On such issues the
citizen outside can sometimes be provoked to fear or admiration, but
to judgment never. Before he can do anything with the argument, the
fat has to be boiled out of it for him.
3
That can be done by having the representative inside carry on
discussion in the presence of some one, chairman or mediator, who
forces the discussion to deal with the analyses supplied by experts.
This is the essential organization of any representative body dealing
with distant matters. The partisan voices should be there, but the
partisans should find themselves confronted with men, not personally
involved, who control enough facts and have the dialectical skill to
sort out what is real perception from what is stereotype, pattern and
elaboration. It is the Socratic dialogue, with all of Socrates's
energy for breaking through words to meanings, and something more than
that, because the dialectic in modern life must be done by men who
have explored the environment as well as the human mind.
There is, for example, a grave dispute in the steel industry. Each
side issues a manifesto full of the highest ideals. The only public
opinion that is worth respect at this stage is the opinion which
insists that a conference be organized. For the side which says its
cause is too just to be contaminated by conference there can be little
sympathy, since there is no such cause anywhere among mortal men.
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