CHAPTER XXXVIII

PUBLIC OPINION

225. The origin of our personal opinions 1

It is a trite but significant statement that the conduct of the citizen in the affairs of private and public life will be determined largely by the beliefs and opinions which he holds. The nature of these beliefs and opinions will depend upon his early environment, his training, the type of persons and institutions with which he comes in contact, and his habits as an independent thinker. Because of the domination of opinion over the actions of the individual, it becomes necessary to inquire into the means by which we acquire our personal opinions. This question is discussed by President Lowell in the following passage:

Our actions largely influenced by personal beliefs and

opinions.

Many of our opinions

are taken

We are constantly told to-day how small a part of our actions are the result of our own reasoning, how small a proportion of opinion is personal, how much of it is taken from others in whole or in part from others. ready-made.

illustrations.

The history of religious bodies shows that with the vast majority Some of men creeds are inherited; or, to speak more strictly, accepted on the suggestion and authority of parents and teachers. It is incredible that if everyone really thought out his beliefs for himself religious lines would remain from generation to generation so little changed as they have, for example, among the Catholics and Protestants in Switzerland. In fact it would be safe to assert as a general rule that the members of every church have accepted its dogmas because they belonged to it, quite as much as they have clung to the church on account of a belief in its creed. Nor is this less true of other spheres of thought. It is manifestly the case in politics, where party

...

1 From A. Lawrence Lowell, Public Opinion and Popular Government. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1913; pp. 16-18, 22-24.

We often

act upon suggestions without

being aware of their origin.

The origin of our

beliefs as to fundamental political principles.

But some opinions

require a personal judgment of facts.

affiliations have no less influence in fixing the principles of men, than the principles have in determining the membership of the parties.

Opinions may, of course, be adopted by conscious submission to the authority of someone who is better informed; and Sir George Cornewall Lewis points out that in such a case "The choice of a guide is as much a matter of free determination, as the adoption of an opinion on argumentative grounds." But he does not appear to have perceived to how small an extent the selection of a guide is in fact deliberate or even conscious. In most of the affairs of life we are constantly acting upon suggestions without being aware of their origin, or indeed of the fact that we did not frame our conclusions unaided.

A belief, although adopted on suggestion or authority without mature consideration, may nevertheless be a real opinion and not a mere prejudice or meaningless impression; for the line between what is opinion and what is not is by no means the same as the line between what is personally thought out, or consciously rational, and what comes in other ways. The bulk of every community accepts without adequate reasoning all its fundamental political principles, such as a belief in monarchy or in a federal system of government, in universal suffrage, in trial by jury, and in many other things that the people of a country habitually assume as axioms.

A conviction, therefore, formed because it is in accord with a code of beliefs already in the mind is properly classed as an opinion; but many of the problems that arise in politics, as in the other affairs of life, cannot be solved in this way. They do not present a question of harmony with accepted principles, but the application of an accepted principle to a particular case, or the means to be adopted in attaining an end universally desired; and these things usually require for their determination a considerable knowledge of the subject matter. [For example,] it is generally admitted that children should be educated for their duties in life at the public expense. To what extent are the studies leading to a general education and to what extent are manual and industrial training best adapted to that end? On problems of this kind an opinion worthy of the name cannot be formed without both a process of reasoning and, what is far more difficult, the command of a number of facts.

necessary

In order, therefore, that there may be a real Public Opinion on any Conditions subject, not involving a simple question of harmony or contradiction for a real with settled convictions, the bulk of the people must be in a position Public Opinion. to determine of their own knowledge, or by weighing evidence, a substantial part of the facts required for a rational decision.

226. The importance of talk 1

contact necessary to the formation of

Public

In order that individuals may acquire ideas from one another, Social or influence the judgments of one another, it is necessary that they come into social contact. So far as the formation of public opinion is concerned, this social contact is mainly through the medium of talking or writing. A cornerstone of self-government is freedom of Opinion. assemblage, of speech, and of the press, for neither self-government nor the formation of sound Public Opinion is possible unless people are allowed to talk. The importance of talk is developed in the following passage by Edwin Lawrence Godkin:

of a free expression of opinion.

[The] extension of the powers and functions of government makes Importance more necessary than ever a free expression of opinion, and especially of educated opinion. We may rail at "mere talk" as much as we please, but the probability is that the affairs of nations and of men will be more and more regulated by talk.

present

The amount of talk which is expended on all subjects of human Volume of interest and in “talk” I include contributions to periodical litera- talk at the ture is something of which a previous age has had the smallest time. conception. Of course it varies infinitely in quality. A very large proportion of it does no good beyond relieving the feelings of the talker. Political philosophers maintain, and with good reason, that one of its greatest uses is keeping down discontent under popular government. It is undoubtedly true that it is an immense relief to a man with a grievance to express his feelings about it in words, even if he knows that his words will have no immediate effect. Self-love is apt to prevent most men from thinking that anything they say with passion or earnestness will utterly and finally fail. But still it is safe to suppose that one-half of the talk of the world on subjects of general interest is waste.

1 From Edwin Lawrence Godkin, Problems of Modern Democracy. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1896; pp. 221-224.

Probably one-half of the talk

of the world is wasted,

but the other half counts.

Some examples.

Everything that is said has some effect.

But the other half certainly tells. We know this from the change in ideas from generation to generation. We see that opinions which at one time everybody held became absurd in the course of half a century — opinions about religion and morals and manners and government. Nearly every man of my age can recall old opinions of his own, on subjects of general interest, which he once thought highly respectable, and which he is now ashamed of having ever held. He does not remember when he changed them, or why, but somehow they have passed away from him.

In communities these changes are often very striking. The transformation, for instance, of the England of Cromwell into the England of Queen Anne, or of the New England of Cotton Mather into the New England of Theodore Parker and Emerson, was very extraordinary, but it would be very difficult to say in detail what brought it about, or when it began. Lecky has some curious observations, in his History of Rationalism on these silent changes in new beliefs apropos of the disappearance of the belief in witchcraft. Nobody could say what had swept it away, but it appeared that in a certain year people were ready to burn old women as witches, and a few years later were ready to laugh at or pity any one who thought old women could be witches.

The belief in witchcraft may perhaps be considered a somewhat violent illustration, like the change in public opinion about slavery in this country. But there can be no doubt that it is talk somebody's, anybody's, everybody's talk - by which these changes are wrought, by which each generation comes to feel and think differently from its predecessor. No one ever talks freely about anything without contributing something, let it be ever so little, to the unseen forces which carry the race on to its final destiny. Even if he does not make a positive impression, he counteracts or modifies some other impression, or sets in some train of ideas in some one else, which helps to change the face of the world So I shall, in disregard of the great laudation of silence which filled the earth in the days of Carlyle, say that one of the functions of an educated man is to talk, and, of course, he should try to talk wisely.

227. The influence of the leader 1

ence of men

in social

varies.

Where individuals habitually come in contact with one another, The influthere is a constant stream of talk. Ideas are interchanged, questions are asked and answered, there are attempts at persuasion and resist- intercourse ance, accusations are made and denunciations are returned. But in this complex of social intercourse, all men are not alike. Some say little and think less; some are timid, others are aggressive and voluble. And though communities vary, there is everywhere a tendency among men to be dominated by natural leaders, to follow the strong, The leader. the self-assured, and the aggressive. Leadership is an important factor in the formation of Public Opinion, as Professor Cooley points out in the following selection:

must be a great deal

of a man.

strong, affirmative, and superior.

If we ask what are the mental traits that distinguish a leader, A leader the only answer seems to be that he must, in one way or another, be a great deal of a man, or at least appear to be. He must stand for something to which men incline, and so take his place by right as a focus of their thought. Evidently he must be the best of his kind available. It is impos- He must be sible that he should stand forth as an archetype, unless he is conceived as superior, in some respect, to all others within range of the imagination. Nothing that is seen to be second-rate can be an ideal; if a character does not bound the horizon at some point we will look over it to what we can see beyond. The object of admiration may be Caesar Borgia, or Napoleon, or Jesse James the train-robber, but he must be typical, must stand for something. No matter how bad the leader may be, he will always be found to owe his leadership to something strong, affirmative, and superior, something that appeals to onward instinct.

must possess

To be a great deal of a man, and hence a leader, involves, on the The leader one hand, a significant individuality, and, on the other, breadth of sympathy, the two being different phases of personal calibre, rather than separate traits.

It is because a man cannot stand for anything except as he has a self-reliance. significant individuality, that self-reliance is so essential a trait in

leadership: except as a person trusts and cherishes his own special

1 From Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902; pp. 293-297, 310.