Sorokin Claims 'Altruistic' Social Change Only Hope for Mankind

An "altruistic transformation" of social institutions is the only possible way to save mankind from destruction, Pitrim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, said last night at a Social Relations Society lecture in Emerson Hall.

Sorokin insisted that a return to the "norms of the Sermon on the Mount" and the practicing of friendship toward all nations would prevent future wars. He denied that such "popular prescriptions" as democracy, education, or religion are sufficient to prevent the "termination of man's history on the planet."

Even if the Kremlin adopted a democratic form of government, the speaker asserted, the chance of war would not be reduced, since "democracies are no less militaristic and turbulent than autocracies." In a study made by the Research Center in Creative Altruism, founded in 1949 and headed by Sorokin, it was found that democratic countries engaged in war just as much as autocratic ones.

Education, another prescription, is also insufficient, Sorokin claimed. Although the number of scientific and technological discoveries have been more numerous in this century than in any other, this has also been the "bloodiest" century of any which the research center studied.

The sociologist contended that modern religion, considered in terms of "high-pressure chain prayer" is "sham," and also cannot save mankind. The research center found that the moral changes in 73 people who were converted to Christianity by Billy Graham's "15-minute" method were extremely slight.