(no subject)
This was inspired by a post on Alex's journal about problems with democracy. I agreed with her post, and in writing this comment, I decided to inflict my opinion on a wider audience.
So lots of people think that democracy is imperfect in practice. Less than half the population heads to the polls and those that do actually bother to vote tend to do so with about the same amount of thought and research that goes into making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. These problems are really quite troubling, but let's pretend for a moment that they don't exist.
For a moment, let's say that everyone did go out and vote, and they did so responsibly and carefully, and that the opinion of the majority was accurately represented.
Well, hooray for democracy, right? Not quite.
Democracy, it is often said, is a noble idea but is imperfectly carried out. The problem is more severe than this. Democracy, even when perfectly functioning, still operates under the dangerous assumption that the majority is right.
The problem for me comes when the majority is wrong. Not that they didn't carefully consider, not that they voted thoughtlessly. I am talking about when the majority carefully and thoughtfully comes to an utterly wrong conclusion.
Who ever came up with the idea that large masses of people would be smart?
So lots of people think that democracy is imperfect in practice. Less than half the population heads to the polls and those that do actually bother to vote tend to do so with about the same amount of thought and research that goes into making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. These problems are really quite troubling, but let's pretend for a moment that they don't exist.
For a moment, let's say that everyone did go out and vote, and they did so responsibly and carefully, and that the opinion of the majority was accurately represented.
Well, hooray for democracy, right? Not quite.
Democracy, it is often said, is a noble idea but is imperfectly carried out. The problem is more severe than this. Democracy, even when perfectly functioning, still operates under the dangerous assumption that the majority is right.
The problem for me comes when the majority is wrong. Not that they didn't carefully consider, not that they voted thoughtlessly. I am talking about when the majority carefully and thoughtfully comes to an utterly wrong conclusion.
Who ever came up with the idea that large masses of people would be smart?