Walter Lippmann

En una era disgustada con los políticos y los diversos instrumentos de democracia directa, El público fantasma de Walter Lippmann no ha perdido un ápice de actualidad. Esta obra nos muestra al Lippmann más crítico de la democracia americana. De sentimiento antipopulista, este libro defiende el elitismo como una opción intelectual seria y distintiva que cuenta con una larga tradición en America. La visión desmitificadora del sistema americano de Lippmann resuena en el presente. En El público fantasma se discute sobre el hombre desencantado que se ha desilusionado no solo con la democracia sino incluso con la reforma de la sociedad. Para Lippmann el votante medio es incapaz para el gobierno y lo que se denomina público es un mero fantasma. Lippmann desafía a la asumpción capital de la política progresista que pretende dejar la toma de decisiones en las manos del conjunto del pueblo. Considerando el libro más solidamente argumentado y preclaro de Lippmann, está primera edición en lengua española permite al lector sumergirse en el texto a la vez más polémico y sugerente de uno de los autores con mayor influencia en la política y el periodismo de Estados Unidos a lo largo del siglo XX.

"Behold! human beings living in a sort of underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all across the den; they have been here from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them; for the chains are arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from turning round their heads. At a distance above and behind them the light of a fire is blazing, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have before them, over which they show the puppets. I see, he said. And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying vessels, which appear over the wall; also figures of men and animals, made of wood and stone and various materials; and some of the prisoners, as you would expect, are talking, and some of them are silent? This is a strange image, he said, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? True, he said: how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would see only the shadows? Yes, he said. And if they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?"

Public Opinion exposes how media can shape public perception and how that perception changes society. Walter Lippmann is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and visionary.

The most incisive comment on politics to day is indifference. When men and women begin to feel that elections and legislatures do not matter very much, that politics is a rather distant and unimportant exercise, the reformer might as well put to himself a few searching doubts. Indifference is a criticism that cuts beneath oppositions and wranglings by calling the political method itself into question. Leaders in public affairs recognize this. They know that no attack is so disastrous as silence, that no invective is so blasting as the wise and indulgent smile of the people who do not care. I have put forward a preliminary sketch for a theory of politics, a preface to thinking. Like all speculation about human affairs, it is the result of a grapple with problems as they appear in the experience of one man. For though a personal vision may at times assume an eloquent and universal language, it is well never to forget that all philosophies are the language of particular men.

In Liberty and the News Walter Lippmann offers us a stern warning about the importance of reliable news to the survival of a healthy democracy. He railed against bad journalism and drove home the point that the general public must be able to ascertain the truth or democracy is doomed. Walter Lippmann was a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and the father of modern journalism.

In Liberty and the News Walter Lippmann offers us a stern warning about the importance of reliable news to the survival of a healthy democracy. He railed against bad journalism and drove home the point that the general public must be able to ascertain the truth or democracy is doomed. Walter Lippmann was a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and the father of modern journalism.

The most incisive comment on politics to day is indifference. When men and women begin to feel that elections and legislatures do not matter very much, that politics is a rather distant and unimportant exercise, the reformer might as well put to himself a few searching doubts. Indifference is a criticism that cuts beneath oppositions and wranglings by calling the political method itself into question. Leaders in public affairs recognize this. They know that no attack is so disastrous as silence, that no invective is so blasting as the wise and indulgent smile of the people who do not care. I have put forward a preliminary sketch for a theory of politics, a preface to thinking. Like all speculation about human affairs, it is the result of a grapple with problems as they appear in the experience of one man. For though a personal vision may at times assume an eloquent and universal language, it is well never to forget that all philosophies are the language of particular men.

Escrita poco después de volver de París, donde Lippmann había sido testigo de cómo la negociación del Tratado de Versalles se llevaba por delante los planteamientos idealistas con los que EEUU había entrado en la Primera Guerra Mundial, esta pequeña obra se inspira tambien en los grandes cambios vividos en los albores del siglo XX. Estos iban a afectar a las categorias y a la practica del gobierno democratico, como la tendencia hacia un ejecutivo cada vez mas fuerte que, con un Congreso poco capaz de ejercer su funcion de control, otorgando el protagonismo a la opinion publica. Pero el modo en que esta opinion publica se formaba tambien era diferente. Ahora los ciudadanos dependian cada vez mas de los medios para formar sus ideas y esto situaba en el centro del juego politico el ejercicio de un periodismo carente de profesionales preparados, repleto de propaganda y en manos de empresarios dispuestos a pontificar, desinformar o manipular sin limite alguno. Se dibujan asi los problemas que iban a marcar el signo de los tiempos, y entre todos ellos, el interrogante mas acuciante: si la democracia basada en el consenso podria sobrevivir a una epoca en que la manufactura de ese consenso estaba en manos de grandes empresas privadas carentes de cualquier exigencia de responsabilidad. Un siglo despues las dudas y los interrogantes de esta pequeña obra siguen siendo en gran medida los nuestros.