Forum Post: OccupyTheConstitution Tyranny of the Vote

“It was now perceived that such phrases as ‘self-government’ and ‘the power of the people over themselves’ do not express the true state of the case. The ‘people’ who exercise the power are not always the same people over whom it is exercised; and the ‘self-government’ spoken of is not the government of each by himself, but of each by all the rest… ‘THE TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY’ is now generally included among the evils against which society must be on guard.. chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities.’ (John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, 1859)

The important point of this quote is, a majority vote democracy, even in a theoretically perfect situation, is NOT an adequate model for a government. DEMOCRACY should NOT be the goal. The goal should be FREEDOM. The goal for a society must be individual LIBERTY. But how do we achieve that if we must comply with law after law, many of which we totally disagree with? In short, how do we deal with diversity? How do we respect other people’s views, even when we strongly disagree with them?

This is a problem that humanity has not been able to solve. But it’s not because such solutions don’t exist. They do. It’s because the authoritarians who have held power since time began don’t WANT individuals to have their own way. The 1%, the elites and aristocrats want to control things in their favor.

I have described one such approach. You can read about it at http://a3society.org/TyrannyOfTheMajority . With this approach, there is no longer voting on entire bills. Instead, using direct democracy, a whole menu of options is created to cover a wide variety of options. People then choose the options they want. In short, the problem is solved. There is no longer a majority winning over a minority.

So, readers who know of alternative solutions, please describe them and where to read about them.

(This post is part of a collection of posts aimed at launching a new process called the National Opinion Collection System (NOCS). For more information on the process, see http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-introduction/ )