The Vocal Minority
I find it interesting that there is often large uproar about a specific issue before it goes to ballot. You see multiple television commercials every night, you hear about it everywhere, and it sounds like everybody feels the same way. Then the votes come in. You are incredibly surprised at the outcome. The issue that seemed to have wide support failed. And it didn’t just not pass, it failed miserably. You are completely surprised. Didn’t it seem like everybody supported it? Wasn’t there a huge amount of support for the cause? This is a case of the vocal minority (and this has nothing to do with race). The vocal minority describes the group of people on the losing side of an issue who are so vocal and loud about their position that it appears that there is much more support for their perspective than there really is.
I had a very interesting experience in a Biology 100 course in college. There were about 800 students in this huge class held in a large auditorium. There were two lectures, a smaller lab, and a quiz each week. The quiz was administered away from class in a separate dedicated exam facility. At the beginning of the semester a vote was taken of the 800 students of what day the quiz should be available. An overwhelming majority voted for Thursdays. So the semester began, and after a few weeks passed the teachers mentioned that there were various complaints from students saying that they were not able to take the quiz on Thursday because of scheduling conflicts. The issue was brought to the class to decide if they should change the day, but once again the overwhelming majority voted to keep the quiz on Thursday.
A few weeks later the teachers brought up the issue again. They were now convinced, based on the number of complaints, that there was a sufficient amount of the 800 students that were having conflicts to change the day. They took another vote, and once again an overwhelming majority voted to keep it on Thursday. The professors look shocked and confused. They were about to over rule the vote and change the quiz day until at the last second they decided to ask for those who had complained or had conflicts to raise their hand. 14 hands went into the air. Now the professors were shocked in a different way. They first verified that everyone who complained was raising their hand, then they counted the 14, and finally they said, “You 14 are real loud complainers”. They continued, “We thought that there were around 200 to 300 students having conflicts based on the amount of complaints”. And then they made their verdict, “you 14 need to stop complaining, deal with the situation, and cater to the majority”.
A vocal minority generated all of the complaints. 14 out of 800 students, not even 2%, almost swayed the decision of the professors, and overruled the majority; because of their incessant complaining. How many times do laws or legislation get passed because of the continuous badgering of the vocal minority? I thought that our government was built on catering to the voice of the majority, not the loud screaming of a vocal minority. We see this in many ways from judges legislating from the bench to Congress and committees going to extreme measures to avoid letting issues go to a public vote. I thought that our country was built on the fundamentals of democracy that the majority will most often choose what is best for the whole, instead of the vocal minority choosing what is best for them?
October 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I watched and marveled back in 2000 as a vocal minority and an activist court almost stole an election in Florida. I have watched since and cringed as an agenda driven media worked hard to not only to discredit a president but actually was involved in subversive activities to undermine an administration. I watched as special interests such as moveon.org worked tirelessly to convince the masses our efforts to protect this country were an impeachable act. It worked. We now have what we asked for.