[Peace-discuss] "The newspapers (read television) are the ruling power"

[John W.]

This Thoreau dude sounds for all the world like Carl!!  Imagine how famous 
Carl would be if in these times the public speech were still the 
predominant form of entertainment, as it was then.



At 08:20 AM 1/14/2008, David Green wrote:

> From Henry David Thoreau, "Life Without Principle"
>
>"Life without Principle" originated as "What Shall it Profit," a lecture 
>delivered at Railroad Hall in Providence, Rhode Island, December 6, 1854. 
>It was delivered four more times in Massachusetts in 1855, and once in New 
>Jersey in 1856.
>
>What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and 
>inhuman, that practically, I have never fairly recognized that it concerns 
>me at all. The newspapers, I perceive, devote some of their columns 
>specially to politics or government without charge; and this, one would 
>say, is all that saves it; but as I love literature and to some extent the 
>truth also, I never read those columns at any rate. I do not wish to blunt 
>my sense of right so much. I have not got to answer for having read a 
>single President's Message. A strange age of the world this, when empires, 
>kingdoms, and republics come a-begging to a private man's door, and utter 
>their complaints at his elbow! I cannot take up a newspaper but I find 
>that some wretched government or other, hard pushed and on its last legs, 
>is interceding with me, the reader, to vote for it, — more importunate 
>than an Italian beggar; and if I have a mind to look at its certificate, 
>made, perchance, by some benevolent merchant's clerk, or the skipper that 
>brought it over, for it cannot speak a word of English itself, I shall 
>probably read of the eruption of some Vesuvius, or the overflowing of some 
>Po, true or forged, which brought it into this condition. I do not 
>hesitate, in such a case, to suggest work, or the almshouse; or why not 
>keep its castle in silence, as I do commonly? The poor President, what 
>with preserving his popularity and doing his duty, is completely 
>bewildered. The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government is 
>reduced to a few marines at Fort Independence. If a man neglects to read 
>the Daily Times, government will go down on its knees to him, for this is 
>the only treason in these days.
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