The Tyranny of the Majority On July 20th, 2001, Carlo Giuliani died in Genoa, Italy. Shot in the face and killed by a police officer for fighting to save the world from what he perceived as a terrible evil. I’m not going to argue for or against his point, nor his tactics on that day, because - to be honest - there are a hundred such deaths across the world every month, and, as tragic as the death of any freedom fighter may be, they’re all at their core pretty much the same. What I’m going to talk about, instead, is the people ultimately responsible for his death, and why their role in it is so singularly horrible. The G8 conference in Genoa was a meeting of the leaders of the wealthiest, and thus most influential countries on earth. With the exceptions of China and the US, they’re all elected by the majority of their native populations. Although this does give them the tacit approval of their peoples, many of them seem to take this a step further; using this apparent approval as a blanket justification for any action taken in this capacity. Case in point: Canada’s prime-minister, Jean Cretien, was reached for comment on this event. His response was typical of his disdain for and ignorance of political protestors: "We are the elected leaders of democracies," he said. "We organize meetings to talk with some of these [non-governmental] leaders. But they cannot replace the governments ... democratically elected. That is a reality in life." Perhaps he was right. After all, it’s no secret how Mr. Cretien views protestors. Between physically strangling one in front of a large crowd some four years ago, and his infamous mockery of the peaceful protestors who were pepper-sprayed in the face at the APEC conference some two years ago, everyone knows that Jean Cretien is in no way interested in hearing protestors out. And yet, last year, he was voted in by a landslide for a third term. Therefore, it can logically be assumed that Canadians want a prime-minister who supports brutality towards protestors. (And I deviate from this point for just a moment here to acknowledge that in last year’s winter election the only viable alternative to the insane Mr. Cretien was the insane AND idiotic Stockwell Day; making the election an unfortunate task of selecting the lesser of two evils: Cretien may have been elected in spite of his evils only in order to keep the far more evil Day out of office) Now, whether or not the same can be said of the other 5 democratically-elected G8 leaders, the fact remains that none of them have come out to condemn the contempt for the views and LIVES of the protestors which were brutalized at this year’s G8 conference. Simply stated, their power comes from being approved-of by the majority. The opinions of the minority of the population who are protesting mean nothing to them. And, of course, that’s how democracy works. If you hold a popular opinion, then statistically speaking, you’ll likely get a leader who will support and put into practice those opinions. If you hold an unpopular opinion, your vote means nothing; your wishes will be disregarded, and your society will resolve into a shape contrary to your wishes. In other words, if you have an unpopular opinion, it might just as well be illegal for you to vote. And this is what I call the Tyranny of the Majority. It is commonly held that democracy is innately preferable to fascism or dictatorship, because it gives power to the people. The problem with this idea is that for someone with an unpopular opinion, there is no difference whatsoever: In a dictatorship, a small portion of the population has all of the decision-making power, and inflicts them upon the rest of the population, for good or ill. In a democracy, a large portion of the population has all of the decision-making power and inflicts them upon the rest of the population, for good or for ill. In neither case does a free-thinker tend to have any power. They’re dictated-to by people who aren’t interested in hearing them out. And this, for me, is why Mr. Cretien’s apparent defense of “We are elected leaders of democracies” carries so little weight with me. For that poor boy who died trying to have his voice heard, it makes no difference if The G8 Leaders are “elected leaders” or not: Carlo was being dictated-to. He dissented. And he was killed for it, because he dared to give voice to an unpopular opinion within a democracy. A crime apparently punishable by summary execution. Not because he was a threat to that democracy, but because he was utterly meaningless to it. Just like anyone who doesn’t submit to the tyranny of the majority.