Opinion towards recent occurrences of mob rule on democratic countries
When democracy controlled by unthankful majority, the minority will suffer.
Before we start, let me present you two paragraphs that I used to wrote on what is going to be the setting of my D&D campaign, it goes as follows:
The masses screaming chants, as oligarchs nod their pompous head. The main street is brimming with joy and tears, happiness in the memory of returned hero against the tyranny of old. The king is no more, and forever it will be gone. The power is now shared amongst powerful families that conspires against the royalist that was rejected by the people.
Today marks the one hundredth years of the republic, climbing the stairs of its golden age that shone so bright and getting better every day. Violet silk and blood red cashmere, together banded with golden thread that symbolizes the glory of the new that was taken with the hefty price of blood. Both exists side by side, two antagonists that exists altogether in this martial-minded society of a republic.
What does that reminds you of? The height which predates the fall of the Roman Republic? If that is what you think then you’re on the right way, and if you found it eerily familiar with what happened these days, then you are not alone. That situation somewhat parallels with what happened these days around us and gaining its momentum.
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”
- Donald J. Trump
Remember what happened on around 2014 and some years after that? There were waves of ultra-nationalistic movement that looks and feels like a fascist supremacist ideology surging globally. Believe it or not, it is not an unprecedented event and it wasn’t like that it came unexpectedly unlike Spanish inquisition, nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. This phenomenon has built up for so long like a cyst inside the cherished democracy that we love and live, slowly and waiting to burst painfully. Then, after it was triggered by the appearance of one populist figure on the political floor of those nations, hell broke loose.
Democracy is a blessing for the people. At least by its soul it was an ideology that is made by the people, from the people, and for the people as said by Abraham Lincoln on his speech in Gettysburg. As it is a Kratia of Demos, the power lies from the majority of its voice as opposed from minority rule by royals or dictators. That is a good premise to satisfy the most — if not all — of one country’s populace, yet exactly where the problem came from. A majority rule creates an injustice and very much easily swayed by a populist figure which could steer the public opinion.
A majority rule formed from a populist view creates this illusion where the government cater the needs of its people, forgetting the seclusion if its minority. More often than not — and especially when that populist movement stemmed from a xenophobia viewpoint — it would result in a racial segregation. It might not be like it used to with the “this race only” placate and label per se, but in a subtler manner like the formation of unfair policies towards a certain group members of the society. The ghost of the past, whether you like it or not, still haunts us to this day. Those who said “it is not where you start, but where you finally end up” probably never grow up as a minority and marginalized member of society as stated by Michael Cassidy.
Of course this would create dissent by the minority that felt oppressed, they’d complaint and sue the government to act better. But as we take the example towards the 2020 capitol raid on the United States, the swayed populist mass wouldn’t stay silent. They’d force their own view that ultimately quells and remove the minority’s voice due to their fear on what was happened in the past, and we know to what extent and how inhumane a human would act when their act motivated by fear. This would put the government’s representative on a safe place with the masses as their shield.
When the democratic representative on the government feels like they are already on a safe place, they will get careless. Comfort zone ails, it’s a natural cycle of life that goes on perpetually as it is the nature of human’s societal construct. Hard time creates strong men, thus creating good time, which in turn creates weak men, that at last would create hard time as it is proven each time by history just as how it goes with Polybius’ cycle of government.
Populism creates this comfort zone for them, since it’d be unlikely that such stance could be broken in a short time and thus removing their incentive towards functioning properly. In the other hand, to keep their power intact, such figures would amass the voice and the kratio of the people by creating demagogue towards the majority’s prejudices and desires. Both Aristotle and Polybius seems to agree with what it could end up with, a mobocracy or ochlocracy that is ruled by the mob. While they are being carried away and drunk in the feeling of power, the fraction of people that supposedly represents them and their power grows corrupt as absolute powers corrupts absolutely as it was said by Lord Acton.
If and when this hegemony goes on without any check and balance mechanism — because honestly, what could stop them at this point except they themselves — it’d take a nosedive towards their own destruction. Human is a greedy creature, whenever our wish fulfilled we always want more and want to take more than our share of things, when the mob does this it’d soon creating strain into the government’s ability to maintain their demagogue. The loss of trust towards the government at this point will then resulting in anarchism that could inflict uncontrollable chaos.
While that might brought profit some crafty individuals, the majority would still suffer from their own action and others from their inaction. The winner here would only be the agenda, not the people nor individual, there is no long term game to win here. Some would blame our own stupidity for believing what was believed back then, yet the milk has been spilt and completely knocked off, nothing could be done except salvaging the vestige of what remains of its glorious past. That very reason is why countermeasures against the tyranny of the masses enacted, for a world that forcibly culls its minorities will came down to the last men due to difference we had along the way.
But then again, what is so wrong about the mob rule that it is dangerous for one to stay silent and maintains neutrality in the face of such moral crisis? Even Dante on The Divine Comedy stated that the deepest place in hell is reserved for such kind of people. The reasoning behind that is exactly as how the growing bystander mentality sentiment empowers criminal perpetrators to be bold with their act on most occasions. When the chivalry is dead, so does the sense of honor and the possibility of noble acts by the people in a position of power.
Again, when government went unopposed and with dissenting opinion, they will grow careless. Their ability to learn from mistakes of ignoring the holistic approach towards the entire national populace depends on the input made from the function embedded in the democratic system. So when the people stay silent against such systemic injustice practiced by the government, they would just sow the seed of what might became violent extremist made by those who politicize the popular view and became a populist figure.
When nobody complaint against whatever malicious deeds we do, it is easy for us to just assume that we have done the right thing and that what we do is by the constitution, our rights. Take the legal substance that exists in Republic of Indonesia’s “Act No. 40/1999” and their constitution on Article 28 that ensure their freedom of speech (either written or orally). It is by far a good thing to ensure the media have their full capability to do their job properly. Yet if someone were to bought them and their credibility to spread one’s political agenda and there are no civil or government bodies to sue a complaints against their malpractice, the result would be disastrous and possibly nation-breaking.
This is the reason why some line must be drawn in order to limit the free in freedom embedded in democracy. It is for the greater good that then what we do would be in line with the norm that is living around us, and our liberal view doesn’t just went full anarchist. Just like human’s cell that might turn to be cancer when their regeneration went unchecked and multiplies perpetually out of what they were supposed to be, so does our freedom.
“But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal — there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.”
-Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird
Therefore everyone, and by that I mean Every One, should be treated equal in front of the law. As the court is one part of the face of what a law is, then it is also that institution’s responsibility and all that is tied to uphold the value of such equality. Though indeed personal bias might happen, and the social issue where the majority would emerge victorious again due to social pressures and other factors, does that prevents us to try to be as what the word “justice” should represent?
So when such a populist figure break the law which might or already instigate a lawbreaking actions due to what they do or what they say that manipulates their supporters, it is our responsibility to ensure that they won’t get away unscathed. It is us and the existing legal substance, culture, and structure to then persecute the wrongdoings that they’ve done and make it right as it should be. Sure that it’d seems like a betrayal towards the freedom we own, but if we were to ensure that the sanctity of the democracy that we love will not get destroyed by the nasty politics of some wicked individuals, that is a necessity.
With that power, and especially when we are the part of that said majority, to ensure that the minority rights would not be violated as it is the core of a healthy democracy and our noblesse oblige towards the less fortunate. Staying silent towards the injustice doesn’t make you better from those who are unjust. Therefore if you were someone that live in a democratic country, be its part and use your constitutional rights to keep the democracy that we uphold always on the tip-top shape and behave properly.
Bibliography
Alighieri, Dante. 2009. The Divine Comedy. Translated by H. F. Cary. Wordsworth Classics of World Literature. Ware, England: Wordsworth Editions.
Cassidy, Michael, “Racial Segregation is still a problem”, The Century Foundation, accessed on 20 June 2021 at 23.33 from https://tcf.org/content/commentary/racial-segregation-is-still-a-problem.
Lee, Harper. 2006. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York :Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Podes, Stephan, “Polybius and His Theory of Anacylosis Problems of Not Just Ancient Political Theory”, History of Political Thought, 12(4), 577–587, accessed from http://jstor.org/stable/26213908.
