120 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
possession of a great many common qualities and char- 
acteristics. The second is the consensus which is due to a 
common participation and absorption in a unitary social 
group. The first contributes to the bitterness of the con- 
flict because an opposition between elements which have 
otherwise much in common receives by contrast a strong 
light and leads to profound subjective reactions. The sec- 
ond contributes to the bitterness of the conflict because 
there arises a social hatred in addition to the personal 
hatred. 
In some cases falling under this category the separation 
is not the result of a conflict, but the conflict is the result 
of the separation. There will then be an antagonism be- 
tween the parties not only on account of the difference in 
attitude toward the issue in question, but also on account 
of the fact that each considers the other as an enemy of the 
group and a danger to its unity. The resulting bitterness 
will be strongest in the cases in which the actual dismem- 
berment of the group has not yet taken place or is unlikely 
to take place. If the dissociation has taken place, it signi- 
fies a partial termination of the conflict. The individual 
difference has found its sociological termination, and the 
stimulus to constantly renewed friction is removed. The 
tension which results from the combination of this dualism 
and unity can be resolved only by complete unity or sepa- 
ration. Where the latter is impossible, the efforts to obtain 
the first will be made with greater strength. Hence the 
severity of the actual struggle. It is an ordeal to live in 
enmity with a person to whom one is nevertheless bound 
and from whom one cannot be freed even if one desires a 
dissociation. A similar situation arises if an individual is 
unwilling to give up or incapable of giving up his member- 
ship in a group whose unity he values as an objective good 
and for whose persistence he feels that he must fight and