ABSTRACT
American leaders in government, business, and education choose opulent and grandiose symbols of power. In the great acts of social life—birth, marriage, and death—there is intense rivalry for the use and control of highly communicable social symbols. The group functions on a much lower level than the individual, and only those aspects of personality which are common to all can be communicated. It is the simple and not the complex and profound aspects of hierarchal communication which predominate. And if the principle of a hierarchy is just and powerful enough, then all men, regardless of their position, share in it. Destruction, torture, murder—almost every crime is permitted so long as it is done in the name of some great social principle. The dream is the guardian of sleep, art is the guardian of social order. Even in caste societies where individuals are subject to rigid control, profoundly different social claims struggle for domination within heart of noble and commoner alike.
