ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 295 
society is thus moulded, under passive adaptation. In law and 
consciously directed public opinion we have “ social telesis”’; in 
personal ideals, art, personality, enlightenment and social religion, 
we have “individual telesis” yet working for social control 
through suggestion and imitation in which the passive element 
predominates. 
In considering the “ genesis of ethical elements,” variations in 
the discovery and enunciation of moral truths are held to be 
due to the prophet or moral genius owing to his superior social 
insight,! and the successful promulgation of these truths, to the 
élite. But variations having been accounted for in this way 
through “ innovation,” the ultimate triumph of the principle is 
held to be due to struggle and survival, the decisive factor being 
social utility.? 
In his discussion of ‘‘ the system of control” we have an 
analysis of the functions and methods of control as exercised in 
organized government. First to be considered is class control 
which is defined as “‘ the exercise of power by a parasitic class in 
its own interest,””—as in the case of slavery and serfdom. 
Under class control private property develops and “ is so shaped 
as to permit a slanting exploitation under which a class is able to 
live in idleness by monopolizing land or other indispensable 
natural means of production.” The system of class control is 
modified “‘ to economize coercion, to economize supervision, to 
economize direction.” * As the parasitic class in control cannot 
easily bolster up their authority by use of art, personality and 
social religion, which emanate from the great man, the prophet 
or the élite, use is made of force, superstition, fraud, pomp and 
prescription which are degenerate forms of those natural supports 
of social order already considered, viz., law, belief in the super- 
natural, custom, ceremony and illusion.* “ Born in aggression 
and perfected in exploitation,” Ross says, “‘ the State even now, 
when it is more and more directed by the common will, is not easy 
to keep from slipping back into the rut it wore for itself during the 
centuries it was the engine of a parasitic class.” 5 
1 Social Control, p. 357. 3 Ibid., pp. 376, 377- 5 Tbid., p. 386. 
2 Ibid., pp. 342, 349, 357. 4 Ibid., pp. 381, 382, 386 f. 
