up. After the Revolution of 1917 the Russians interested in political as went on a "spree." There was no end of public meetings and speakers. People went about from one meeting to another Sunday and never tired of listening to utterances which forerly would have cost the utterer a jail sentence. There was a ntable passion for "demonstrating." Every political group ghted to parade the street carrying banners or transparencies 4ming its sentiments. Besides the motive of spreading one's as there was sheer pleasure in self-expression, like the whoopof children let out of school. BOOTLESS SOCIAL REPRESSION OF CERTAIN INSTINCTS often the Regime Social Needlessly customs and institutions grew right out of the impulses and riences of the people, they would offer little check to harmless man tendencies. But various crude products of thinking, half- Frustrates urd heologies and philosophies, have had part in their shaping, Instincts Human CHAP. IV So that we have no assurance that the social order will comport The The Indians of the Andean Uplands Past Oppression The Needless Re Women Once Well versal with ordinary human nature. Individuals with the skewest notions as to the chief ends of man-religious devotees, aged jurists, property owners, fox-hunting gentry-may shut up a people for generations in a frustrating régime. The Chinese have idealized toil to the point of eliminating provision for play. Until they came into contact with the West, sport made no appeal to them and their ideal of a delectable life was bodily ease and passive enjoyment. This was why they took to opium smoking but not to strong drink. Communal ownership denied the Russian peasant a satisfying scope for his instinct of acquisition or possession. Rural Russia knows little of that "magic of property which turns sand into gold." For this reason, perhaps, the peasants rarely develop that unremitting industry, thrift and hopefulness which are common when each farmer has, or can look forward to, a farm of his own. The moroseness and surrender to alcoholic excess of the Indians of the Andean uplands from Ecuador to Bolivia probably result from the bafflement of the instincts of self-assertion and liberty. Even to-day Cuzco Indians, women as well as men, doff hat to every white man they pass. In the remoter districts the Indian who sees a white man coming along the trail will make a long detour to avoid him. If you approach an Indian abruptly he will fall on his knees, put up his arm to shield his face, and cry, "Don't hurt me, master!" The old brutalities are gone but fear continues to inhibit self-assertion, so that this broken-hearted race has little of the virtue and happiness it enjoyed before the Spaniards set their heel on its neck. Through most of the Orient and particularly under Islam pression of women are so pent and obstructed in the gratification of ordinary human instincts that their faces are stamped with sadness and resignation. On the other hand, nowhere do women's countenances bear less evidence of balked disposition than in the United States and among the educated class in Russia. Thirty years ago when I began to addres groups of American women the faces marked with bafflement were far more numerous than they are now. College girls to-day laugh and chatter more than did those of the eighties. Japanese and Chinese girls educated in American schools show in the countenance a light and a nobility of expression strange to the Oriental women. Under the conditions of security, freedom and male appreciation women here are entering CHAP.IV ca an unwonted fullness of life. HOW MODERN SOCIETY OFFENDS AGAINST HUMAN NATURE Lately the School feelingly with Child Dealt Un Nature It must not be supposed, however, that our own civilization Until does not sin against human nature. A generation ago the schoolmaster dealt repressively with child nature, dismissing the child's propensities to play, rove, hunt, collect or fight as a heritage from the Old Adam." He acknowledged no obligation to make learning interesting and complacently forced the child by fear of the ferule to "get" his lessons. Such repression worked no great harm when those who abominated school could generally escape it. Now, however, that society insists on keeping the child in hool for eight or ten years, it behooves educators to make education palatable by tying it to his native interests. Less task work and more play, less memorizing and more doing, less study of books and more of things, is the order of the day. By the best teachers, the rhythmic, dramatic, expressive, animistic, construce and emulative instincts are recognized and appealed to. In dealing with offenders the infliction of physical pain has been given up as well as the martyrizing of the social self by Fans of stocks, pillory, ear-cropping, branding, and whipping at the cart's tail. We only confine offenders and, since they are -warmed and fed and not overworked, we imagine our prison system humane. The fact is, shutting a man up in a tiny cell in a great steel cage may torture the mind as the thumb screw tortures the body. It so violates the instinct for liberty that alienists have had to recognize a new disease, "confinement insanity." Me enlightened than we, posterity will condemn our ignorant cruelty in breaking men who in a convict logging or road-building Amp would have kept sane. Gravest of all is the trend of industry in obedience to the moLe of cheapening production. Incidentally and quite without zace, industrialism holds apart the sexes. One industry will have men workers while another located elsewhere will hire only women, the result being an excess of men in some localities and of w.en in others. In a certain collar-and-cuff manufacturing center only 46 per cent. of the population are males while in a boring electrical manufacturing center 54 per cent. are males. Here a few miles apart are two groups of involuntary celibates our Prison Looks System More Hu mane than It Actu ally Is Dissocia tion of the sexes by Modern Industry |