Imp’s Reviews > Public Opinion > Status Update

THE TRANSFER OF INTEREST

How is Public Opinion crystalized
People do different things for different reasons
Vote for one party for different, sometimes opposing reasons
Concept of "oversoul"

Hughes' first speech after accepting Republican nomination
Method of securing homogeneous vote from heterogeneous opinion
Agreement -> detail
Disagreement -> vague
Lip service to all sides

Idea and response both second hand

Self interest: ideas of self and interest are not instinctive but acquired
Economic position may influence opinion, but exactly how you can't tell, as there are many other factors.
Theories that try to deterministically prevent events fail

Contradiction between Marxian theory and actions (Lenin)
Even in economic equality partial acc. to facts create conflict.
False determinism
Fatalistic view on human nature

SELF-INTEREST RECONSIDERED

All experiences are unique
Printed record checks each individual's fancy, but rumors can be altered unabated.
Larger audience -> lack of common words -> story more abstract -> individuals give it their own character

The character in which men deal is not fixed even in the same man in different situations. "No one self always at work".

Setting realistic enough for identification, ending romantic enough to be desirable, but not inconceivable.

Pioneering artist's reverence 4 material

Two ideas coming together arousing the same feeling.
Everything good/pleasant collects into a system of all-good, everything painful/unpleasant into a system of all-evil.

Visualization catches the stimulus and result, but the internal is badly caricatured.

The need for the observer to identify oneself with the picture: handles for identification

Motifs of sex & violence

One couple usually appointed original ancestors.

Desire to jump over necessary steps in a sequence.

League of Nations and the concept of "backwardness"

Putting together a public opinion requires picturing more time and space than directly perceivable.
Difficulties in obtaining a representative sample of a class - individuals don't do it.
"It ought to be true"

CODES AND THEIR ENEMIES
Differences in assumptions to which moral codes apply - interpreters
Moral code has a picture of human nature, human nature might change to fit the moral code: different natures in different contexts
Myth: truth and error on same plane of credibility

"Of the opposition we make conspiracies"

Uncritical stereotype censors much that is needed, but what is good is also destroyed when the stereotype is shattered.

Example: Bernard Shaw on Free Trade etc.

In all stereotypes there is a point where effort ceases and things become automatic.
Laissez-faire: spontaneously move towards harmony
Collectivism: Socialist officials move towards efficiency and wisdom

Covers up some fact that would check vital movement.

BLIND SPOTS AND THEIR VALUE

What operates in history is shifting imitations, counterfeits, analogies and distortions in individual minds.
Marxism, Christianity, Constitution not as conceived, but as interpreted.
Hard to find actual culture vs. commenting on works of genius.
Bit on "Relativismus"

American stereotype of "progress", effects on WWI.
Always a point where stereotypes and facts part company.

The case of Belgian snipers, refuted by Pax, an org. of German Catholic priests.
Fog of war, no check on on imagination. Authorities happy to use myth to their advantage. Gave the myth weight, unpatriotic if not believed.