Abstract
IT is not altogether a new explanation of the social ills of the day to find a psychological rather than an economic explanation, but the theme is one that may well be stressed, and is ably expounded by Mr. H. A. Bruce in a paper on “The Sources of American Discontent” (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. 67, No. 3, Feb. 1932). The social evils and discontent which Mr. Bruce cites as being prevalent in America to-day are no less evident in many parts of Europe, and he finds the chief cause to lie in modern industrialisation, which not only narrows and starves the needs of the individual life, but also results in that crowding which leads to crowd mentality and all its drawbacks. The present state of affairs leads to discontent, adds to the prison population, the numbers of mental and nervous wrecks, and takes a mounting toll of suicides and lives shortened by bodily diseases promoted by mental stress. Mr. Bruce admits the seriousness of the problem and the difficulties of solution when national policies are determined by majorities infused with the crowd spirit and on an arrested level of mental activity, but he makes the suggestion that the crowd spirit may itself be used to contribute to the acceptance of a wiser philosophy of life than is summed up in making money, spending money, and amusing oneself. Intensive education of a far-spreading kind is the agency to apply hi changing the outlook of industrialised peoples, and leading them to an appreciation of values other than those which prevail to-day.
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Social Discontent and its Remedy. Nature 129, 825 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129825a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129825a0