A “novel” idea
March 8, 2007 12:00 am UncategorizedOk, it’s actually a nonfiction idea- I have very few novels, less than 10. Even though our bookshelves hold over 400 books.
My current read, which is not listed in my bookshelf online since I am waaaay behind on that database, is Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann. 1921.
Lippmann’s topic of interest is how Public Opinion affects politics. He proposes that a true democracy can’t work because the masses are more moved by emotion and rumor than fact. It was explosive when published and poses these questions:
What are the psychological forces that affect understanding?
How do people interpret information, accurate or not?
What emotional reactions did it trigger in them and how did their emotion affect their judgment and actions?
For example: Two men are quarreling, apparently about money, but their passion is inexplicable. Across the table they are quarreling about money, in memory they are back in their youth when a girl jilted one man for the other.
Back to me- let’s talk about me. I have been very hyperemotional lately. My passion is inexplicable. Until, in reading this book I see:
that I am overreacting if the issue is what it seems to be on the surface- but it is not the real issue. I am reacting to what I deem to be a slippery slope. In my mind the current situation is proof of “what I knew would happen”.
(Yes, you are right to be confused; I am not naming the situation. Hopefully I can get my point across without that- and there are actually 3 current situations in which I am showing this pattern )
The thing is, I have a pattern of this- I make dire predictions and when they come true, or even seem to be on the verge of coming true, I react with the full force of having worried for months. This book has helped shed light on this for me, and I am clinging to this sentence on page 12: “this reveals how difficult it is, even for trained lawyers, to suspend response until the returns are in.”
I suppose just admitting the problem is half the battle. Whew. I am going to work really hard on SUSPENDING RESPONSE UNTIL ALL THE RETURNS ARE IN.]]>
