In each generation individuals grow old and
retire. Others grow up and take over the tasks of organizing the
communities in which they live. Profound social changes result from
discoveries and inventions: the wheel, the arch, steam and gas engines,
electricity, atomic power. Cyclic changes occur in the economy. Social
changes follow alterations in the weather. Nations, empires,
civilizations are produced by the changing life forms.
During long periods, social changes are so gradual that they are
unnoticed save by the more sensitive and perceptive. At other times,
social changes tumble over one another in an overwhelming revolutionary
flood which sweeps away the old, yielding place to new, "lest one good
custom should corrupt the world".
Changes in society beget changes in ideology. Reciprocally, changes in
ideology lead to changes in social structure and function. The more
rigid the social order, the more stubborn its resistance to change. By
the same token, more fluid societies lend themselves more readily to
changes in practice and in theory.
It is not possible to discuss ideology without some reference to the
closely related problems of means and ends. As we consider our existing
social establishment, in the light of unceasing social change, we must
deal with goals or objectives, with practicable modifications of social
form and function and with the way in which changes can be, might be,
will be brought about.
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