102 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL

ner, the employees are usually better off than those in the
small private concerns who are subject to the personal exploitation
 of the proprietor. On the other hand, in special
cases of distress the administration of the corporation cannot
 act as generously as the private owner who is not responsible
 to anyone for his management. Subordination
to a group is therefore an advantage to the individual if he
is helped by a formal, impartial, factual, and business-like
relationship. Itis a disadvantage if the individual is helped
by a benevolent, altruistic, and merciful relationship.
Subordination to a crowd, to a group actually assembled,
 varies also considerably from subordination to an individual.
 In organized associations which function as legal
persons, the participation of the superior in the relationship
 loses the personal elements and obtains more rational,
superpersonal elements. In crowds, the participation of
the superior loses also the personal elements, but this time
it obtains infra-individual collective emotional elements.
It is this fact that explains the merciless cruelty of the
Roman circus public, of the medieval religious persecutions,
 and of the modern lynching parties. On the other
hand, crowds are sometimes capable of great enthusiasm
and magnanimity.}

Subordination to an Impersonal Principle

Subordination to an impersonal principle or a law does
not involve a reciprocity. The individuals who do not obey
a law are not really subordinate to that law. If they change
it, they really abolish the old law and put a new one in its
place. In so far as they are subordinate to the new law,
they feel themselves determined by it, but they do not determine
 it. Modern people who have learned to differentiate
 between the field of spontaneous activity and that of

1 Soz., pp. 172-77.