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1 50- 
~tion 
ig ON 
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 per- 
sistence 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 ele- 
ments throughout all the changes in external conditions. 
On the other hand there is the unstable group. It pre- 
serves 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 im- 
portant changes in its sociological form without disrupting 
its unity. 
account of their functional relationships to the group as a whole, but fully au- 
tonomous 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 eco- 
nomic structure successor to the political structure as absolute sovereign. 
The anarchist, being an extreme individualist, ignores the functional rela- 
tionship 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 organi- 
zation is an individual absolutism.