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OPPOSITION 
119 
In Germany this objectivation and increased factualness 
of the struggle has been greatly helped by the abstract im- 
personal treatment of the conflict in social and historical 
studies. In England the objectivation has been greatly 
facilitated by the fact that the conflict has from its early 
beginning been fought by an organized trade-union move- 
ment and more or less organized employers’ combinations. 
In these collective organizations the purely personal ele- 
ment had no place. But with this objectivation the inten- 
sity of the struggle has not diminished. On the contrary, it 
has become more conscious, better organized, and more 
aggressive and severe than it has ever been. The individu- 
al has become conscious that he is not merely struggling 
for himself, but is struggling rather for superpersonal ends; 
and that gives him a fighting strength and perseverance 
which he did not possess as long as his purpose was merely 
personal. 
The Conflict between Factions 
The peculiar sharpness and bitterness which the co- 
existence of union and opposition gives to certain con- 
ficts is also illustrated in factional strife. In that case the 
union is the starting-point and the basis of the relation- 
ship, and the opposition and the dualism a later develop- 
ment superimposed on the original foundation. Such con- 
flicts are usually much more passionate than those between 
parties which were not originally united in a common bond. 
This situation is illustrated in the conflicts between reli- 
gious and political factions and in class struggles and civil 
wars. 
There are apparently two forms of consensus which 
contribute especially to the bitterness and sharpness of 
conflicts. The first is the consensus which is due to the 
t Soz., pp. 265-70.