The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
One of the most significant and influential results of the wide and
rapid circulation of newspapers is to be found in the simultaneous
impression made on the popular mind throughout the vast extent of our
country. Flashed on the telegraph, daguerreotyped and made visible in
the newspaper, every event of any importance, occurring in any part of
the world, is communicated, almost at the same moment, to many millions
of people. All are impressed at the same time with the same thoughts, or
with such kindred ideas as will naturally arise from reflection upon the
same facts. Humor, with its thousand tongues, is hushed; and the
telegraph, under control of agents employed to sift the truth, and
responsible for it, takes its place. Falsehood still may, and, indeed,
often does tamper with this mighty instrument; but its speed is so great
that it can overtake even falsehood, and soon counteract and correct the
mischief. What is the import of this momentous fact,--the instantaneous
communication of information over a continent, and the participation of
all minds, in the same thoughts, virtually at the same time? Undoubtedly
the result must be a closeness of intercourse and a completeness of
cooperation, which will give to the social organization a power and
efficiency in accomplishing great ends, such as no human thought has
ever heretofore conceived. Society becomes a unity in the highest and
truest sense of that term; like the bodily frame of the individual man,
it is connected throughout all its parts by a network of nerves, every
member sympathizing with every other, feeling the same impulses, having
the same knowledge, and forming judgments upon the same facts. When
sentiments are perfectly harmonious among men, the increase of power is
not merely in proportion to numbers. It grows in a much higher ratio.
The effect is something like that of multiplying the surfaces in a
galvanic battery, or increasing the coils in an electro-magnetic
apparatus. Passion in a multitude becomes a tornado. Eloquence moves a
large audience with a power vastly greater than when the listeners are
few. Similar is that strange influence which fashion exerts in all
societies. Nor is this sympathetic multiplication of power limited to
passion or artistic sentiment: it extends to opinions and all
intellectual phenomena. A person feeling strong emotions or having
profound convictions, and knowing them to be shared by millions of
others, inevitably experiences a strengthening and intensifying
influence from the sympathy of his fellows. If he knew himself to be
solitary and alone in his opinions, unsupported by that human sympathy
which every one craves, his ideas would languish, and be greatly
diminished in their power. It is only great minds, of exceptional
character, which can do battle, single-handed, against the world. Most
men require to be propped and supported on all sides, by the great power
of public opinion. The approach to unanimity of thought promoted by the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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