Is the majority always right?

Question

Have you ever been in a situation where you just knew you were right and the majority was wrong? How did you handle it? Did you find the strength to stick to your guns?

Answer 1

No the majority is not always right. Been in that situation many times. Sometimes it just takes people a little longer to move around to the right way of thinking. Winston Churchill was raising flags for years and years in regards to Hitlers build up of the Military and he was looked at as an alarmist. History proved him right.

Answer 2

1) Is the majority always right?

No. But no one is always right.

2) Have you ever been in a situation where you just knew you were right and the majority was wrong?

Yes. I think everyone feels that way sometimes.

3) How did you handle it?

I kept on arguing with the dunderheads.

4) Did you find the strength to stick to your guns?

Not always. Most of the time I keep on arguing with them but once in a while I say, "I give up."

Answer 3

Sadly the "moral(?) majority" in this nation is duped and hamstrung by their adopted DOGMA and continuing forms of indoctrination. They think oppositionally rather than reflexively and in terms of "complementary forces:" American thinking is awash with so many false dichotomies, that the tendency is to "over-simplify the truly complex, and likewise, to MUDDLE that which, normally, would be easily corrected or addressed!

The advances in the cognitive sciences could act preventatively in all this, but our schools don't teach it... it SHOULD be part of every graduating senior's repertoire and working intellect. We are pretty much derelict when it comes to the policing of our own minds. That is why so many can be so wrong and not have a clue... or WANT one: There is a lot of "the ostrich effect" going on in this country, and people would just as soon bury their heads in the sand while insuring their "comfort zones" are not breached or their "creature comforts" not 'lessened'...even marginally! It is never hard to "stick to your guns" when you're certain that you're right.... but sometimes the mass hysteria or blindness is, at least for the time being, out of your control... it is in these instances that you learn to "bow to absurdity" and give your own sanity a break by not letting it get to you... All you can do is witness or testify to the 'truth' as you see it and hope that others eventually "see the light." - But in life, don't expect that justice will always triumph, 'cause it won't... and don't expect vindication... because there is usually as much chance of it not happening as the chances that it will (toss a coin)! Most importantly for yourself, you simply need to "keep the faith."

Answer 4

No, In fact the majority is often wrong and the founding fathers knew this, and that is why we live in a Republic and not a true Democracy. Just look at the Electoral College. Now the Majority does have a voice in that we have the Congress and the Senate.

Answer 5

No, the majority is not ALWAYS right. I state my thought on a matter. I wait for time to confirm my stand because some people will not admit when they're wrong.

Of course, few of the majority will seldom approach the minority with an apology. And then again, the only service an apology will do is validate the majority (participant) who admitted to error.

Answer 6

Ever hear the old saying "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?"
I find an agreement to disagree but disagree with peace usually avoids conflict. I don't strive to make everyone agree with me on everything, but to think for themselves and not follow the crowd.
Yes, I "stick to my guns" because doing what I feel is right is more important than being popular, but If someone can give me a good reason for changing my mind, I will consider it.

Answer 7

No, they are not always right just because the majority rules does not mean the majority aren't fools

Answer 8

The majority is not right necessarily. Fly your flag and see who salutes it. The only person who needs to know what is right is you. Your truth. post-modernism... its all in there.

You find the strength through moral conviction and principles and to be able to honestly look yourself in the mirror.

Look at some of my questions on here for example. Not a lot of bright people here, I must admit, but I post real questions and answer with honesty. Many people answer with blind ignorance, but there are a few who think and earn the respect of true argument and discourse.

Answer 9

It really doesn't matter whether the majority is right or wrong, what matters is when the majority's whims affect your life negatively. And it seems to be an innate characteristic of our species to not give a damn if we are meddling in someone else's life, whether we believe it's for their own good, our own good, or the good of some unseen but ostensibly "downtrodden" third party. We are geniuses at rationalizing any behavior we commit, and at coming up with all kinds of high-sounding and obfuscating jargon to justify ourselves in the process (like "social contract" for example).

Those "rules and laws" were put in place BY the majority and hardly limit the treading of a majority over a minority. The "republic" idea is a good theory, but I don't think anyone around today would honestly say a republic still exists; it was dissolving as soon as the ink was dry on the Constitution -- even Jefferson expanded executive powers once elected President. Talk about hypocrisy. Nevermind that the oft-cited Constitution A) was a hopeless bundle of compromises from the get-go and B) is only as good as whatever current government is upholding it. The average person in the Colonial era was no more just than the average person today, so the few "enlightened" people there were contemplating a new system of limited government still had to appease the masses to get ANYTHING in place.

I see no difference in "representatives" screwing me over and my neighbors screwing me over in a "direct democracy" or one tyrant screwing me over in a dictatorship or monarchy. Any differences are trivial and academic.

As long as there are two or more other individuals who disagree with you on anything, your natural rights are in peril, regardless of the time, place or system of government.

All this race can conceive of at this stage of our evolution is "but shouldn't WE" have / do this or that .... our attention spans are too short to get our minds around leaving everyone alone. We think in terms of acquiring more rights simply through belonging to one group or another (whether that group is a gender, race, family, economic class, religion, or simply a statistical quantity like a majority), rather than in terms of actual equal rights. We think in terms of "rights" to material things rather than abstractions. We think of rights as something to be "remolded" from era to era by some arbitrarily chosen group of people, rather than constant. We're too hung up on left and right to see what's really absolute and what's really relative. We think convenience is a right, and if any minority (the smallest minority is one individual, and ironically, the individual is the building block of ANY group, including "society") stands in the way of that, screw 'em. Just look at eminent domain for example.

Egalitarianism is not utopia, ending paternalism of any shade is utopia.

All you can do is ... nothing. Just hope you never possess anything that someone else wants, including your property, the fruits of your labor and your very life. Majority rule is no friend to liberty, all posturing, empty symbolism, lip service and pep rally fervor to the contrary.

Answer 10

No, the majority is not always right, but they hold the marbles in our society. Best thing to do is state your case and hope that you can sway some people to see things your way. If they don't you have the option of the "I told you so" and that can be a powerful thing in the next discussion.