German Sociology Under Hitler, 1933-1941

Abstract

have to gain separate and individual advantages for themselves. Similarly, physical planning of land utilization becomes possible and satisfactory when the alternatives, advantages, and principles involved are widely understood. The folk schools of Denmark recognized the need for abstract knowledge if technical knowledge were to have meaning and take its proper place in the structure of society. Many people have been going to Nova Scotia to observe the improvement in living conditions achieved by people who dwell in fishing villages. It might be assumed that people learned technological changes first and thereby freed themselves to pursue a richer life. But this is the reverse of what happened. They first learned the fundamentals of economics and of living together, and then freed themselves through this mastery. There are experiments in this country which demonstrate that community effectiveness does not rest on this or that particular plan of organization nor on a series of attacks on specific problems; but rather upon clear comprehension by the community itself of the powers and limitations of its people. This may seem to be the slow way and the hard way, and the way which fails to produce the quickest measurable results. But it seems to be the most hopeful way. This puts adult education and technological education in a wholly different perspective. The general assortment of courses and libraries made available to individuals under adult education programs have their rightful place in the scheme of things. And it is all very well to have public forums and panels on a varied assortment of pressing public questions. But it is a false notion that more and more information about race, United Nations, shortage of nurses, and the usefulness of freezer lockers will necessarily make community relations more satisfactory. Furthermore, it is certainly logical to believe that technological education whether received by individuals or by means of collective study is likely to assist in raising levels of living. But it does not follow that raising the level of living necessarily results in happy and satisfactory community relationships. This can come only through understanding the conditions involved-the institutional relations, in other words. We close our community level discussion, therefore, in the same key in which we opened our note on international relations. When we merely distribute the knowledge and products of technology and create unlimited wants, or when we organize for the relief or amelioration of immediate and symptomatic problems while we ignore the deeper and more fundamental understanding of relationships we support confusion and revolution. The ideas and meaning which may emerge from such revolution can be far from the sweet democratic dreams we may desire. We might paraphrase Lincoln with the ideas of Mannheim by saying that communities cannot exist on half science and half folklore. They must embrace one and move on to confusion and enslavement or cleave to the other and become free.