{"id":1165,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:01","slug":"28-the-imperfection-of-past-aggregates-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15\/28-the-imperfection-of-past-aggregates-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-28_The Imperfection of Past Aggregates.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nCHAPTER II<\/font><\/b><\/span>
\n<\/font><\/span>
\nThe Imperfection of Past Aggregates<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0    
\n<\/font> <\/span>THE
\nwhole process of Nature depends on a balancing and a constant tendency to
\nharmony between the two poles of life, the individual whom the whole or
\naggregate nourishes and the whole or aggregate which the individual helps to
\nconstitute. Human life forms no exception to the rule. Therefore the perfection
\nof human life must involve the elaboration of an as yet unaccomplished harmony
\nbetween these two poles of our existence, the individual and the social
\naggregate. The perfect society will be that which most entirely favours the
\nperfection of the individual; the perfection of the individual will be
\nincomplete if it does not help towards the perfect state of the social aggregate
\nto which he belongs and eventually to that of the largest possible human
\naggregate, the whole of a united humanity.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>For the gradual process of Nature
\nintroduces a complication which prevents the individual from standing in a pure
\nand direct relation to the totality of mankind. Between himself and this too
\nimmense whole there erect themselves partly as aids, partly as barriers to the
\nfinal unity, the lesser aggregates which it has been necessary to form in the
\nprogressive stages of human culture. For the obstacles of space, the
\ndifficulties of organisation and the limitations of the human heart and brain
\nhave necessitated the formation first of small, then of larger and yet larger
\naggregates so that he may be gradually trained by a progressive approach till
\nhe is ready for the final universality. The family, the commune, the clan or
\ntribe, the class, the city state or congeries of tribes, the nation, the empire
\nare so many stages in this progress and constant enlargement. If the smaller aggregates
\nwere destroyed as soon as the larger are successfully formed, this graduation
\nwould result in no complexity; but Nature does not follow this course. She
\nseldom destroys entirely<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-267<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\nthe types she has once made or only destroys that
\nfor<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>
\nwhich there is no longer any utility; the rest she
\nkeeps in order to serve her need or her passion for variety, richness,
\nmultiformity and only effaces the dividing lines or modifies the
\ncharacteristics and relations sufficiently to allow of the larger unity she is
\ncreating. Therefore at every step humanity is confronted with <\/font>
\nvarious problems which arise
\nnot only from the difficulty of <\/font> <\/span>accord
\nbetween the interests of the individual and those of the immediate aggregate,
\nthe community, but between the need and interests of the smaller integralities
\nand the growth of that larger whole which is to ensphere them all.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>History has preserved for us scattered
\ninstances of this travail, instances of failure and success which are full of
\ninstruction. We see the struggle towards the aggregation of tribes among the
\nSemitic nations, Jew and Arab, surmounted in the <\/font>
\none after a scission into two kingdoms which
\nremained<\/font><\/span> a per<\/font><\/span>manent source of weakness to the Jewish nation,
\novercome, only temporarily in the other by the sudden unifying force of Islam.
\nWe see the failure of clan life to combine into an organised national existence
\nin the Celtic races, a failure entire in Ireland <\/font>
\nand Scotland and only surmounted through the
\ncrushing out of<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>clan life by a foreign rule and culture,
\novercome only at the last moment in Wales. We see the failure of the city
\nstates and small regional peoples to fuse themselves in the history of Greece,
\nthe signal success of a similar struggle of Nature in the development of Roman
\nItaly. The whole past of India for the last two thousand years and more has
\nbeen the attempt, unavailing in spite of many approximations to success, to
\novercome the centrifugal tendency of an extraordinary number and variety of
\ndisparate elements, the family, the commune, the clan, the caste, the small
\nregional state or people, the large linguistic unit, the religious community,
\nthe nation within the nation. We may perhaps say that here Nature tried an
\nexperiment of unparalleled complexity and potential richness, accumulating all
\npossible difficulties in order to arrive at the most opulent result. But in the
\nend the problem proved insoluble or, at least, <\/font>
\nwas not solved and Nature had to resort to
\nher usual<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font> deus
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/span>ex <\/font> <\/span>
\nmachina <\/font><\/i>denouement,
\nthe instrumentality of a foreign rule.<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-268<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>But even when the nation is sufficiently
\norganised,<\/font> <\/font> <\/span>
\n–<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>the largest unit yet successfully developed by Nature,<\/font> <\/font> <\/span>
\n–<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>
\nentire unity is not always
\nachieved. If no other elements of discord remain, <\/font> <\/span>yet the conflict of classes is always possible. And the
\nphenomenon leads us to another rule of this gradual development of Nature in
\nhuman life which we shall find of very considerable importance when we come to
\nthe question of a realisable human unity. The perfection of the individual in a
\nperfected society or eventually in a perfected humanity<\/font> <\/font> <\/span>
\n–<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>understanding per<\/font>fection always in a relative and progressive sense<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>
\n– is the <\/font> <\/span>
\ninevitable aim of Nature. But the progress of all the
\nindividuals in a society does not proceed pari passu, <\/i>with an equal and
\nequable march. Some advance, others remain stationary, – <\/font>
\nabsolutely or relatively,<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>
\n–<\/font><\/span> others fall back.
\nConsequently, the <\/font> <\/span>emergence of a dominant
\nclass is inevitable within the aggregate itself, just as in the constant clash
\nbetween the aggregates the emergence of dominant nations is inevitable. That
\nclass will predominate which develops most perfectly the type Nature needs at
\nthe time for her progress or, it may be, for her retrogression. If she demands
\npower and strength of character, a dominant aristocracy emerges; if knowledge
\nand science, a dominant literary or savant class; if practical ability,
\ningenuity, economy and efficient organisation, a dominant bourgeoisie or
\nVaishya class, usually with the lawyer at the head; if diffusion rather than
\nconcentration of general well-being and a close organisation of toil, then even
\nthe domination of an artisan class is not impossible.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>But this phenomenon, whether of dominant
\nclasses or dominant nations, can never be more than a temporary necessity; for the
\nfinal aim of Nature in human life cannot be the exploitation of the many by the
\nfew or even of the few by the many, can never be the perfection of some at the
\ncost of the abject submergence and ignorant subjection of the bulk of humanity;
\nthese can only be transient devices. Therefore we see that such dominations
\nbear always in them the seed of their own destruction. They must pass either by
\nthe ejection or destruction of the exploiting element or else by a fusion and
\nequalisation. We see in Europe and America that the dominant Brahmin and<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-269<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

the
\ndominant Kshatriya have been either abolished or are on the point of subsidence
\ninto equality with the general mass. Two rigidly separate classes alone remain,
\nthe dominant propertied class and the labourer, and all the most significant
\nmovements of the day have for their purpose the abolition of this last
\nsuperiority. In this persistent tendency, Europe has obeyed one great law of
\nNature’s progressive march, her trend towards a final equality. Absolute equality
\nis surely neither intended nor possible, just as absolute uniformity is both
\nimpossible and utterly undesirable; but a fundamental equality which will
\nrender the play of true superiority and difference inoffensive, <\/font>
\nis essential to any
\nconceivable perfectibility of the human<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font> <\/span>
\nrace. <\/font> <\/span>
\nTherefore,
\nthe perfect counsel for a dominant minority is always to recognise in good time
\nthe right hour for its abdication and for the imparting of its ideals,
\nqualities, culture, experience to the rest of the aggregate or to as much of it
\nas is prepared for that progress. Where this is done, the social aggregate
\nadvances normally and without disruption or serious wound or malady; otherwise
\na disordered progress is imposed upon it, for Nature will not suffer human
\negoism to baffle for ever her fixed intention and necessity. Where the dominant
\nclasses successfully avoid her demand upon them, the worst of destinies is
\nlikely to overtake the social aggregate, – as in India where the final refusal
\nof the Brahmin and other privileged classes to call up the bulk of the nation
\nas far as possible to their level, their fixing of an unbridgeable gulf of
\nsuperiority between themselves and the rest of society, has been a main cause
\nof eventual decline and degeneracy. For where her aims are frustrated, Nature
\ninevitably withdraws her force from the offending unit till she has brought in
\nand used other and external means to reduce the obstacle to a nullity.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>But even if the unity within is made as
\nperfect as social, administrative and cultural machinery can make it, the
\nquestion of the individual still remains. For these social units or aggregates
\nare not like the human body in which the component cells are capable of no
\nseparate life apart from the aggregate. The human individual tends to exist in
\nhimself and to exceed the limits of the family, the clan, the class, the
\nnation; and<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-270<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

even, that self-sufficiency on one side, that universality
\non the other are the essential elements of his perfection. Therefore, just as
\nthe systems of social aggregation which depend on the domination of a class or
\nclasses over others must change or dissolve, so the social aggregates which
\nstand in the way of this perfection of the individual and seek to coerce him
\nwithin their limited mould and into the rigidity of a narrow culture or petty
\nclass or national interest, must find their term and their day of change or
\ndestruction under the irresistible impulsion of progressing Nature.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-271<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER II The Imperfection of Past Aggregates   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0     THE whole process of Nature depends on a balancing and a constant tendency to harmony between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","wpcat-25-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}