10 October

Walter Lippmann was skeptical about democracy. He thought the idea of a ‘public’ was a myth, that there is no such thing as some collective entity called the public. So he called it ‘The Phantom Public’. John Dewey then came along, and said hang on, there is a public, but it only appears around specific issues. When something isn’t working in a society, people mobilise around that thing and form a public, until that thing is solved. And I think he was right. You can see that every day, how what generates groups is issues, each new issue might generate a new group. Horse racing ads on the Opera House generates a different group to tax cuts for business. Rather than oppose individuals and groups, I think we should always see groups as the way individuals join together to resolve specific issues. Also I think why people seem apathetic in relation to politics in general, but passionate about individual issues.