GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

740
ETHICI AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
State is essentially the sphere of custom and tradition. Hie
existence of a State entails that there is a society which
is a whole in die sense described in the second 1
Chapter;
and in order that a society may be a whole, there must be
a certain degree of cohesion, among its members. Such
cohesion entails in its turn an ability to "get on with"
and to understand one another on the part of the members
of a cohesive society, and of this ability common customs
and traditions are the surest foundations. Common customs,
common traditions and the resultant social cohesion are,
as Burke rightly pointed out, the products of slow growth;
they take time. It is to this circumstance that the slowness
in the development of tha political organization which we
know as the Stale is attributable. Just as the existence of a
State entails that its members follow common customs and
subscribe to common traditions, so its strength is relative
to the prevalence of custom and the authority of tradition.
Hence a contraction of the sphere of custom and tradition
in a community militates against the power of the State.
SHRINKAGE or SPHERE OF CUSTOM AND
TRADITION. During the last century, as the result
largely of the invention of machinery, the sphere of custom
and tradition in the life of the average individual has
in fact contracted.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the way of
life which was followed by the citizens of European States
had, with unimportant iTEodifi^^^Hiff, remained unchanged
for centuries. People performed the ordinary
operations of life in a traditional manner, and the operations
which they performed were themselves traditional.
Consequently, a general basis of constant, customary
behaviour among citizens could be assumed, and it was
on this basis that the power of the State rested. The in-
dustrial revolution and the resultant increased facilities
for communication were responsible for rapid changes in
social life. Towns grew up, populations were uprooted, a
*See Chapter I, pp. 50-54.