‘Oh, say boys, don’t forget that sore, sweating, tired feet often
have a wonderful penetrating and terrific odor which is very
unpleasant in the home or with company. Asklepian’s Antiseptic cures
all the trouble. Pharmakopoles Pharmakopolides’.
“Pharmakopoles moves in our best society, as the saying is, and is
foremost amongst those who sacrifice to Zeus. Does it not seem to you
that we have here an example of that which must be expected?”
“Undoubtedly,” said Megaphon and Chærephon together.
“And will not also the art of the newspaper often be vulgar? For it
will be used to entertain the demos.”
“We agree with you,” they said.
“And they will try to amuse the children, too,” I said. “Our young ones
will be taught many things they should not know, and the ugly will seem
fair to them, and the fair ugly.[15] For that which is vulgar will seem
to have power when seen in print.”
* * * * *
X. “And I think we shall have something still worse,” I said. “For
I fear our morals, too, will stand in some danger. Consider the
advertisements of those who would sell the barbarian potion,[16] and
the weed of Lethe,[17] and other like doubtful wares, and among them
books professing to tell of such mysteries as only sires should tell
their sons, and mothers their daughters. Will not our epheboi be
constantly assured how harmless these things are, and how pleasant to
have, and thus become convinced that they are good rather than evil?
For the printed word is a power, as I said, and we fear less the
dangers we see most often.”
“At least,” said Chærephon, “there will be danger if we do not guard
ourselves.”
* * * * *
XI. “You speak truly,” I said; “there will. But I bethink me of still
another danger now, and one that will affect not individuals, but
classes. Shall I speak of it?”
“Go on,” Chærephon said.
“Very well,” I said. “The demos is composed of men and women, and is
but human. The demos likes sympathy, and the demos is also vain, and
likes to be talked of, and to see its own name in print. If, then, the
newspaper would make friends with the demos, it will need to tell of
the demos and what it does--of its leaders, and of its virtues, and
in like manner of its vanities; for it is no less vain than those it
rails at. It will thus flatter the demos by making it feel as important
as its betters, and teaching it to think it knows as much as they,
about not a few things, but many. It will speak much of the demos’s
sufferings, and of the demos’s worth, and of the demos’s rights, and
it will make much use of sentimentality, and little of real sentiment,
reason, and fact; for reason is a troublesome thing. Will not this be
an excellent way for the newspaper to win friends in great numbers, O
Megaphon?”
“It cannot be denied,” he said.
“And if this is true, will it not increase its favor with the demos if
it also assails those who have store of goods, or gifts bestowed by the
Muses, and makes it appear that their riches are due to accidents of
fortune or unjust workings of the law, that their talents are not above
the ordinary, and that the gifts of the Muses have no value whatsoever?
For it will be among the demos that the greatest number of the paper’s
friends must be won.”
“Yes,” Megaphon said, “in that manner it would surely make friends.”
“It appears, then,” I said, “that flattery of the demos and
fault-finding with the few will be an excellent means for the newspaper
to become rich. And consider the evil this will work among us. For the
newspaper will make the few seem to the many richer and prouder and
more selfish than they are, and the many seem to themselves poorer and
more humble and virtuous than they are; besides making them wise in
their own conceit, so that they will become meddlesome by trying to do
many things of which they know nothing, and by doing them all awry. For
the demos is a many-headed beast, lighter and more fickle than
‘the moon, th’ inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,’
as one of our poets saith.“
“And consider,” I said, “the newspapers of the few--for some will not
enslave themselves wholly to Hermes, the God of Gain--how they will be
misunderstood, and blamed without desert. The demos will be told by its
leaders and its newspapers that the papers of the few pretend to know
more than other folk, and that they are against the poor and secretly
in favor of the rich. And they will not receive them into their homes,
and will take little account of them. And that will make the task of
these papers difficult, and they will lose hope, and will be inclined
to counsel the few to distrust overmuch the many, just as the papers of
the many will counsel the many to distrust the few. So that the many
and the few will be encouraged to suspect, distrust, and hate each
other. Will they not?”
“Yes,” Megaphon said. “At least, so you make it appear.”
“And this will be very harmful to the State?”
“I agree,” he said.
* * * * *
XII. “Then,” I said, “we seem to be at this point in our discussion:
that there will be danger that the newspaper will not speak the truth
impartially and thus educate the many, but will give them only phases
of the truth, deceitful news, and interested opinions, misleading
instead of educating them; and instead of forming their opinions for
the better, it will rather follow their opinions, and often encourage
them in thinking that which they should not think; and instead of
improving their taste, it will confirm it, and degrade the taste of
those who should know better; and it will counsel men to think ill one
of another, and thus work damage to the State. Does this seem to sum up
our conclusions?”
“It does,” Megaphon said.
“And does not this seem to you quite the opposite of what a short time
ago you said was to be expected?”
“So it seems,” he said.
* * * * *
XIII. “And still,” I said, “I do not think that this is the worst that
may befall. I have another matter in mind. Shall we discuss that also,
O Megaphon and Chærephon?”
“Yes, by Zeus,” they said, “by all means.”
“Very well, then. What,” I said, “do you think will be the effect
on the mind of the demos when it shall read daily of so much
murder, violence, stealing, and deceit, and so many mishaps caused
by carelessness? Will it not surely conceive that mankind is wholly
selfish and lawless and not to be trusted, and hopelessly bad? You are
aware, are you not, that men judge of the world by what part of it
they see and read of, and that this they cannot help? And in the case
whereof we speak, what they read will be mostly bad, and will have
greater weight than what they see about them. For all evil things seem
dreadful at a distance.”
“I see the force of your argument,” Megaphon said.
“Doubtless,” I said, “you have been told of the man without sight who
was made acquainted with the great African beast.[18] Having been led
to the animal, he was permitted to grasp only its tail; whereupon,
‘This animal,’ he said, ‘is very like a rope.’ Now I think that one who
had touched another part would have made a different answer. Would he
not?”
“You speak truly,” Chærephon said. “It would be according to the part
he touched.”
“Then let us continue,” I said. “The followers of Zeus and Athena,
what will they think when they shall have been told again and again,
sometimes with truth and sometimes falsely, of priests or worshippers
that have loved not wisely but basely, or have stolen, or cheated,
or misbehaved in any other wise? Will they not soon distrust all who
sacrifice to Zeus and Athena and the other blessed gods, and will they
not of necessity disbelieve in them? For they will think that the gods
have failed to make their worshippers good men. And thus the demos will
become skeptical of all religion, and our temples will be empty. What
do you think?”
“I think it will be as you say,” he said; “for indeed, I have already
seen it happen with men as you describe.”
“And what will be the effect if the demos is told from early youth to
manhood, not once in a while but every day, of the lies of those who
would be rulers of the State, the knavery of those who buy and sell,
the baseness of those entrusted with their neighbors’ money, and the
unseemly means employed by men of every class to circumvent their
enemies? Will it not be to convince the demos that all men are to be
won by gain, and that no one may be trusted? Will it not suspect,
after so many deeds of baseness, on the part of its leaders as well as
others, that no law is proposed, no deed performed, however fair in
its seeming, that has not an unworthy purpose at its root, and that no
pleasant word is spoken and no fair promise given but with intent to
deceive?”
“You seem to speak truly,” Megaphon said.
“And will it not become skeptical of all men of any calling whatsoever,
in even greater measure than of our priests and our religion?”
“In even greater measure,” he said; “for men are loath to give up their
faith in the gods.”
“And will it not say that to know the truth is impossible, inasmuch as
every man obscures the face of truth for his own advantage? And is it
not plain as regards the State, in what condition it then will be?”
“What?” said Chærephon and Megaphon.
“Every citizen,” I said, “will be convinced that many of his fellows
are rascals, and that all are selfish and deceitful, and will say in
his heart: ‘What boots it for me alone to speak the truth, or to do
for Zeus and my neighbor that which brings travail to me?’ And he will
conclude by doing as he has been taught that all men do. And this is
the very worst of ill fortune for the State, for its citizens to be
filled with suspicion and distrust and hopelessness, and to think they
should act for no one’s welfare but their own. This is evil thinking at
its worst.[19] Is it not, O Chærephon and Megaphon?”
“It is, in very truth,” Chærephon said.
* * * * *