Races and nations as functions of the world whole
adventure . . . is the belief that the Psyche in all souls is the same Psyche, and that the psychic energy in all souls is the same energy. Our hypothesis is that Oversouls exist, racial souls exist’. . .
What we are affirming is that the given pattern and only living exemplar of unity-with-diversity is organism. If our world is threatened by all manner of disunity and a ruinous diversity we should face the fact that ultimately the only alternative to a solution on organic lines is conflict leading to destructionsheer confrontation, in which one side and probably both must suffer.
The order we must look for is that in which no one organ tries to dominate others; in other words an order in which equality is attained. Not sameness, which would be a falsehood, but equal validity because of the necessity of each function to the full attainment of the whole.
A step to be taken here is to accept that in the human organism the whole psyche of an individual is also organic. For the most part organism is thought of only in a physical sense; but we have already indicated that an organism can be described as a continuously changing system of interacting functions, and that it is the significance in relation to one another of the different functions and the nature of their interaction which constitutes the reality of the organism rather than any physical characteristics such as shape or form. If, then, man’s psyche can be seen as a coherent structure rather than a chaos of thoughts, feelings and desires, it can properly be called not only a part of man’s organism but also an organic wholeness in itself. And if the non-physical aspect of an individual is an organic wholeness, so also may be that ‘same Psyche’ which is the psychic side of Universal Humanity, the Great Being. Macrocosm and microcosm, both physically and non-physically, are organic. This notion may be difficult for many today, though there is plenty of evidence for its having been felt intuitively in the distant past. For Comte in the early 19th century it would not have been possible to take the step towards it that we can now take, because in his day the psychological basis for such thinking did not exist.
In the depths of our souls there are not only memories and
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