THE ENLISTING OF INTEREST
" 12. SELF-INTEREST RECONSIDERED
CHAPTER XI
THE ENLISTING OF INTEREST
I
BUT the human mind is not a film which registers once and for all each
impression that comes through its shutters and lenses. The human mind
is endlessly and persistently creative. The pictures fade or combine,
are sharpened here, condensed there, as we make them more completely
our own. They do not lie inert upon the surface of the mind, but are
reworked by the poetic faculty into a personal expression of
ourselves. We distribute the emphasis and participate in the action.
In order to do this we tend to personalize quantities, and to
dramatize relations. As some sort of allegory, except in acutely
sophisticated minds, the affairs of the world are represented. Social
Movements, Economic Forces, National Interests, Public Opinion are
treated as persons, or persons like the Pope, the President, Lenin,
Morgan or the King become ideas and institutions. The deepest of all
the stereotypes is the human stereotype which imputes human nature to
inanimate or collective things.
The bewildering variety of our impressions, even after they have been
censored in all kinds of ways, tends to force us to adopt the greater
economy of the allegory. So great is the multitude of things that we
cannot keep them vividly in mind. Usually, then, we name them, and let
the name stand for the whole impression.
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