REPORTERS AT THE SITE OF A MASS IMMUNIZATION CAUTIOUSLY EXPLAIN THE EPIDEMIC TO THE PUBLIC
Battling for the minds of the public. Promoting mental and emotional health. Injecting potent information into the body politic to boost its resistance to dangerous ideas (ruling: class contempt for the "teeming masses", censorship, propaganda). Walling dangerous elements out of society (paranoia). Quarantining oneself from people who excite unhealthy emotions (letting a fever run its course, indulging perverse or destructive desires). Feeling socially alienated vs. enjoying the outsider's analytical clarity. Gnawing sense of social impotence. Gaining access to power. Forcing an issue. Gaining the psychological advantage by getting under people's skin. Disseminating vital information (popular science).