Is the majority always right?

To most of the world’s population, majority rights triumphs over the minority, and thus what

the majority thinks is right is undisputedly right, and will always be right. Facts and beliefs which are

accepted as right by the majority are being considered right as a whole. Democracy, meaning “rule by

the people”, is thus the most common form of government in the world, as the people get to make

decisions and elect representatives they believe are suitable into the governing body. In a democratic

system, the one who gets the majority vote wins, as the majority is believed to be right. Most people

think that if others think the same way as they do, they must be right since they belong to the majority.

This has been the perception of human beings since the beginning of time. However, is the majority

always right? In my opinion, it is definitely not always so. The majority may be ‘right’ in some aspects

of ideas and beliefs, but the majority may also think that they are ‘right’ when actually they are wrong.

Firstly, what is the definition of ‘right’? ‘Right’ is being defined as ‘conforming with, or

conformable to justice, law and morality’. The people in a community define what is right and what is

wrong, what is acceptable by society and what is unacceptable, what is good and what is bad. In

simpler terms, what is being considered right is a value judgment. People always conform to the

majority for security and for fear of being ostracized for opposing what has been considered as ‘the

undisputable truth’ by the majority. This makes what has been considered ‘right’ even more right,

since more people accept that what is ‘right’ is definitely right, and has little room for dispute and

disproval. A belief is considered ‘right’ when the majority of the people share or agree with the belief,

or when the belief is true.

What, then, is the definition of ‘wrong’? It is defined as ‘unacceptable or undesirable

according to social convention’. Beliefs and ideas that are not true, do not ‘go with the flow’, or do not

follow what the majority thinks, are being considered wrong and should be eradicated. By majority

rule, the majority is right and the minority is thus less right, or wrong. The majority thinks that anything

that is not following social convention is wrong.

Concepts such as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are value judgments. Their definition varies depending

on the era, the culture, and the society defining ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Every culture and every time has

defined right and wrong in different ways depending on how that culture saw the world at that

particular time. Since there is neither a neat nor handy definition, many societies have turned to

religions to supply the answers. This way, they can have clear definitions and know how to behave

without having to make the judgments themselves based on their own conscience or philosophy.

Humans do not like things to be vague: they do not like shades of grey, and they do not like to be told

that there is no absolute 'truth' about things like right and wrong. It is much more convenient for the

human mind to believe that these definitions are clear than to believe that they vary depending on

circumstance, and thus the majority chose to believe that what is ‘right’ is right and what is ‘wrong’ is

wrong.

Since it is the majority that defines what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’, is the majority always

right?

No. It is not always so.

People who do not have a mind of their own, who conform to a majority, can never be right;

they might conform to what is wrong. Only a few individuals in human history have ever been slightly

more 'right' than others. It takes an individual to stand up against what is wrong. An example of such

is democracy. Democracy goes by majority rule, which implies that, if the majority of voters in an

election vote for a particular political party, the political party will form the government. That also

implies that, if the government that the majority voted for happens to impose unethical or unfair

policies, and the majority do not oppose the government’s decisions, then the majority is wrong, in the

sense that they condoned or even conformed to immoral and unacceptable acts by the government.

Only few individuals dared to oppose the government and used various means to show their

displeasure against the government.

Another example which shows that the majority can be wrong is that of the process of seeking

for truth of knowledge. The majority believed that the earth was at the centre of the universe, and the

sun revolved around the earth before Copernicus formulated his heliocentric theory of the solar

system. His theory was being opposed by the Church, who banned his heliocentric theory and put

Galileo Galilei, who had published a work about the two theories of the world and had supported

heliocentrism, under house arrest for advocating heliocentrism, which was deemed as ‘heretical’.

However, it was later being acknowledged by the majority that the sun is at the centre of the solar

system, and the earth orbits around it, which is proven true after further observations by astronomers.

However, according to modern astronomers, the sun is not at the geometric center of any planet's

orbit, but at one focus of the elliptical orbit. Will this ‘truth’ be proven wrong, just like previous

propositions of the position of the sun? In the case of law and justice, is the convicted always truly

responsible for the crimes he is supposed to have committed? There have many cases of wrong

judgments by the judge and the jury, when the accused are being convicted of crimes that they did not

commit. We can never confirm knowledge to be ‘absolute truth’, as there will always be new and

better explanations to phenomena in the world. Therefore, the majority could be wrong in their

understanding of the world.

The majority is not always right, as the majority might make use of their legitimate power to

oppress the minority, which are deemed unfavourable to the majority. Many systems of government

use majority rule to make decisions, including important ones pertaining to national interests. The

minority’s own interest may be consistently blocked by the majority, and they are most likely to be

subject to involuntary labour such as slavery. Homosexual acts were widely discriminated in

democracies, and most of them still are, reflecting the religious and sexual mores of the majority.

Slavery was being practised in democracies, such as the Athenian democracy and the United States,

before a ban on slavery was imposed. The majority has only been right when it rose up and opposed

and fought the hierarchical powers and authorities which oppress and rule the majority, and this has

only happened slightly, a few times in human history. Therefore, the majority is not always right.

However, it cannot be denied that the majority can be right. Some facts and theories that are

proven true are being accepted by the majority after several confirmations. The fact that the earth is

almost spherical is being accepted by the majority, and the fact has been confirmed to be true after

observations of the earth’s profile from outer space. The majority would be able to check and balance

the society and thus ensure less corruption, less social chaos and less crime. There should be a

majority to define the appropriate social behaviors in order to maintain social order. Without the

presence of a majority to maintain social balance, the society will not be able to function properly due

to lack of order and governance.

In a society, there will always be a minority who serves as a threat to the community. Some of

such people might commit criminal acts like theft to inhumane acts such as arson or murder, which

brings harm to the people in the community, promote negative values, or even commit terrorist acts

which cause loss of human lives and severe destruction to properties. In this case, that minority is

wrong and the majority is right to bring that minority to justice for their misdeeds. Therefore, the

majority can be right, but it cannot be always right, as sometimes, there may be some people from

that criminal minority who will be acquitted for the crimes they actually did commit.

In conclusion, the majority is not always right. However, without the majority defining what is

deemed to be right and what is deemed to be wrong, there will be social chaos within our community.

Despite the shortcomings of the majority, the majority still needs to be heard and be respected in the

society, together with the minority who stand up against what has been deemed as right. The majority

may be right and the minority may be wrong, but when the majority is wrong, we need the minority to

stand up against the majority to tell the deluded majority what they think is right.