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.)
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
PART III. STEREOTYPES
V. Speed, Words, and Clearness VI. Stereotypes
VII. Stereotypes as Defense
VIII. Blind Spots and Their Value
IX. Codes and Their Enemies
PART IV. INTERESTS
X. The Detection of Stereotypes 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
PART VI. THE IMAGE OF DEMOCRACY
XV. Leaders and the Rank and File 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
PART VII. NEWSPAPERS
XX. A New Image XXI. The Buying Public
XXII. The Constant Reader
XXIII. The Nature of News
PART VIII. ORGANIZED INTELLIGENCE
XXIV. News, Truth, and a Conclusion XXV. The Entering Wedge
XXVI. Intelligence Work
XXVII. The Appeal to the Public
XXVIII. The Appeal to Reason