ABSTRACT
Certain arrangements of matter on the same energy level are from the point of view of man’s appreciation, superior, while others are inferior. The passion is the animus of all totalitarianisms, of their animosity toward the different-and-equal. Metaphysicians like Josiah Royce argued that the universe is a “self-representative system”; knowledgeable social philosophers like Gabriel Tarde argued that imitation is the dynamic of the entire human enterprise and follows certain invariant laws of variation. Persons are singles, by nature emulative of the feelings, thoughts, attitudes and actions of others whom they regard their betters: the poor want to become like the rich, and the rich like the richer, the weak like the strong, and the strong like the stronger. The American psychologist, James Mark Baldwin, held that imitation is the mechanism basic to learning and that personality forms itself from birth by taking on and assimilating roles which image others. In principle, this was George Mead’s brilliantly verified working hypothesis.
