1S

)-a


=

=
it,
us
at

1S

nt

\g

InN

re
ae
ne
18e
Jl
on
ON
he

as,
1ce
-he
nd
of
nal
«cal
no
ist.
ful
acce.


OPPOSITION

119

In Germany this objectivation and increased factualness
of the struggle has been greatly helped by the abstract impersonal
 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 movement
 and more or less organized employers’ combinations.
In these collective organizations the purely personal element
 had no place. But with this objectivation the intensity
 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 individual
 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 coexistence
 of union and opposition gives to certain conficts
 is also illustrated in factional strife. In that case the
union is the starting-point and the basis of the relationship,
 and the opposition and the dualism a later development
 superimposed on the original foundation. Such conflicts
 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 religious
 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.