Go Ahead and Laugh at my essay
My essay that I have been doing for 4 hours, but I kinda liked and am tired and thinking about doing an all nighter instead of sleeping for 3 hours.
Jeff Eck
Intro to Philosophy
2/28/05
On the Tyranny of the Minority vs. Rule of the Majority
John Stuart Mill essay On Liberty poses many questions to the social and political growth of a society. One of the many questions being how much liberty should be given to the individual, and how much must be kept from the individual to be sure that the society as a whole is maintained and kept strong enough to protect the individual. This being said there is another portion of society that regulates another portion of the human condition and that is the public opinion, the often over looked portion of humanities control over one another. It is not really a purposefully done action; it is more of societal collective sub-conscious that controls people. A society has many things in common like life styles, religion, living conditions, and experiences that help the forming of its morals. This is of course where public opinion stems from, a societies morals and general agreements on how ways should by it experiences. This of course can lead to many discourses between a society and an individual because despite a general agreement on issues there is of course always details that people disagree on because it is impossible to agree on every aspect of life. But Mill’s believed that there was a great danger in the societies views on life being overly domineering on the individual and thus preventing him from his own form of freedom. That is the Tyranny of the Majority as I interpreted it. But that does mean that the majority should not decide it’s own fate as a civilization. My Goal will be to determine the difference between Rule by Majority and the Tyranny of the Majority, and that majority ruling is still one of the most promising forms of governing as long as the society is not overstepping its bounds.
First I will start with my definition of the bounds of rule by majority, rule bye majority is in a form the American government. It is voting to determine the laws, rules, regulations, representatives, and statutes that the people will be required to follow. This is the basic principle that people around the world have fought and died over around the world for years to achieve. The ability to determine there own fate and not have it be decided by a ruler that has no reason to listen to the people. With a rule by majority whatever the society feels like it needs or when it feels an old way must be mended when the majority of the people want it theoretically it can be changed. The people deciding how things should be for the person, that is Basis of freedom right there (a person being able to determine there own fate and how they get there). Rule by Majority is what these elements include; it promotes change, the constant infusion of new ideas and incorporates the ever-changing needs of a society as a whole to prosper.
Tyranny of the Majority is not this. The Tyranny of the Majority he speaks of has to do with more of how the views and beliefs of a community collide. It is not so much the governing bodies control over the people it is your neighbors not thinking that the way your raise your kids is the right way, It is the way that the general public looks at gay marriage, it is the way that you are looked down on saying that you’re a republican any where within the Seattle city limits. It is societies views that you are forced to follow or you risk becoming a social outcast of the people. Now this of course can be a very detrimental thing to a minority of people that are trying to spread a view, for if the have this view the rest of the people won’t even listen to it because it is not of the norm and thus they must be wrong. A good example of this is how at one time teachers were fired from their jobs for even mentioning the word evolution. It was heretical talk that was corrupting the minds of the students. It was such a clash against the norm of the people that the teachers that were teaching these ideas would lose their jobs. This I believe is what he meant by the Tyranny of the Majority, actions that stemmed the growth and learning and acquisition of new ideas of a society.
What keeps a society on an ever-evolving road to improve its well being is that it doesn’t grow stale, it keeps pushing boundaries. Mills even states this in his chapter “Of Individuality” on page 69. He says that china had grown stale due to the people have the same idea every where, and what made Europe different was that every country had different view and the overlapping of ideas is what kept the European countries in a constant progression. Mill’s seems to state on many occasions that individuality is needed Ideas are needed to be different, they must clash they must mutate they must change. That is all part of the growing a society must go through or they will fade and go to the wayside. When the Tyranny of the Majority turns a cold should to the minority that carry a different view you aren’t just keeping a group of people out of the society, you are harming the growth of the people as a whole. Tolerance is the first step needed for integration.
Then there is the arguments.
The one argument that I think that can be made is that the Tyranny of the Majority is impossible to avoid and it does equate to a Rule by Majority. That they are one in the same no matter how you try to change it around in your mind. To deny that people are not controlled by what people think of them as to the extent where the will do nothing to disturb the Majority because man has an almost instinctive need for acceptance. Acceptance is protection and it has always been like that. People will stay in with majority for the simple fact that it is much easier to get by and not be disturbed.
Then there was the counter argument.
But there are people out there that are so set in their ways they will fight change to the very end and I really can’t figure out where they are coming from. They would like to live in the time of their youth and pretend that things are just as they were when they were taught their views on how things should be. But luckily I believe that these types of people are in the minority and that as a whole people are still accepting of change and given enough exposure to an idea they will eventually accept it. You can look at The Gay Marriage controversy as of late, 20-40 years ago being gay was no where nearly as socially acceptable as it is now. Over time it has become an acceptable norm to the American public People are of the progressive nature and when it comes to change there is no real sign of it stopping any time soon.
There is no real guessing on how much one group of people or a person from a minority part of the society may contribute at one point to the well being of a society. Be it an invention, cure for a disease, a great leader for human rights, there are just to many things to take into account on what may happen for the future. People as a whole I think are still in a progressive state of being so I don’t think there is any real worry of a societal decay that some people are predicting for America.
This is why you don't really wait til the last minute for everything.
Jeff Eck
Intro to Philosophy
2/28/05
On the Tyranny of the Minority vs. Rule of the Majority
John Stuart Mill essay On Liberty poses many questions to the social and political growth of a society. One of the many questions being how much liberty should be given to the individual, and how much must be kept from the individual to be sure that the society as a whole is maintained and kept strong enough to protect the individual. This being said there is another portion of society that regulates another portion of the human condition and that is the public opinion, the often over looked portion of humanities control over one another. It is not really a purposefully done action; it is more of societal collective sub-conscious that controls people. A society has many things in common like life styles, religion, living conditions, and experiences that help the forming of its morals. This is of course where public opinion stems from, a societies morals and general agreements on how ways should by it experiences. This of course can lead to many discourses between a society and an individual because despite a general agreement on issues there is of course always details that people disagree on because it is impossible to agree on every aspect of life. But Mill’s believed that there was a great danger in the societies views on life being overly domineering on the individual and thus preventing him from his own form of freedom. That is the Tyranny of the Majority as I interpreted it. But that does mean that the majority should not decide it’s own fate as a civilization. My Goal will be to determine the difference between Rule by Majority and the Tyranny of the Majority, and that majority ruling is still one of the most promising forms of governing as long as the society is not overstepping its bounds.
First I will start with my definition of the bounds of rule by majority, rule bye majority is in a form the American government. It is voting to determine the laws, rules, regulations, representatives, and statutes that the people will be required to follow. This is the basic principle that people around the world have fought and died over around the world for years to achieve. The ability to determine there own fate and not have it be decided by a ruler that has no reason to listen to the people. With a rule by majority whatever the society feels like it needs or when it feels an old way must be mended when the majority of the people want it theoretically it can be changed. The people deciding how things should be for the person, that is Basis of freedom right there (a person being able to determine there own fate and how they get there). Rule by Majority is what these elements include; it promotes change, the constant infusion of new ideas and incorporates the ever-changing needs of a society as a whole to prosper.
Tyranny of the Majority is not this. The Tyranny of the Majority he speaks of has to do with more of how the views and beliefs of a community collide. It is not so much the governing bodies control over the people it is your neighbors not thinking that the way your raise your kids is the right way, It is the way that the general public looks at gay marriage, it is the way that you are looked down on saying that you’re a republican any where within the Seattle city limits. It is societies views that you are forced to follow or you risk becoming a social outcast of the people. Now this of course can be a very detrimental thing to a minority of people that are trying to spread a view, for if the have this view the rest of the people won’t even listen to it because it is not of the norm and thus they must be wrong. A good example of this is how at one time teachers were fired from their jobs for even mentioning the word evolution. It was heretical talk that was corrupting the minds of the students. It was such a clash against the norm of the people that the teachers that were teaching these ideas would lose their jobs. This I believe is what he meant by the Tyranny of the Majority, actions that stemmed the growth and learning and acquisition of new ideas of a society.
What keeps a society on an ever-evolving road to improve its well being is that it doesn’t grow stale, it keeps pushing boundaries. Mills even states this in his chapter “Of Individuality” on page 69. He says that china had grown stale due to the people have the same idea every where, and what made Europe different was that every country had different view and the overlapping of ideas is what kept the European countries in a constant progression. Mill’s seems to state on many occasions that individuality is needed Ideas are needed to be different, they must clash they must mutate they must change. That is all part of the growing a society must go through or they will fade and go to the wayside. When the Tyranny of the Majority turns a cold should to the minority that carry a different view you aren’t just keeping a group of people out of the society, you are harming the growth of the people as a whole. Tolerance is the first step needed for integration.
Then there is the arguments.
The one argument that I think that can be made is that the Tyranny of the Majority is impossible to avoid and it does equate to a Rule by Majority. That they are one in the same no matter how you try to change it around in your mind. To deny that people are not controlled by what people think of them as to the extent where the will do nothing to disturb the Majority because man has an almost instinctive need for acceptance. Acceptance is protection and it has always been like that. People will stay in with majority for the simple fact that it is much easier to get by and not be disturbed.
Then there was the counter argument.
But there are people out there that are so set in their ways they will fight change to the very end and I really can’t figure out where they are coming from. They would like to live in the time of their youth and pretend that things are just as they were when they were taught their views on how things should be. But luckily I believe that these types of people are in the minority and that as a whole people are still accepting of change and given enough exposure to an idea they will eventually accept it. You can look at The Gay Marriage controversy as of late, 20-40 years ago being gay was no where nearly as socially acceptable as it is now. Over time it has become an acceptable norm to the American public People are of the progressive nature and when it comes to change there is no real sign of it stopping any time soon.
There is no real guessing on how much one group of people or a person from a minority part of the society may contribute at one point to the well being of a society. Be it an invention, cure for a disease, a great leader for human rights, there are just to many things to take into account on what may happen for the future. People as a whole I think are still in a progressive state of being so I don’t think there is any real worry of a societal decay that some people are predicting for America.
This is why you don't really wait til the last minute for everything.