Quote of the Week...from Mark Twain

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
                                                                                  ---Mark Twain

I just finished reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by the great American author Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens).  Twain wrote in the late 1800s and early 1900s...he was a philosopher and humorist, but even more so a blunt appraiser of what it is to be an American.  I'll go further about that novel in tomorrow's posting, but for now I want to examine the above quote of his, which rings so true to me and on more than one level...

It seems to be a permanent fixture on the news channels: whatever is being reported, be it issues or politicians, somebody's got to come out with a poll showing how the American people feel about them.  And majority rules here: whichever side "wins" the poll, the moderators tend to treat it as the final, ultimate confirmation or rebuke of what or whom they're asking about.  Lately in the news they've been polling a lot on two issues: Trump's wall and the Mueller investigation.  Right now, Trump is down and Mueller is up, if you go by the public opinion polls.  But what do the masses of questioned Americans really know about either issue?  Most of them probably don't pay much attention to the news or the issues, and even for those who do, their knowledge falls far short of the experts and involved players...so it all comes down to a political popularity contest in the end...

In my younger elementary and high school years I formed my own opinion about being on the "side of the majority".  In the social life back them bullies were preponderant and the prevailing attitude of the "majority" was not to ostracize them like mean ol' Scut Farkas was in the movie A Christmas Story, but rather to suck up to them, befriend them, and even participate in shunning and belittling their chosen victims...even teachers in that time sided with bullies, placing all of the responsibility on the victims having to stand up for themselves.  That kind of majority rule soured me very early on to this concept, and I've subsequently never enjoyed social settings where a leader will whip up mass enthusiasm within a crowd...even less when it is sprinkled with derision expressed at adversaries, real or imagined...sometimes I wonder whether many who have psychologically bonded with Donald Trump did so because he brought back nostalgic feelings of youth when they themselves were bullies, toadies, or suckups…

No, I'm not so keen on the idea that if most of the people in a particular setting agree on something, then that automatically means that they're right.  For many folks are fodder for manipulation, especially for the type that pits them in an adversarial relationship with others...when this happens, reason and common sense...as well as compassion, grace, and mercy...tend to fly out the window...