s
merely another manifestation of what has been referred to as the
distributive aspect of society. Society is made up of individuals
spatially separated, territorially distributed, and capable of
independent locomotion. This capacity of independent locomotion is the
basis and the symbol of every other form of independence. Freedom is
fundamentally freedom to move and individuality is inconceivable without
the capacity and the opportunity to gain an individual experience as a
result of independent action.

On the other hand, it is quite as true that society may be said to exist
only so far as this independent activity of the individual is
_controlled_ in the interest of the group as a whole. That is the reason
why the problem of control, using that term in its evident significance,
inevitably becomes the central problem of sociology.

c) _Competition and control._--Conflict, assimilation and
accommodation as distinguished from competition are all intimately
related to control. Competition is the process through which the
distributive and ecological organization of society is created.
Competition determines the distribution of population territorially and
vocationally. The division of labor and all the vast organized economic
interdependence of individuals and groups of individuals characteristic
of modern life are a product of competition. On the other hand, the
moral and political order, which imposes itself upon this competitive
organization, is a product of conflict, accommodation and assimilation.

Competition is universal in the world of living things. Under ordinary
circumstances it goes on unobserved even by the individuals who are most
concerned. It is only in periods of crisis, when men are making new and
conscious efforts to control the conditions of their common life, that
the forces with which they are competing get identified with persons,
and competition is converted into conflict. It is in what has been
described as the _political process_ that society consciously deals with
its crises.[182] War is the political process par excellence. It is in
war that the great decisions are made. Political organizations exist for
the purpose of dealing with conflict situations. Parties, parliaments
and courts, public discussion and voting are to be considered simply as
substitutes for war.

d) _Accommodation, assimilation, and competition._--Accommodation, on
the other hand, is the process by which the individuals a