But peoples that, whether from a
fortunate geographical situation or because of their marked superiority
in numbers and power over their neighbors have escaped this need of
perpetual self-defense could afford to relax their vigilance for
conformity. And the very notable increase in individual variations
in conduct and ideal during the past century has been largely owing
to the era of comparative peace. We seem to be reaching the age when
the advantage is to lie not with the nation that has the most rigid
customs, but with the nation that shows the most individual initiative
and progress.
Conservatism vs. radicalism
We have become forever emancipated from the tyranny of custom morality
under which the majority of men have lived. Legislation is, to be sure,
continually on the increase, shutting men out from the ever-new ways
they discover to prey upon their fellows. But nevertheless, the freedom
with which men may now live their own lives according to their own
ideas is almost a new phenomenon upon the earth. When we compare the
free range that our individuality has with the tyranny of public
opinion even so recently as the lifetime of our Puritan grandparents,
when we see the new experiments in personal life and social legislation
which are being tried on every hand, when we read a few of the
thousands of books and magazines and newspapers that are pouring a
continual flood of new ideas into the world, we must realize the
immense change from the stereotyped customs of nearly all past epochs.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83