登陆注册
15421200000047

第47章

It wields, no doubt, a considerable influence, but only because it is exclusively the reflection of the opinions of crowds and of their incessant variations.Become a mere agency for the supply of information, the press has renounced all endeavour to enforce an idea or a doctrine.It follows all the changes of public thought, obliged to do so by the necessities of competition under pain of losing its readers.The old staid and influential organs of the past, such as the Constitutionnel, the Debats, or the Siecle, which were accepted as oracles by the preceding generation, have disappeared or have become typical modern papers, in which a maximum of news is sandwiched in between light articles, society gossip, and financial puffs.There can be no question to-day of a paper rich enough to allow its contributors to air their personal opinions, and such opinions would be of slight weight with readers who only ask to be kept informed or to be amused, and who suspect every affirmation of being prompted by motives of speculation.Even the critics have ceased to be able to assure the success of a book or a play.They are capable of doing harm, but not of doing a service.The papers are so conscious of the uselessness of everything in the shape of criticism or personal opinion, that they have reached the point of suppressing literary criticism, confining themselves to citing the title of a book, and appending a "puff" of two or three lines.[22] In twenty years' time the same fate will probably have overtaken theatrical criticism.

[22] These remarks refer to the French newspaper press.--Note of the Translator.

The close watching of the course of opinion has become to-day the principal preoccupation of the press and of governments.The effect produced by an event, a legislative proposal, a speech, is without intermission what they require to know, and the task is not easy, for nothing is more mobile and changeable than the thought of crowds, and nothing more frequent than to see them execrate to-day what they applauded yesterday.

This total absence of any sort of direction of opinion, and at the same time the destruction of general beliefs, have had for final result an extreme divergency of convictions of every order, and a growing indifference on the part of crowds to everything that does not plainly touch their immediate interests.Questions of doctrine, such as socialism, only recruit champions boasting genuine convictions among the quite illiterate classes, among the workers in mines and factories, for instance.Members of the lower middle class, and working men possessing some degree of instruction, have either become utterly sceptical or extremely unstable in their opinions.

The evolution which has been effected in this direction in the last twenty-five years is striking.During the preceding period, comparatively near us though it is, opinions still had a certain general trend; they had their origin in the acceptance of some fundamental belief.By the mere fact that an individual was a monarchist he possessed inevitably certain clearly defined ideas in history as well as in science, while by the mere fact that he was a republican, his ideas were quite contrary.A monarchist was well aware that men are not descended from monkeys, and a republican was not less well aware that such is in truth their descent.It was the duty of the monarchist to speak with horror, and of the republican to speak with veneration, of the great Revolution.There were certain names, such as those of Robespierre and Marat, that had to be uttered with an air of religious devotion, and other names, such as those of Caesar, Augustus, or Napoleon, that ought never to be mentioned unaccompanied by a torrent of invective.Even in the French Sorbonne this ingenuous fashion of conceiving history was general.[23]

[23] There are pages in the books of the French official professors of history that are very curious from this point of view.They prove too how little the critical spirit is developed by the system of university education in vogue in France.I cite as an example the following extracts from the "French Revolution"of M.Rambaud, professor of history at the Sorbonne:

"The taking of the Bastille was a culminating event in the history not only of France, but of all Europe; and inaugurated a new epoch in the history of the world!"With respect to Robespierre, we learn with stupefaction that "his dictatorship was based more especially on opinion, persuasion, and moral authority; it was a sort of pontificate in the hands of a virtuous man!" (pp.91 and 220.)At the present day, as the result of discussion and analysis, all opinions are losing their prestige; their distinctive features are rapidly worn away, and few survive capable of arousing our enthusiasm.The man of modern times is more and more a prey to indifference.

The general wearing away of opinions should not be too greatly deplored.That it is a symptom of decadence in the life of a people cannot be contested.It is certain that men of immense, of almost supernatural insight, that apostles, leaders of crowds--men, in a word, of genuine and strong convictions--exert a far greater force than men who deny, who criticise, or who are indifferent, but it must not be forgotten that, given the power possessed at present by crowds, were a single opinion to acquire sufficient prestige to enforce its general acceptance, it would soon be endowed with so tyrannical a strength that everything would have to bend before it, and the era of free discussion would be closed for a long time.Crowds are occasionally easy-going masters, as were Heliogabalus and Tiberius, but they are also violently capricious.A civilisation, when the moment has come for crowds to acquire a high hand over it, is at the mercy of too many chances to endure for long.Could anything postpone for a while the hour of its ruin, it would be precisely the extreme instability of the opinions of crowds and their growing indifference with respect to all general beliefs.

同类推荐
  • 幼科种痘心法要旨

    幼科种痘心法要旨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 声无哀乐论

    声无哀乐论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 重阳真人金关玉锁诀

    重阳真人金关玉锁诀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 訄书

    訄书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 四六鸳鸯谱

    四六鸳鸯谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 大学毕业后那些事

    大学毕业后那些事

    她他是典型的凤凰女,凤凰男,曾是他人眼中的骄傲;然现实不堪一击;逼婚让她落荒而逃,不公让他隐忍;奋斗向前,却遭遇了太多的变故;诱惑,失落,背叛,尝尽人间百味;谁言寸草心,报得三春晖,真的能做到吗?
  • 同桌是穿越者

    同桌是穿越者

    14岁的中二少年和15岁的重生少女以及周围亲友之间的纠葛。在重生少女的眼里,世界的一切又是熟悉的,又是不同的。唯一的不同,就是有少年的存在……
  • 光影战神联盟之王者征途

    光影战神联盟之王者征途

    次元世界的相交,我们的穿越,是必然还是偶然,是注定还是召唤?命运就是这么奇怪,强求不得,一旦注定就很难改变。可我相信,我不会被命运拘束,我尝试改变命运,哪怕会堕落……灵魂契约,让我们彼此心连心,轻轻抓起对方的手,前进。征途路上,曲曲折折,坎坎坷坷,但一成不变的,是守护对方的心。我说过,我会是一个好主人。现在,我做到了……相信我,我不会放手,抓住最后的希望,为宇宙迎来黎明。
  • 无尽奇幻

    无尽奇幻

    光怪陆离的奇幻世界,奇遇、危机、正义与邪恶,抉择与无奈.....祭恋青春--出品
  • 小老师和大老师不得不说的二三事

    小老师和大老师不得不说的二三事

    幼教老师和男大学老师不得不说的二三事。李斯汶和陆澜清不得说的二三事。
  • 让风代替你

    让风代替你

    夏天.和诗学园,在薰衣草的花海中,滴落一感伤的眼泪。夜风儿,一个阳光、活泼的女学生,独自一人时又是另外一面:躺在薰衣草间,与天空中的云对话,诉说自己每天的心事.。凌霄,一个帅气加天才的的男孩儿,在夏日的午后安静的、不经意的邂逅,展开一段浪漫,却忧伤的恋情。几年后,同是薰衣草的夏天,一切都变了。风儿不再,云依然在天空中静静地等待……
  • 劳动者札记

    劳动者札记

    本书是一本真正描写、歌颂劳动者的诗集,谨以献给在不同工作岗位上劳动的人们。作为一名劳动者,作者在劳动之余,采用折叠分行的形式,将所见所闻一一记录下来。
  • 爱在向西行

    爱在向西行

    用一句话说,她很拽,特别拽,拽得他有时恨不能掐死她。可更多的时候他却更喜欢她那拽拽的样子,带点白目,特可爱。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 时空操控者

    时空操控者

    2297年,在人类经历了有史以来最大浩劫之后,拥有时空操控能力的异能者赛德和自己的同伴一起探险浩劫之后世界的故事。神秘的异能者,巨大的金字塔和狮身人面像,沉没的大陆,震惊的史前文明,奇怪的柱中男……这一切之中到底隐藏着一个什么样的秘密?本书剧情火爆,值得一看(异能+科幻+冒险)。