Tyranny of the majority

I want to go to the progenitor.

It's a phenomenon known as the tyranny of the majority.

What's that? That describes how democratic equality and popular individualism An agency can produce an all-powerful public opinion.

That's what you now have in France.

So, there's nothing but chaos and violence.

If we follow Tocqueville's lead, the French examples of violent protests will likely not be repeated in the U.S.

In the U.S., the tyranny of the majority is soft.

It's passive.

Individuals who show signs of deviating from this right way of living are shunned and ostracized by the majority, and are thereby pressured to conform and adopt the socially accepted way of living and thinking.

Mill called this social force the tyranny of the majority, and claimed it to be the primary manufacturer of conformity, as he wrote, When society is itself the tyrant, society collectively over the separate individuals who compose it, its means of terrorizing are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries.

Society can and does execute its own mandate, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, It practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life and enslaving the soul itself.

Mill believed that because liberty was one of the leading essentials of well-being, that individuals must take positive steps to ensure that their liberties are not destroyed.

It should be noted, however, that some have suggested that Mill overstated the threat of the tyranny of the majority and understated the threat posed by governments.

An important distinction which Mill does not address is the different way that freedoms are destroyed by governments versus the tyranny of the majority.

Governments, who maintain a monopoly of legitimized force within a certain area, coerce individuals with force, and any individual who tries to evade the dictates of a government faces imprisonment or even death.

However, the tyranny of the majority, on the other hand, must use criticism and ostracism to impose their way of living on individuals.