Mental Suggestion in Politics

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 50, 22 November 1930, Page 19

Mental Suggestion in Politics

j j XCEPT in Parliament, where speakers must keep, as far as they I " eani to hard details, the old sort of political speech is rapidly M disappearing. Instead of logic, we have now, oftener than not, I ’ £ dexterous handling of the stream of feelings, vague impressions, and prejudices that momentarily affect the minds of an audience. “The result is the creation of a ‘mass’ mental attitude, the strength of which must depend upon the vigour and skill of the speaker. In this light, politics, for multitudes of electors, are liable to become an affair of suggestipn pure and simple. These electors follow their platform leaders with the docility of sheep, and with about equal intelligence. “At a time like the present, when we are beset with some of the gravest problems, political, social, and economic, that ever challenged the good sense of our people, it is truly a grievous misfortune that the electorate is not better equipped intellectually for discharging Its high function of arbiter

of the national destiny. We imagine that to-day we have more among us who can really think, in the strict meaning of that much abused term, than ever we have had in our history before. But they still constitute a relatively small element of our adult population, and must naturally be a constant source of weakness to our democratic polity. “Nothing, therefore, is more urgently required than a raising of the intellectual level throughout the constituencies. Now, that improvement can be helped not a little by a return to a more reasoned style of speaking, and a constant reference to actual facts. “Exhortation the emotional touch, has undeniably a place in political speaking; is not emotion the driving force in democratic politics? But emotion must be instructed if it is to exert a wholesome influence in the State, and not leave us in the enervating grip of sentimentality."—-“Liverpool Post.”- . ■ ■ ' '<• ’ ' ' ■ ■ ' ■■ ■ ■' ' :