Page:The Kingdom of Man - Ralph Vary Chamberlin 1938.djvu/38

32 carried by the press; but this is hardly so dangerous as the persistent effort to influence public opinion by subtle means of propaganda. The spread of such propaganda in earlier days through books, pamphlets, isolated newspapers and public speakers was comparatively slow. Today some of the new inventions make for speed and directness of communication and have far surpassed the newspapers in importance as means of propaganda and emotional appeal. The moving-pictures and radio can stir and mobilize with incredible speed public opinion and that dangerous power—mob emotion. By such means we have recently seen the peoples under dictatorships in a remarkably short time brought to a unified way of thinking. An English statesman is reported to have said recently that he considers the radio and the moving-picture to be the two most dangerous inventions, not forgetting the engines of war which come into play after mass emotion has been roused. The impending perfection of television will add greatly to these agencies. As a result, changes in ideas and institutions may in the future be brought about with a suddenness that will be appalling.

The dangers from the misuse of these agencies of propaganda can be combated only by a widespread critical attitude backed by the will to reach the bottom of things in spite of all selfish motives that may tend to obscure the issues. The basic need here is the promotion and practice of that rigorous, intellectual honesty upon which truth depends, for social progress and effectiveness, in turn, depend upon that very truth. Speaking of this spirit and method spreading from science, Dr. Whitehead says: "This balance of mind has become part of the tradition which infects cultivated thought. It is the salt which keeps life sweet. The main business of universities ought to be to transmit this tradition as a wide-spread influence from generation to generation."

"When all criticism is done," says Whetham, "we cannot but pause, wondering and amazed at the majesty of the temple of science. Whether we stand within . . . or pass without and trace the success with which it interprets . . . we are equally fain to confess that it is the grandest work of the human intellect . . . It stands a triumph of truth and patient perseverance, and an eternal sanctuary for the human mind."

Modern culture has come into being through science and the control of the forces of Nature which it has yielded. The rationalistic spirit of science is the spirit moulding the modern world, its implication being not so much the importance of any particular truth as the right to seek truth and to extend it unhampered by restrictions or