population. This law of course presents a tendency only. In actually existing social relations many influences may produce modifications. In reality imitations spread in the manner described only as the material of a group is socialized, that is, as individuals are wholly imitative. In so far as any society includes social judges, new ideas will be subject to serious criticisms and discussions, which will delay, if not entirely stop, their transmission, so that imitations actually proceed at irregular rates of speed according to the character of the social units. A second condition necessary to the free spread of ideas in geometrical progression is that they shall encounter no opposing ideas. If a belief, or an invention, in the course of expansion comes in contact with another belief or invention inconsistent with it, a struggle will ensue. The new idea may conquer the old, or it may be repulsed; but in any case its progress is delayed. The existence of contradictory or rival ideas is a very important factor in regulating the spread of imitations. In a dense medium conflicting ideas are often so numerous as to counterbalance the advantage of the denser medium. Often a fad, such as a song or a slang expression, will spread more rapidly and be adopted more generally in a small village than in a large city, simply because it meets less opposition in rival fads. Ideas and inventions are more numerous in dense populations, and therefore city life is more diversified than country life, notwithstanding the tendency of imitation to spread more rapidly as the medium is dense. Although an idea sometimes encounters other ideas which are inconsistent with it and therefore modify or counteract it, it may also meet ideas which confirm and strengthen it. A new scientific principle may proceed tentatively and hesitatingly at first; but it may in time encounter ideas or facts which strengthen, or verify, it and hasten thereby its adoption. Coöperating forces are sometimes sufficient to reverse the law of the diminishing intensity of imitation so that imitations strengthen instead of weaken as they pass farther from their origin. The reason is that in the new environment contradictory beliefs may be fewer or social conditions may be particularly favorable to the adoption of the imitation. For example, a scientific fact may be adopted more readily at a point distant from its origin, because, perhaps, religious beliefs are more tolerant or political or economic conditions are more favorable to its reception. The theory of the single tax has had more influence in England than in the United States, because conditions of landholding there were favorable to its adoption. Imitations are altered in passing into new environments. A second general law of the spread of imitations is that they are modified as they pass from one society to another. This is due both to individual and to social differences existing between nationalities. Individuals differ sufficiently from one another so that imitations, except perhaps those of the simplest acts, are never absolute reproductions. The artist never reproduces exactly the master whom he copies. Methods of the production and the exchange of commodities differ somewhat as they are copied by dissimilar personalities. This principle holds even between individuals of the same race; but it is much more marked between individuals of different races. When the thing imitated is a social institution instead of an individual action, modifications occur because a new institution has to conform to other institutions or to preëxisting modes of thought. Methods of military defence may be copied in a general way by one nation from another; but they always have to be modified to conform to the physical contour of the new country, and they must be adapted also to the size of the population and to its resources. When a foreign religion is adopted by a people it is necessarily altered in many details, because religion is merely one part of the total intellectual life of a society and must be adapted to other phases of thought. One social institution can never be separated from others but is merely a part of the whole network of social organization. This principle of modifications of imitations in passing from one environment to another has practically no exceptions. The modifications themselves vary, first, with the extent of the individual and social differences, and secondly, with the degree of dependence which the thing imitated has upon preëxisting institutions and habits of thought. The foregoing discussion shows that imitation is a powerful force in the production of social uniformities, but that its action is continually checked by the force of opposition. The utility of oppositions and their relationship to imitations is the next subject for consideration. REFERENCES FOR COLLATERAL READING Social Laws. CHAPTER XXVII OPPOSITIONS The Meaning of Opposition. In the preceding chapter imitation has been represented as the chief unifying agent in society. By some authors it is thought to be the fundamental social process. However, imitation is not the only psycho-social process, but is accompanied by another which may be regarded as its supplement and which even plays a part in producing social solidarity, that is, opposition. Before discussing the functions of opposition, the comprehensive meaning of the term should be explained. There are many grades of oppositions. They vary in intensity all the way from actual conflict to good-natured rivalry. Opposition does not necessarily imply the desire to injure nor even the existence of ill feeling. It may take the form of mere competition for public approval and support, as is the case with educational institutions; or it may be merely competition for effectiveness in public service, as is possible with philanthropic institutions. Two groups may coöperate for the public welfare, and entertain no ideas of selfish gain; but they may still strive to outdo each other in the amount of work accomplished or in the efficiency of their methods. In fact, wherever the spirit of rivalry is lacking it is a sign that members of a group have lost their group consciousness and lines of demarcation have become obliterated. It is doubtful if group consciousness ever exists without some degree of opposition to other groups. Opposition marks the psychological periphery of groups. When opposition is absent, it means that group limits have not been reached. Inasmuch as the work of the world is accomplished not by purely individual effort but by coöperation, the social work of the individual depends not alone upon his inherited talents but also upon his coöperative abilities and his group loyalties. The acceptance of this principle does not imply, however, that all group loyalties and all group oppositions are equally commendatory. In general it may be said that ability to coöperate with a large group, rather than a small one, indicates a higher grade of socialization. Recognition of the claims of the larger group indicates broader sympathies and a better understanding of the total social process. The individual who cannot coöperate at all is afflicted with an enlarged ego. And the individual who indentifies himself strongly with a small group and exhibits an excessive spirit of rivalry with other groups is usually showing a degree of self-interest only slightly inferior to the one who does not coöperate at all. He is merely expressing his egoism through the medium of the group; and in choosing a small group he discloses his own limited range of sympathies. The Relationshipof Imitation and Opposition. The principle governing the relationship of imitation and opposition may be stated in broad terms as follows: In so far as persons feel themselves to be similar, or to have similar interests, they imitate; but as they feel themselves dissimilar, and possess dissimilar interests, their imitations decline and oppositions arise. Thus, although imitation is an important agent in producing uniformities, it is not their original cause. Some degree of similarity precedes imitation, and this original similarity is physiological, — the product of heredity. Imitation therefore is both a cause and a result of similarity. It proceeds from an original physical similarity and produces a secondary social similarity. It has just been said that as oppositions arise imitations decline, but they do not entirely disappear. Competing business firms, or even armies in deadly combat, imitate each other. They carefully copy all the equipment and adopt all the methods of their rivals which they think will be advantageous to them; but they do so on the basis of their resemblances as similar groups, acting under similar conditions. Nations at war do not imitate one another in those things which represent national traits and products. In fact they strongly repudiate all enemy products which do not contribute to their own success. The principle involved is that as oppositions arise non-rational forms |