326 THE CLASS STRUGGLE THE BIOLOGY OF PEACE 327 demonstrates are capable of being influenced, and the Parasite merely seizes upon this capability and turns it to advantage.
The author does not dwell except in a few lines, with the reasons ouside the instinctive which make for this stablemindedness in the great mass. Suggestibility can be heightened and the Parasite is instrumental in heightening it. Lack of knowledge, bodily fatigue from overwork, economic insecurity, etc. make the masses unable to assume any other attitude save that of submission to those in control who have carefully secured confidence in themselves that they represent the herd, the whole of society, act in the interest of all, etc.
Trotter fails to see that, whereas in the animal world the stimuli exerted by the herd on the individual and vice versa have some basis in fact, those utilized by the stable minded need not. To illustrate, a sheep sees danger. It gives the alarm. The herd acts and reacts. In society the Parasite sees the advantage of raising a false alarm and making it appear to be a true one. Every belligerent in the war is fighting a war of self defense. the masses believe the alarm, yet the entire non Teutonic world is confident that so far as the Kaiser at least is concerned, to take an unquestioned example, the alarm is false. This indicates that whereas the instincts operated for the good of the herd they do not necessarily work for the good of society, and if any nation goes wrong Trotter should not condemn as he does the entire nation for having a perverse instinctive basis.
One of the chiefest advantages to the animal of gregariousness is one that Trotter cannot too often repeat. Among nongregarious animals each one carries on a struggle against all other animals. It is a Hobbsian bellum omnium contra omnes.
This prevents the individual to develop in many directions and forces him to specialize in structure. But the gregarious animal is shielded from the results of natural selection. division of labor is possible. Says Trotter (103. The fundamental biological meaning of gregariousness is that it allows of an indefinite enlargement of the unit upon which the undifferentiated influence of natural selection is allowed to act, so that the individual merged in the larger unit is shielded from the immediate effects of natural selection and is exposed directly only to the special form of selection which obtains within the new unit.
Some gregarious types succeed more than others. What conditions make for the best success of a species with the gregarious habit? What type should man adopt to secure a larger benefit from his biologic inheritance?
Two things are needed: members must intercommunicate their little experiences, and they must react to the larger whole when it demands this. Communication and reaction are the two conditions to success. proportionately less developed capacity for communication will mean that the species is not deriving the advantages it might from the possession of gregariousness, while the full advantages of the type will be attained only when the two sets of activities are correspondingly strong.
Man has the power remarkably developed if he would but use it. The animal has only a few ways of communicating and reacting, ways laid down by instinct. Man with his brain development can react and communicate in an infinite number of ways. The enormous power of varied reaction possessed by man must render necessary for his attainment of the full advantages of the gregarious habit a power of intercommunication of absolutely unprecedented fineness. 62. The reason why the best results of gregariousness in man are not obtained and why social characteristics are the contempt of the man of science and the disgust of the humanitarian, is because the type of mind society allows to rule, the stable minded spoken of above. This type supplies our most trusted politicians and