The Shaping of Public Opinion

The shaping of public opinion is a matter of concern to men who live together, and has become yet more so with the adding of so many millions to the world’s population, and extension of mass communication. Abraham Lincoln once said: ” He who molds public sentiment goes deeper then he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.” And what was true in his day is true with increased intensity in ours. The difficulty arises in the fact that the ability to influence people is not always accompanied by a like degree of integrity or honesty or honorable motive. A man may be a spellbinder and at the same time unsafe. A man may wield great influence without regard to his morals or his ethics or his purposes. A silver-tongued orator may use his gift for either good or questionable ends. Eloquence is not always the companion of truth. A persuasive leader can sway the sentiments and the actions of many followers more honest but less discriminating than he. The first recorded occurrence that we have of such misdirection of the part of an able but not honorable leader comes down to us from the account of things before time began when Lucifer, a brilliant personality, aged war in heaven and misled a third of the hosts of heaven to their own down fall and to his. And that is one of the regrettable things about misdirected leadership⎯that not alone do the leaders pay the penalties of their follies, but likewise the followers, of which history offers altogether too may tragic examples. To mislead men either in mind or in spirit may be as serious an offense as abusing them physically, even though it is not as easy to apprehend nor as quick to arouse resentment, nor as definitely punishable by the laws of men⎯yet it is an offense against man and God and will not go unnoticed or unrequited. And all this we should remember⎯we who read and listen, and we who write and speak⎯for the molding of public opinion is a solemn and sacred trust.