A few have, after years of opposition,
obtained a following and accomplished great reforms, as did Buddha,
Mohammed, St. Francis, and Luther. But none can count the potential
reformers, the men of new insight, of individual moral judgment, who
have been crushed by the weight of group-opposition. Man has been the
worst enemy of his own progress.
(3) There is another aspect to this selective process, noted before
in another context- the struggle for existence between groups. So
intense are these tribal struggles in early society that harmony within
a group is absolutely necessary. Individualization means
disorganization; and whatever communities developed free thought and
divergent ideas were at a disadvantage when it came to action. Many
such groups, ahead of their rivals in individual moral development,
were wiped out by barbaric armies that gave unquestioning obedience
to the tribal will and worked together like a machine. Up to a certain
stage in human development individuality was an undesirable variation
and was ruthlessly repressed, sometimes by the execution of the
particular offenders, sometimes by the destruction of the group to
which they belonged and which they by their divergence weakened.
What forces made against custom-morality? Against these repressive
forces, however, other forces were from early times urging men on to
reject the tyranny of custom. Those inward promptings that we call
conscience were continually tending to become less the echo of the
group conventions and more the expression of the individual's needs
and deepest desires.
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