thought....

The newspaper disseminates ideas. So, too, does the book and the
pamphlet, and so far as these latter are concerned, their distribution
does not at present rest in the same degree upon their value as
vehicles of advertisement. They are saleable things unaided. The
average book of to-day at its nominal price of six shillings pays in
itself and supports its producers. So in a lesser degree does the
sixpenny pamphlet, but neither book nor pamphlet reach so wide a
public as the halfpenny and penny press. The methods and media of the
book trade have grown up, no man designing them; they change, and no
one is able to foretell the effect of their changes. At present there
is a great movement to cheapen new books, and it would seem the
cheapening is partly to be made up for in enhanced sales and partly by
an increased use of new books for advertisement. Many people consider
this cheapening of new books as being detrimental to the interests of
all but the most vulgarly popular authors. They believe it will
increase the difficulty of new writers, and hopelessly impoverish just
the finest element in our literary life, those original and
exceptional minds who demand educated appreciation and do not appeal
to the man in the street. This may or may not be true; the aspect of
interest to Socialists is that here is a process going on which is
likely to produce the most far-reaching results upon the collective
mind, upon that thought-process of the whole community which is
necessary for the progressive organization of Society. It is a process
which is likely to spread one type of writer far and wide, which may
silence or demoralize another, which may vulgarize and debase
discussion, and which will certainly make literature far more
dependent than it is at present upon the goodwill of advertising
firms. Yet as Socialists they have no ideas whatever in this matter;
their project of activities ignores it altogether....

Books and newspapers constitute two among the chief mental organs of a
modern community, but almost, if not equally important is that great
apparatus for the dissemination of ideas made up of the pulpits and
lecture halls of a thousand sects and societies. Towards all these
things Socialism has hitherto maintained an absurd attitude of
_laissez faire_....

So far I have looked at the collective mind as a thought process only,
but it has much graver and more immediate functions in a democratic
State. It has