E-text prepared by Matt Whittaker, Juliet Sutherland,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(/)
A PREFACE TO POLITICS
BY
WALTER LIPPMANN
"A God wilt thou create for thyself
out of thy seven devils."
MITCHELL KENNERLEY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1914
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
MITCHELL KENNERLEY
Contents
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| Introduction | ||
| I. | Routineer and Inventor | 1 |
| II. | The Taboo | 34 |
| III. | The Changing Focus | 53 |
| IV. | The Golden Rule and After | 86 |
| V. | Well Meaning but Unmeaning: the Chicago Vice Report | 122 |
| VI. | Some Necessary Iconoclasm | 159 |
| VII. | The Making of Creeds | 204 |
| VIII. | The Red Herring | 247 |
| IX. | Revolution and Culture | 273 |
INTRODUCTION
The most incisive comment on politics to-dayis indifference. When men and women beginto feel that elections and legislatures do notmatter very much, that politics is a rather distantand unimportant exercise, the reformer mightas well put to himself a few searching doubts.Indifference is a criticism that cuts beneath oppositionsand wranglings by calling the politicalmethod itself into question. Leaders in publicaffairs recognize this. They know that no attackis so disastrous as silence, that no invective isso blasting as the wise and indulgent smile ofthe people who do not care. Eager to believethat all the world is as interested as t