Nice, Chris. And too, I think, people forget that the US (anyway) is not a democracy in the pure sense, but rather a democratic republic. This means that it's quite possible (and at times, preferable) to not allow the majority to step on a minority (a tyranny of the majority). In fact, many writers feel that the framers and founders were afraid of a pure democracy for just that reason.
And as you mention, getting along with others means that often you have to put aside your own wishes out of consideration for others. I think of that as being "grown up." m Marc Carter Associate Professor and Chair Department of Psychology ------ "There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." -- Margaret Wheatley -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Green [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 8:52 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Is there a Judaism bias? Mike, I'm afraid you do misunderstand democracy, but in a way that is rather common. "Majority rule" is a very limited understanding of democracy. Democracy means "rule by the people (demos)." The modern understanding of this is that each individual gets to rule him- or herself, to the degree possible, unfettered by the opinions of his/her neighbors, even a majority of them. We call this "rights" (life, liberty pursuit of happiness; peace, order, and good gov't, etc.). Only where rights come into conflict, must some sort of accommodation be worked out (and because we now live in such close quarters, negotiations of this sort are a fairly common occurrence). Usually (as in the case of holidays) we can come to some sort of agreement so that everyone gets most of what they want. Only in the most dire situations do we have to resort to a simple imposition of the will of the majority on that of the minority (or, usually, minorities). If you don't believe me, I ask you to consider the situation in those "democracies" where political lines are drawn along ethnic lines. There (where "polyarchy," as political theorists call it, does not hold) we see a consistent crushing of minority aspirations by the "will of the majority." In the end, such arrangements are not sustainable and eventually lead to civil war, or worse. Although it is now quite old, and has been the subject of heated debate, you might read Isaiah Berlin's _On Liberty_ to start to get a handle on the issues that are involved here. (I hear that Michale Ignatief has written articulately on this topic as well, in his Harvard Professor years, before he decided to take up politics, but I have not read his work myself.) Regards, Chris Green York U. Toronto Michael Smith wrote: Actually I don't think I misunderstand. My comment was not that minorities can be completely ignored with regard to fair and equal treatment. It is exactly that the wishes of the majority often does not get fair and equal treatment. The comment, I think, reflects the vastly disproportionate power of small numbers of minorities often over and against the wishes of majorities in our democracy. I think that the same applies and perhaps even more so on our campuses. --Mike --- On Tue, 10/14/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [tips] Is there a Judaism bias? To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2008, 5:01 PM On 14 Oct 2008 at 14:36, Michael Smith wrote: > Does it not take just 1 single member of a minority to bring the > majority to its collective knees in begging forgiveness for being so > shortsighted as to have a preference for certain > attitudes/activites/hokidays? Hence we must abolish all mention of any such nonsense as majority rule etc. I think there's a misunderstanding here. Majority rule in a democracy does not mean that the right of a minority to fair and equal treatment can be ignored. This includes such things as activites and hokidays. It's in dictatorships that the will of the majority may be ruthlessly and brutally applied against its minorities. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
