MONEY AND THE STYLE OF MODERN LIFE 245 =. V TT 1) 1. AY - 1e d al 1e mr Vy h l= of 1e fa ve ve ne ie Je ch N= od d- st. ad ig. $4 n. Rhythm, or at least its spatial equivalent, is also pres- ent in many aspects of human relations. This spatial equivalent is symmetry. Rhythm is symmetry in time, just as symmetry is rhythm in space. The development of symmetrical systems of relationships has gone hand in hand with the development of rationalism. Where man organizes relationships on a rational basis, he organizes them in symmetrical forms, be it in the business world or in his dealing with social and political systems. But rhythm and its opposite do not occur only as alter- native forms in the life-series of man; they also appear at the same time as two fundamentally opposed principles of life, which may be indicated as the rhythmic-symmetrical and the spontaneous-individualistic. And in their simultane- ous existence no reconciliation by alternation can be effect- ed. This fundamental opposition is most clearly manifest in the relations between the individual and the social total- ity, be it an economic, political, religious, or family group. It is the fundamental principle of symmetry that each ele- ment of a totality obtains its position, its rights and sig- nificance, only through its relations to the other elements and to the common center. If each element obeys only itself and develops according to its own laws and desires, the totality must inevitably be asymmetrical. The individual desires to be a closed totality himself, a form with a center of its own, from which all the elements of his existence and activity receive their meaning and significance. But if the superindividual totality is to be a closed whole, if it is to objectify an idea with self-sufficient significance, it cannot allow the full rounding out of its elements. The totality of the whole is in eternal conflict with the totality of the in- dividual. Money seems at first to serve the realization of only one of these forms. It is formless itself. It conquers all