SUBMISSION TO LEADERSHIP 365 



feet are firmly planted on the ground. But if obedi- 

 ence, however willing, is physically and organically 

 impossible, disaster is in no wise delayed. In that case, 

 one can live only on the ground; for such a one, to 

 climb is suicidal. 



So it is with social life in respect to physical and 

 biological laws. They may be of little consequence to 

 barbarians drawing their sustenance directly from an 

 easily benevolent environment. But to the builders of 

 modern states, and to all those who today depend on 

 the due performance of great social functions, these 

 laws are of vital importance. The superstitions of 

 barbarism, the ignorance of elemental, natural phe- 

 nomena, are then manifestations of criminal negli- 

 gence; for in the present stage of social evolution, 

 obedience to an amazing multitude of natural laws is 

 absolutely essential to social life and growth; disobedi- 

 ence means death and social disintegration. 



Or to change our simile, modern society is no longer 

 comparable with the traditional ship of state; nor is it 

 like an ocean liner, safely moving on a substantial 

 ocean, its familiar course prescribed from port to port. 

 Rather is it like a giant air-ship drifting in unstable 

 airs, and they who are in it know not where, or how, 

 or why, the ship is moving. Among them all there is 

 no unity of purpose, or desire; no agreement on the 

 course that must be followed, or the rate of progress. 

 Only this they know, and they that know are few in- 

 deed: the social ship is riding dangerously high, and 

 drifting farther and farther away from sustaining 

 earth and familiar shores. Supplies are rapidly di- 

 minishing, and unequally divided; the officers are in- 

 competent, the crew is mutinous, and there is perpetual 



