Then disintegration
sets in, the social momentum is gradually relaxed, and society sinks
back to a level at which it can cohere. To us, however, the most
distressing aspect of the situation is, that the social acceleration is
progressive in proportion to the activity of the scientific mind which
makes mechanical discoveries, and it is, therefore, a triumphant science
which produces those ever more rapidly recurring changes in environment
to which men must adapt themselves at their peril. As, under the
stimulant of modern science, the old types fail to sustain themselves,
new types have to be equally rapidly evolved, and the rise of a new
governing class is always synonymous with a social revolution and a
redistribution of property. The Industrial Revolution began almost
precisely a century and a half ago, since when the scientific mind has
continually gained in power, and, during that period, on an average of
once in two generations, the environment has so far shifted that a
social revolution has occurred, accompanied by the advent of a new
favored class, and a readjustment of wealth.
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