Mein Kampf
largely in the parliamentary institution, where irresponsibility is positively cultivated in its purest form. But unfortunately the disease has slowly spread to all the life outside, especially to governmental life. Everywhere people have begun to evade responsibility, and for this reason have resorted by preference to inadequate half-measures; these after all seem to reduce the measure of personal responsibility to a minimum.
We have but to consider the attitude of the individual governments toward a series of truly injurious phenomena in our public life, and we shall easily recognize the fearful importance of this universal half-heartedness and fear of responsibility.
I will cite only a few cases from the enormous mass of examples:
Journalistic circles are particularly fond of describing the press as a “great power” in the State. And indeed its importance is truly enormous. It simply cannot be overestimated; it after all is what really continues education in adult years.
By and large, readers may be divided into three groups:
Those who believe everything they read;
Those who no longer believe anything;
Those minds which critically examine what they read, and judge accordingly.
The first group is numerically far the largest. This constitutes the great masses of the people, and accordingly represents the most simple-minded part of the nation. It cannot, however, be segregated by occupation, let us say, but at most by general degrees of intelligence. To it belong all those who have been neither born nor trained for independent thinking, and who believe, partly through incapacity, partly through incompetence, anything which is offered them printed black on white. To it belong also a class of sluggards who could indeed think for themselves, but who out of pure laziness gratefully pick up anything that someone else has already thought, on the humble assumption that he must have worked hard over it. On all these groups, then, representing the great mass of the people, the influence of the press will be enormous. They are unable or unwilling themselves to weigh what is offered them, so that their whole approach to every
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