THE PROSPECTS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 



feudatories innumerable. Those patterns of social organ- 

 ization, made so familiar and so conspicuous by the well- 

 developed feudal order, are exemplified in the Australian 

 tribe, in the Indian hunting or war party, and in many 

 phases of modern life, such as governmental institutions 

 and political parties, business corporations and racket 

 gangs, ecclesiastical institutions and university faculties. 



As stated above, man is more wolfish than bovine in 

 temperament. The instinctive tendencies of the herd animal 

 are manifested by huddling together, running in the same 

 direction, heightened suggestibility in times of danger, 

 uneasiness in isolation, and obvious pleasure on being 

 restored to the herd. Man manifests these traits to a con- 

 siderable degree. He loses himself in the crowd which he 

 readily follows and whose mental attitudes he thoughtlessly 

 shares; his high suggestibility is repeatedly manifested 

 in his collective gullibility, especially in times of group 

 danger; he finds solitary confinement a dreadful punishment 

 and rejoices in the restoration of free association with his 

 fellows. On the other hand, the herd animal is non- 

 aggressive, prone to flee from danger, and manifests 

 aggressiveness only under severe provocation; it does not 

 find in the chase, warfare, and killing either a continuous 

 interest or deep emotional gratification; it knows nothing 

 of strategy, courage, or indomitable will in attack; it 

 feeds quietly, slowly, and peacefully and not greedily, 

 enviously, and pugnaciously. Man shares with the dog 

 and wolf those traits in which they differ from the bovine 

 herd animals. These traits are by no means an adequate 

 representation of his highly complex nature, but it is 

 easier to understand him and his history in the light of 

 such a biological interpretation than in that of the softer 

 view assiduously cultivated by authoritarian myth and 

 given credence by human vanity. He is, in fact, the fighting 

 animal par excellence^ but he fights with greater gusto in a 



[39] 



