A Historical Investigation Of Walter Lippmann’s Political Thoughts On "The Good Society"(1908-1955)

Walter Lippmann(1889-1974)was an important American journalist,columnist and political theorist in the 20 th century.He was the master of the news media at that time.Lippmann lived in an era when the United States ascended to global leadership and the country was transforming to industrialization and modernization.However,with the great development of the American society as a whole,the phenomenon of "the rich are crisscrossed in the fields while the poor have no place to stand" became more and more serious.Traditional Christian teachings lost their moral binding force completely in the face of money,and laissez-faire led to many serious economic crises.When almost all traditional theories had lost their effectiveness in the early 20 th century,a group of progressives,represented by Lippmann,began to build modern theories that could adapt to the modern society and lead people to adapt to the rapidly changing industrial society at that time.Lippmann’ s The Good Society thought to humanism and liberalism and the basis of the separation of powers,at the same time absorbing the traditional Christian theology,Fabian doctrine and progressive theory,argues that the administrative power and religious response to national governance play a positive utility,the pursuit of a good,not a best society,emphasize The Good Society is a personal experience setback at least the personal goal can be realized in society.By analyzing Christian doctrines,Lippmann affirmed that abstinence and moderation are still of great significance for modern people to establish faith and form mature personality after removing the influence of religion.By denying the excessive intervention of laissez-faire and Roosevelt’s New Deal,he proposed to establish a government that matched the ability of executive officials.In the era of the imbalance of the three powers and the overflowing of Jacobinism,Lippmann proposed that the secularized religion should play more of its moral education function,and reiterated that public philosophy(the new natural law)must be passed down from generation to generation in people’s minds so that the American society would not be in danger of overturning.Lippmann’ s idea of The Good Society and his social practice have brought a lasting and far-reaching influence to the time and even to the present.Lippmann himself has become a representative of the American spirit.Lippmann and his friends practiced and constantly adjusted the specific content of the idea of a beautiful society,so as to get out of the ideological confusion of the contemporary people,ease the domestic contradictions of the United States,and then make their due contribution to the cooling of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union,and effectively promote the development of the American society.