Liberty can mean any number of things to different people. John Stuart Mill is no exception, and he let his opinions be known in the text of his work On Liberty. In the first chapter, he speaks in depth about what liberty was, what it was becoming, and where it should have been for his time. He also goes about at great length discussing the tyranny of the majority, and how it can be just as bad, if not worse, than the tyranny that the people were already trying to protect themselves from.
Mill begins his essay with a definition of liberty. He states, “Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” It was a topic that was not spoken of or discussed, at least not in polite conversation. Essentially, it was the protection of the people from their rulers. From there, Mill speaks of the history of the world’s earliest civilizations, Greece, Rome and England, and how their conflicts were between the rulers and their subjects. Rulers were there either by birth right or by conquest, so they had no incentive to do right by their people. Limits had to be set to protect the people, by setting political liberties, where revolts were justifiable if a ruler breached his duty; and by launching constitutional checks, with a community body that had deep interest of representing the whole. Liberty eventually evolved, as did the rulers, to a more recognizable system, one that resembles closely democracy. Men found that it was much better to appoint people to positions of power, where they could strip them of said power if they abused it. They believed the ideas and values of the leaders should represent those of the people. But this seemed superfluous; they did not need to protect them from themselves. But what did happen is what Mill referred to as the “tyranny of the majority”. This became as harmful to society as rulers were, because whoever had the most power, either by sheer numbers or by the ability to make themselves accepted as the majority, is whose ideals were considered. He declared that there needed to be protection from “prevailing opinion and feeling”.
Another point of Mill’s was that these thoughts and laws should only apply to those of age and maturation. Children and those who were “still in a state” requiring care by others should have protection, not only from their own actions, but also from external injury. He then moves on to speak of his notion that man should be able to do as he wishes, as long as he does not cause harm to others. With this idea, he thought that evidence was necessary to punish an individual who did do harm to others. Inaction also was considered doing harm by his notion, and with both cases he was “justly accountable”. Mill believed in three different liberties: The liberty of thought and feeling, the liberty of tastes and pursuits, and the liberty of an individual’s right to unite with others for any purpose not harming others. Mill believed that these liberties must be respected in order for that society to be free, and that that they were “directly opposed to the general tendency of existing opinion and practice.”
I agree with Mill in that the majority is something that was must realize needs to be controlled, and that it is something that can become out of control very quickly. Especially in hard economic times, when money is scarce, the more money you have, essentially the more power you have. It is not necessarily majority in the number of bodies, but in the number of bills. People with financial resources, especially in America, are seen as successful, have the ability to draw people to them, and the ability to persuade. Being able to persuade people to follow your path of thinking is much easier with financial backing. And in persuading people to follow a certain way of thinking, you in essence take away what America is. Clichés have to come from somewhere, and I will use one now. America is a melting pot, of different cultures and ways and thoughts, and I have to say that Mill stated it best. “there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, … its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct… if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own.” Society does not have the right to make us robots, while we can have similar tastes and interests, we deserve the right to do and be as we choose.
The tyranny of majority is something that I think is a problem that we still face today. With the forum of public opinion, pop culture, and the amazing lack of self-esteem in America today, Americans struggle trying to fit themselves into a mold made for less than 2% of the population. Issues spring from eating disorders, reality television, viral videos on the internet, and Americans want to be like the people they see on the screen in their living rooms, because that is what the majority believes is success. Not defined by what you do in the world, but merely by what magazine covers you grace, to whose mid-day or late night couch you can snag a spot on. And it maybe is not even what the majority actually thinks, but it is what those individuals believe the majority regard as what is correct. So, now, instead of striving to be doctors, lawyers, teachers or business persons, the public trying to gain instant fame, through television program like Survivor, The Bachelor and other such shows. What people believe is the majority is now the majority, and I believe that it is contributing to some of the major issues the American populace faces.
Liberty is not an outdated notion that is no longer dealt with in the present day. It is something that a certain number of people still battle with everyday, one that concerns all Americans, if not all citizens of the world. I believed Mill had it correct when he spoke of the majority, and how we need protection from it as we need protection from tyrannical rulers. He should be an author that is studied for the present day, and maybe we could take something away from his writings, and make the world a better place.