The O.S. review : the journal of the Organisation Society.

Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The O.S. review : the journal of the Organisation Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE GENESIS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE SCIENCE OF ORGANISATION. By MARSHALL BRUCE-WILLIAMS. A st3.t6m6nt of tho aims and, objects of the Science of Organisation must necessarily be a partly biographical account of the aims of the Inventor, as the invention is naturally the result of his temperament and outlook on life. Many varying accounts might be given of the Inventor’s aims, but on the whole a broad Uniformity would be found underlying all these. It is an important thing, in the writer’s opinion, as to what particular age the Artist is born in. I use the word “ Artist ” here because, fundamentally, I believe that the qualities necessary to evolve a purely objective Philosophy and Science like that of Organi- sation are those of the Artist. There are, of course, in all times plenty of men about in the world with a philosophic and artistic tempera- ment and outlook, but it is only very rarely that there is any problem of first-class impor- tance which requires their particular kind of brain to put it in order. Goethe illustrated this when he said that there are plenty of good heads, but there are very few inheritances, and he instances Luther, who inherited the Reformation movement. We can, however, put the case in still simpler form. _ There is no General famous in the world’s history who did not inherit some great conflict between peoples, and yet one is thoroughly aware that there are at all times plenty of good Generals in the world waiting, too often in vain from their point of view at least—for a war which will bring out their qualities. At the present moment in Europe no move- ment is more important than that of Social Reform. Society is in a general state of drift; old values and standards of life which have lost their vitality are crumbling in every direction, and new ones are only very slowly emerging as the result of life under modern conditions. To give an instance. The Indus- trial Leader of to-day, partaking necessarily, more or less, of the spirit of Reform which is at work in the world, is exhibiting, particularly in the case of Model Employers, all those characteristics which were required by the Leaders of the State in feudal times. An insight into Organisation, a profound know- ledge of human nature, a careful regard tor the welfare of those who are governed, a sense of the proper relation between the War Leader and the State, a readiness to serve the country, a high standard of honour and a full acceptance of the spirit of responsibility, all the qualities which went to make up a dis- ciplined and orderly State or Feudal Fief, and which were required when the unit was a Soldier, are now equally required when the unit is an Industrial worker. What was the fundamental conception of Feudalism ? Was it not that there was a well- understood relation between the Individual as Priest, Soldier or Industrial, the State or Society, and the Cosmos without, that its arrangement of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, its hierarchy of angels, etc., were believed to fit every member of Society into his or her place ? Since then a vast change has taken place in Man’s conception of Nature. _ Laws that are at work in the human being are found to be at work also in Society and the Cosmos. It is found that these laws are perfectly adamantine in their operation, and it is realised that if we can get an accurate know- ledge of these vast Cosmical laws as they work through Society to the Individual, we shall learn eventually to discipline the Individual, to brinof Order into Society, and to have, at any ratera fundamental^ Uniformity of conception once more of Creation itself. . , The most popular shibboleth m the world of Reform is Socialism, and it always seemed to the writer that the Socialist did not go back far enough for his authority, that he had not got the Cosmical law behind his Social law, that the whole ou^t- look of the Socialist was lacking m philosophy and did not carry sufficient weight of authority with it. It was part, in fact and only part— of the immense network of modern life. It seemed to the writer that the defects of Society in all ages must unquestionably be due to defects in its philosophy ; that if Buddhism or any other religion had been absolutely correct
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