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38 Henrik Ibsen
You know well enough that things don t really happen
like that.
Hovstad. You re right there; but an editor can t
always do as he likes. He often has to yield to public
opinion in small matters. After all, politics is the chief
thing in life at any rate for a newspaper; and if I
want the people to follow me along the path of emanci
pation and progress, I mustn t scare them away. If they
find such a moral story down in the cellar, they re much
more willing to stand what is printed above it they
feel themselves safer.
Editors of the stamp of Hovstad seldom dare
to express their real opinions. They cannot af
ford to
"
scare away
"
their readers. They gen
erally yield to the most ignorant and vulgar public
opinion; they do not set themselves up against
constituted authority. Therefore the People s
Messenger drops the
"
greatest man "
in town
when it learns that the Burgomaster and the influ
ential citizens are determined that the truth shall
be silenced. The Burgomaster soundly de
nounces his brother s
"
rebellion."
Burgomaster. The public doesn t need new ideas.
The public is best served by the good old recognized
ideas that they have already. ... As an official, you ve
no right to have any individual conviction.
Dr. Stockmann. The source is poisoned, man! Are
you mad? We live by trafficking in filth and garbage.
The whole of our developing social life is rooted in a lie !
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