And in voting for him you are choosing a man who
will not simply represent your view of your function, which is all that
you know at first hand, but a man who will represent your views
about other people's views of that function. You are voting as
indefinitely as the orthodox democrat.
6
The guildsmen in their own minds have solved the question of how to
conceive a common interest by playing with the word function. They
imagine a society in which all the main work of the world has been
analysed into functions, and these functions in turn synthesized
harmoniously. [Footnote: _Cf. op. cit._, Ch. XIX.] They suppose
essential agreement about the purposes of society as a whole, and
essential agreement about the role of every organized group in
carrying out those purposes. It was a nice sentiment, therefore, which
led them to take the name of their theory from an institution that
arose in a Catholic feudal society. But they should remember that the
scheme of function which the wise men of that age assumed was not
worked out by mortal man. It is unclear how the guildsmen think the
scheme is going to be worked out and made acceptable in the modern
world. Sometimes they seem to argue that the scheme will develop from
trade union organization, at other times that the communes will define
the constitutional function of the groups. But it makes a considerable
practical difference whether they believe that the groups define their
own functions or not.
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