Public Opinion
By Walter Lippmann:
- The Poems of Paul Mariett. Edited with an Introduction
- A Preface to Politics
- Drift and Mastery
- The Stakes of Diplomacy
- The Political Scene: An Essay on the Victory of 1918
- Liberty and the News
PUBLIC OPINION
BY
WALTER LIPPMANN
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1929
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Printed in the U. S. A.
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
Chapter PART I. INTRODUCTION Page I. 3 PART II. APPROACHES TO THE WORLD OUTSIDE II. 35 III. 46 IV. 58 V. 64 PART III. STEREOTYPES VI. 79 VII. 95 VIII. 104 IX. 115 X. 130 PART IV. INTERESTS XI. 159 XII. 170 PART V. THE MAKING OF A COMMON WILL XIII. 193 XIV. 220 XV. 234 PART VI. THE IMAGE OF DEMOCRACY XVI. 253 XVII. 263 XVIII. 276 XIX. 293 XX. 310 PART VII. NEWSPAPERS XXI. 317 XXII. 328 XXIII. 338 XXIV. 358 PART VIII. ORGANIZED INTELLIGENCE XXV. 369 XXVI. 379 XXVII. 398 XXVIII. 411
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1922, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1974, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 49 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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