Public Opinion

Public Opinion

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Opinion, by Walter Lippmann
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Title: Public Opinion
Author: Walter Lippmann
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OPINION ***

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PUBLIC OPINION
BY
WALTER LIPPMANN
TO FAYE LIPPMANN
Wading River, Long Island. 1921.
_"Behold! human beings living in a sort of underground den, which has
a mouth open towards the light and reaching all across the den; they
have been here from their childhood, and have their legs and necks
chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them; for the
chains are arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from turning
round their heads. At a distance above and behind them the light of a
fire is blazing, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised
way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like
the screen which marionette players have before them, over which they
show the puppets.
I see, he said.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying vessels,
which appear over the wall; also figures of men and animals, made of
wood and stone and various materials; and some of the prisoners, as
you would expect, are talking, and some of them are silent?
This is a strange image, he said, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the
shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of
the cave?
True, he said: how could they see anything but the shadows if they
were never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would
see only the shadows?

Yes, he said.
And if they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose
that they were naming what was actually before them?"_ --The
Republic of Plato, Book Seven. (Jowett Translation.)
CONTENTS

PART I. INTRODUCTION
I. The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads

PART II. APPROACHES TO THE
WORLD OUTSIDE
II. Censorship and Privacy
III. Contact and Opportunity
IV. Time and Attention
V. Speed, Words, and Clearness

PART III. STEREOTYPES
VI. Stereotypes
VII. Stereotypes as Defense
VIII. Blind Spots and Their Value
IX. Codes and Their Enemies
X. The Detection of Stereotypes

PART IV. INTERESTS
XI. The Enlisting of Interest
XII. Self-Interest Reconsidered

PART V. THE MAKING OF A COMMON
WILL
XIII. The Transfer of Interest
XIV. Yes or No
XV. Leaders and the Rank and File

PART VI. THE IMAGE OF DEMOCRACY
XVI. The Self-Centered Man
XVII. The Self-Contained Community
XVIII. The Role of Force, Patronage, and Privilege
XIX. The Old Image in a New Form: Guild Socialism
XX. A New Image

PART VII. NEWSPAPERS

XXI. The Buying Public
XXII. The Constant Reader
XXIII. The Nature of News
XXIV. News, Truth, and a Conclusion

PART VIII. ORGANIZED
INTELLIGENCE
XXV. The Entering Wedge
XXVI. Intelligence Work
XXVII. The Appeal to the Public
XXVIII. The Appeal to Reason

PART I
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
THE WORLD OUTSIDE AND THE PICTURES IN OUR HEADS

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD OUTSIDE AND THE PICTURES IN OUR HEADS
There is an island in the ocean where in 1914 a few Englishmen,
Frenchmen, and Germans lived. No cable reaches that island, and the
British mail steamer comes but once in sixty days. In September it had
not yet come, and the islanders were still talking about the latest
newspaper which told about the approaching trial of Madame Caillaux
for the shooting of Gaston Calmette. It was, therefore,