The majority rule has a great influence ..why do you think it's ok or not ok to

United States
May 13, 2010 7:25am CST
While the majority rule has so much influence over much of our politics and laws; it may not always be the best determining factor. If the majority are just 51% what are they 51 % of ? Are they informed, do they know anything about what they are asked to do? What are your thoughts on the majority rules? The majority ruled and we ended up with the holocaust, heroshima and now countless babies killed before they come to life.
1 person likes this
7 responses
@bloggeroo (2167)
• Philippines
13 May 10
The wisdom of the crowd can be useful nowadays esp. when opinions are not coerced. The collective perspectives of the many can help us avoid the unforeseen. Actually, there's a recent book about the phenomenon of group thinking. It's title is, of course, The Wisdom of the Crowds.
• United States
13 May 10
Since I am studying ethics as one of my courses.. on my way to a degree in social/criminal justice; it does point out the errors. If 10 people agree to take a poll and the majority of 10 agree that is 6 people and no one else responds..would you like you country to run accordign to the majority if only 6 opinions are taken into considereation?
@bloggeroo (2167)
• Philippines
13 May 10
That my dear is a rhetorical question. It does not necessarily follow that the majority has the wisdom to lead a country. Likewise, it does not necessarily follow that the minority does not possess the necessary wisdom as the majority. You have to be specific with your conditions.
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
13 May 10
You should also be studying statistics and psychology, littlefranciscan. If you have polled only 10 people, the chances or obtaining a representative sample are far less than if you polled 100 or 1,000 or 10,000. It also happens that most people who complain or 'activate' are those who have a (self-perceived) interest in complaining, so the survey may already be skewed if some refuse to answer it. Most people who are satisfied with a product do not leave feedback and most people who are dissatisfied with a product, likewise, do not leave feedback. Moreover, the feedback you get tends to be negative. People are much more motivated to tell people about their own bad experiences than about their good experiences. All in all, if you want to base decisions on information from a proportion of a population, you need to understand (statistically) how significant your results are. You also need to understand why people answered your questionnaire as they did. MANY answers to questionnaires are critically dependent on the way the questions are asked.
@EvanHunter (4026)
• United States
14 May 10
What majority? Most of the laws that get passed are by the minority, the president gets elected by the minority. Making voting mandatory than you might have the majority in something. Most people are too fed up by the corruption to get involved so the corruption in politics goes on if the majority ever wake up things just might change for the better.
@sid556 (30953)
• United States
14 May 10
Sometimes it just means that all the jerks are on one side.
@geniustiger (1694)
• Philippines
14 May 10
Majority rules means almost all of the group approved and agreed that kind of rules to be followed compared to others. So if it the majority then that law will be implemented than less of votes law. It is also applied here in the Philippines where there is a debate of which what to be majority then it will come up w/ votations. Whose number of votes majority of all then they are the one ruled or win. So there proposed laws will be considered than the other one. Usually if in the group has the same line up it is quite favorable to them if there are less opposition in the said group of people or law makers.
@TTCCWW (579)
• United States
13 May 10
Heroshima and the Holocaust should not be compared. Majority rule had no part in those decissions except that the leaders who made those decissions were elected by a majority. Most of the time it works but I would point out that the biggest majority vote in the American house of congress was 90+ percent to go to war in Iraq. We now know that they were all very miss-informed about the facts so it can have devastating results when it turns to mob rule. Our founding fathers spent much time considering this very problem. Hince, the importance of the majority not making laws for the minority's..... Abortion was a majority rule by a court and had nothing to do with abortion, It was a lawsuit to protect the privacy a women should have with her doctor. If this is an ethics class I hope your professors are not suggesting any of these three issues to study as a basis for majority rule.
• Philippines
14 May 10
Majority is 50% plus 1. The principle is that every person has the same rights and equal to each other in the eyes of the law. It does not matter if their informed or not or if they know anything it is more of the right they have being a citizen. Holocaust is because of Hitler which is a dictator he does not apply with the majority rule. Heroshima, Japan at that time I think is a Imperialist and also does not apply to the majority rule.
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
13 May 10
'Caesar's' way has never been claimed to be perfect, I believe, but Jesus, nevertheless, said "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's" We have to assume that our mundane government will never be perfect but that, nevertheless, we have to submit to it. We can only trust that God sees the inequalities and imperfections and deals with them in His own way. If you have concerns about what goes on in this world and it is clear that you can do nothing about it, then the best thing to do is to present your concerns directly to God and to trust Him to deal with them in His own time. Once you have told Him of your concerns, if you still do not feel easy, you need to talk to Him about how great your trust and faith in Him are (and ask for help). Incidentally, neither the Holocaust nor Hiroshima were really the result of a majority vote (it is complicated in both cases but, basically, democracy was not really involved in either). Abortion has its own pros and cons and depends, to a great extent, on when one believes that the soul enters the body (if at all). Your religion teaches one thing and many others may believe something else. You may have to accept that you are in a minority for the moment and leave it to your trust and faith in God but, at some time, you may have to question your whole basis of faith. Only you and God can sort out the truth from the dogma.