Public opinion produces the power, and the power produces public opinion.
And there appears to be no escape from this position. Nor indeed would there be, if public opinion were something fixed, unchangeable, and governments were able to manufacture the public opinion they needed. And if only a small body of the people were to do so at once, of their own accord, outworn public opinion would fall off us of itself, and a new, living, real opinion would assert itself. And when public opinion should thus have changed without the slightest effort, the internal condition of men's lives which so torments them would change likewise of its own accord . The governments know this, and tremble before this force, and strive in every way they can to counteract or become possessed of it.