PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

Ruritanian. But the grandiose idea aroused no enthusiasm abroad. So
holding this finest flower of the Ruritanian genius, as their poet
laureate said, to their hearts, Ruritania's statesmen went forth to
divide and conquer. They divided the claim into sectors. For each
piece they invoked that stereotype which some one or more of their
allies found it difficult to resist, because that ally had claims for
which it hoped to find approval by the use of this same stereotype.
The first sector happened to be a mountainous region inhabited by
alien peasants. Ruritania demanded it to complete her natural
geographical frontier. If you fixed your attention long enough on the
ineffable value of what is natural, those alien peasants just
dissolved into fog, and only the slope of the mountains was visible.
The next sector was inhabited by Ruritanians, and on the principle
that no people ought to live under alien rule, they were re-annexed.
Then came a city of considerable commercial importance, not inhabited
by Ruritanians. But until the Eighteenth Century it had been part of
Ruritania, and on the principle of Historic Right it was annexed.
Farther on there was a splendid mineral deposit owned by aliens and
worked by aliens. On the principle of reparation for damage it was
annexed. Beyond this there was a territory inhabited 97% by aliens,
constituting the natural geographical frontier of another nation,
never historically a part of Ruritania. But one of the provinces which
had been federated into Ruritania had formerly traded in those
markets, and the upper class culture was Ruritanian. On the principle
of cultural superiority and the necessity of defending civilization,
the lands were claimed. Finally, there was a port wholly disconnected
from Ruritania geographically, ethnically, economically, historically,
traditionally. It was demanded on the ground that it was needed for
national defense.
In the treaties that concluded the Great War you can multiply examples
of this kind. Now I do not wish to imply that I think it was possible
to resettle Europe consistently on any one of these principles. I am
certain that it was not. The very use of these principles, so
pretentious and so absolute, meant that the spirit of accommodation
did not prevail and that, therefore, the substance of peace was not
there. For the moment you start to discuss factories, mines,
mountains, or even political authority, as perfect examples of some
eternal principle or other, you are not arguing, you are fighting.
That eternal principle censors out all the objections, isolates the
issue from its background and its context, and sets going in you some
strong emotion, appropriate enough to the principle, highly
inappropriate to the docks, warehouses, and real estate. And having
started in that mood you cannot stop. A real danger exists. To meet it
you have to invoke more absolute principles in order to defend what is
open to attack. Then you have to defend the defenses, erect buffers,
and buffers for the buffers, until the whole affair is so scrambled