Interdependence Makes Force Futile 191 



may be illustrated by a mechanical analogy. For 

 a simple mechanical operation, such as felling a 

 tree, or breaking the shell of a cocoanut, where 

 a direct application of force is the only thing 

 required, the stone hatchet of primitive man was 

 a very effective instrument. But if something 

 goes wrong in the mechanism of a watch, the 

 problem of adjusting it is removed to the plane of 

 other forces, on account of the complexity of the 

 mechanism. The watch may require machine oil, 

 or a screw-driver operating under a microscopic 

 eyepiece, or an electric current to demagnetize 

 it. The increasing complexity of the mechanism 

 has rendered the stone hatchet ineffective. It 

 may be used to smash the watch, but it cannot 

 adjust what is wrong and make it go. In the same 

 way, physical force, which may have a certain 

 amount of effectiveness in a simple, elementary 

 form of society, loses that effectiveness as society 

 grows more complex and interdependent. As the 

 struggle passes from the physiological phase to 

 the economic, political, and intellectual phases, 

 the instrument of physical force, which can only 

 be used for purposes of destruction, becomes 

 irrelevant to the objects which men seek to attain. 

 Economically, the irrelevance arises chiefly 

 from the fact of interdependence, and from the 

 further fact that physical force is not an economic 

 force. It can destroy, but it cannot produce, 

 and as a result of the growing interdependence 

 caused by association, this destruction reacts 



