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SOCIAL CONSERVATION

175

The Functional Forms of Social Self-Preservation
Up to this point the process of social self-preservation
has been treated mainly from its structural aspect. The
structural elements, personal, material, ideal, and social,
by means of which the group secures and protects its persistence
 have been enumerated and considered. But apart
from this structural aspect, there is a purely functional
aspect. The life-processes of social groups show, namely,
two clearly distinet types. They can be distinguished on
the basis of the rhythm of the sociological changes within
the group.
On the one hand there is the conservative, the stable
group. It preserves itself by conserving its form with the
utmost tenacity and by an absolute rigidity of structure.
It meets any opposition with active resistance and tries to
maintain the same forms of interactions between the elements
 throughout all the changes in external conditions.
On the other hand there is the unstable group. It preserves
 itself by its flexibility of form. It adapts itself to
changes in external conditions by corresponding changes
in internal structure. It is capable of immediate and important
 changes in its sociological form without disrupting
its unity.

account of their functional relationships to the group as a whole, but fully autonomous
 in their internal relations.
The syndicalist and the Marxist also consider the structural aspect of the
system of production as an organ of the larger group. But because it is the most
important organ and includes all individuals, it should dominate the group as a
whole. Their ideal group organization is another social absolutism, with the economic
 structure successor to the political structure as absolute sovereign.
The anarchist, being an extreme individualist, ignores the functional relationship
 between associations and the larger group. Associations are for him only
voluntary combinations of free individuals, not structural elements functionally
related to a larger group. As they have only internal relations, they should be
fully autonomous and independent. free from any external restraint. His organization
 is an individual absolutism.