Public Opinion — Chapter III Contact and Opportunity

1. 1. Government propaganda during World War I required an immense machinery, including over 6,000 press releases and 755,190 speeches by 75,000 Four Minute Men, to reach the entire American public.
2. 2. In peacetime, there are no comparable efforts to circulate ideas, leaving vast groups and classes only vaguely aware of much that is happening.
3. 3. The size of a person's income significantly affects their access to the world beyond their neighborhood, as money can overcome most tangible obstacles to communication.
4. 4. Social sets, which are like biological clans tied to love, marriage, and family, determine what opinions are admissible and how they are judged.
5. 5. The highest social set, which includes diplomats, high financiers, and upper military circles, is fundamentally international and blurs the distinction between public and private affairs.
6. 6. Most people's opinions about larger societal relationships are not purely their own but have trickled down from high society through provincial social sets.