A B C of modern socialism

if THE LOGIC OF FUNCTION

WE now see clearly, I hope, that an essential factor in function is its relation to all other functions and to life as a whole. Function, as such, can only continue when it is a recognised and harmonious activity in the vast organisation of our social and economic existence. There are many activities that, in this sense, so far from being functional, are definitely anti-functional, or at best are functional deterrents. To revert to biology (of which I am disgracefully ignorant), I presume that a cancer in the human body would hardly be described as a function. It is plainly a disease, and therefore antifunctional, being in fact destructive of the functional processes. So in our social organism there are cancerous growths, some highly respectable, which call for extirpation and most assuredly not for compensation. When, therefore, we speak of functional values our meaning transcends money values; for many of these cancerous growths have, as things are, large financial interests. The essence of functional life is harmony. Bastiat, the French economist, vaguely understood this; but he too readily assumed that all the economic processes,