become the victims of our very excellence. For we can imagine what has 

 nothing to do with the facts of the world — that is, we can be mistaken, we can 

 deceive ourselves. Human beings use cleverness and deceit not only in fight- 

 ing their natural enemies, but also in fighting each other. In fact, many con- 

 sider the conflict of man with man as the best means of advancing mankind, 

 as well as the most satisfactory expression of individual human life. 



Man as Social Organism Man has overcome his organic handicaps 

 largely through his disposition to form groups, to co-operate, or act jointly, 

 with others. Community action may be observed at every level of life, and is 

 in fact the central advantage in all higher organisms. Men li\e m communi- 

 ties and identify themselves with their families and their neighborhoods and 

 their towns and tribes and nations. They can therefore be aroused to fight 

 and to sacrifice for "their own", for the interests of the larger group, which is 

 truly their own deeper or larger self. 



Through his inventiveness and imagination man can change the methods 

 of his fighting, as he can completely change the goals of his struggles. When 

 man discovers that he can get all he wants of those things that animals fight 

 for, he turns his efforts to fight for what he considers greater values, or more 

 worthy objectives. Men will fight for honor or for the glory of some group or 

 institution. They will fight for ideas, for liberty, for security, for their heroes 

 and leaders. 



Struggle and Competition By the middle of the last century the old 

 patterns of agricultural life and production through handicrafts were begin- 

 ning to change rapidly. Industrial developments and the means of transpor- 

 tation and communication had already reached a very high stage. Machinery 

 was coming to be more economical than slave labor. 



Where families had been living largely through their own labors on their 

 own land, some families thrived better than others because of differences in skill 

 and intelligence. Now the organization of industry and commerce was intensi- 

 fying the competition among individuals, among groups of individuals, among 

 different regions, and even among different nations. Migrations from country 

 to country and from farms to cities brought together peoples with many 

 different kinds of backgrounds and abilities. And a large proportion of the 

 transplanted organisms did not "fit" their new surroundings and conditions. 



When we look back over what has happened in about a century and a half, 

 it seems natural that people should have been influenced by these rapid and 

 extensive transformations in their ways of living. The atmosphere was full of 

 "struggle" and "competition" and "success". This was, of course, very dis- 

 tressing to those who had been brought up in more peaceful surroundings and 

 friendly relationships. It was becoming necessary to justify competition as 

 "right", since it not only brought great suffering to many, but was actively 

 opposed as unsound socially and morally. 



554 



