It seems that in the West, still a sense of moral & spiritual obligation to the Baha'i consultation and to its "majority decision" is lacking, and most Administrators, still resisting detachment from their "cults of individualism", function as individuals rather than groups. Still it is impossible for many Administrators to submit to the will of the majority in a Committee, Assembly, or group. Many members of Committees and Assemblies still go their own personal ways when majority decisions are in variance to their own, and either boycott the majority decision or belittle the majority decision in the community among the believers causing the decision to fail.
Max, I suppose you have seen this but I would like to say that this is not my dominant experience.It is indeed very difficult to go along with a decision one believes is clearly wrong. However, my experience, at least of the last two Assemblies I served on, is that the decisions most likely to be decided by a majority rather than by consensus are the hard ones, and seen by all to be hard, and on these nobody is sure what is the right answer. Usually each of us is pleased that the Assembly and not they will have the final decision.
If anything I think the bigger danger is not the 'cult of individualism' but groupthink. Groupthink (the word was coined by Irving Janis at Yale University) indicates the danger to good decision-making that comes from group conformity.
Regards
William
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