PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

professing the same stock of religious beliefs can go to war. The
element of their belief which determines conduct is that view of the
facts which they assume.
That is where codes enter so subtly and so pervasively into the making
of public opinion. The orthodox theory holds that a public opinion
constitutes a moral judgment on a group of facts. The theory I am
suggesting is that, in the present state of education, a public
opinion is primarily a moralized and codified version of the facts. I
am arguing that the pattern of stereotypes at the center of our codes
largely determines what group of facts we shall see, and in what light
we shall see them. That is why, with the best will in the world, the
news policy of a journal tends to support its editorial policy; why a
capitalist sees one set of facts, and certain aspects of human nature,
literally sees them; his socialist opponent another set and other
aspects, and why each regards the other as unreasonable or perverse,
when the real difference between them is a difference of perception.
That difference is imposed by the difference between the capitalist
and socialist pattern of stereotypes. "There are no classes in
America," writes an American editor. "The history of all hitherto
existing society is the history of class struggles," says the
Communist Manifesto. If you have the editor's pattern in your mind,
you will see vividly the facts that confirm it, vaguely and
ineffectively those that contradict. If you have the communist
pattern, you will not only look for different things, but you will see
with a totally different emphasis what you and the editor happen to
see in common.
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And since my moral system rests on my accepted version of the facts,
he who denies either my moral judgments or my version of the facts, is
to me perverse, alien, dangerous. How shall I account for him? The
opponent has always to be explained, and the last explanation that we
ever look for is that he sees a different set of facts. Such an
explanation we avoid, because it saps the very foundation of our own
assurance that we have seen life steadily and seen it whole. It is
only when we are in the habit of recognizing our opinions as a partial
experience seen through our stereotypes that we become truly tolerant
of an opponent. Without that habit, we believe in the absolutism of
our own vision, and consequently in the treacherous character of all
opposition. For while men are willing to admit that there are two
sides to a "question," they do not believe that there are two sides to
what they regard as a "fact." And they never do believe it until after
long critical education, they are fully conscious of how second-hand
and subjective is their apprehension of their social data.