Re: Wisdom of the Majority

2008-3-6 13:16:00

Dan wrote:

"I was researching the terms 'democracy,' 'tyranny of the majority,' 'Argumentum ad populum,' tyranny, 'Cognitive dissonance,' etc., and ran across the following new (2004) book.

"Has anyone read it?"

JJ:

Looks like an interesting book. Perhaps there is a principle we could call the Leadership Principle. It could be expressed as follows:

Decisions by a minority work excellently if that minority are the lights who are at the top of the leadership hierarchy and supported by the majority.

Decisions by the minority leads to disaster if the hierarchy is not composed of the lights, but the self-serving. This is the situation in which we now find ourselves and in this case the will and decisions of the majority are wiser than their leaders.

For example, the majority of people want a balanced budget, but the leadership does not. Who is the wiser? In this case it is the people -- the majority.