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Democracy Requires Minority Rights
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Democracy Requires Minority Rights
Yet majority rule can not be the only expression of "supreme power" in a democracy. If so, as Tocqueville notes above, the majority would too easily tyrannize the minority. Thus, while it is clear that democracy must guarantee the expression of the popular will through majority rule, it is equally clear that it must guarantee that the majority will not abuse use its power to violate the basic and inalienable rights of the minority.
http://www.democracyweb.org/majority/principles.php
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"The majority" tend to follow the path of least resistance married to the path of greatest perceived profit. (But History has shown that perceptions can be wrong!)
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"The majority" tend to follow the path of least resistance married to the path of greatest perceived profit. (But History has shown that perceptions can be wrong!)
And throughout History it has been the rare individuals who have dared to buck convention who have given us collectively our greatest breakthroughs from which the majority now benefit.
Perhaps it's "the majority" that gives stability and "the individual" that fuels growth? If either tries to take precedent over the other we end up with stagnation in the former case; and something akin to cancer (out of control growth with few checks/balances) in the latter!
I think both need to be there in balance.
The majority need to respect the individual (we're currently seeking a path WAY out-of-balance towards this) AND the individual needs to respect the majority (we totally suck at this! It doesn't service the ego!)
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If it is important to you then it is relevant to at least one person. That's relevant enough. All opinions and ideas are worthy to be heard no matter how crazy it might seem to someone else. If it makes sense to someone, why not?
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Everyone has an opinion and I respect each opinion as I, also, respect the person.
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Well... you could start by counting how many of these responses you dismiss vs how many you care to respond to.
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