the good of the one vs. the good of the many

In an e-mail, Brett made some good points about the way our system of government should work, including “Until we come back to or arrive at the position that people make decisions because they think they are doing what’s right for them, nothing will be done to change things.”

I mostly agreed with him, but wanted to talk about one point a little further…

But when people are making decisions that they feel are right for them without considering the good of the whole, that’s where we run into problems. We are being channeled by those in power to make decisions based on fear, very often an unfounded fear, and those decisions are always going to be selfish ones. Fear-based decisions are generally going to be the ones that take away our rights and the power of the people (and give those rights, power, and $$$ to the government and corporations, which are basically one and the same these days), in hopes that it will help ward off some future unknown horror. Fear drives us to buy gigantic SUVs to protect ourselves, to load up our households with assault weapons, to retreat into shrieks of “because the bible says so!”, to launch pre-emptive strikes against sovereign nations because they MIGHT someday do something against us. With that kind of thinking, Iraq had as much right to attack us as we did them.

I don’t claim to know who you voted for yesterday, but I respect your right to choose and knowing that you are a smart, interesting person, I know you had what you felt were good reasons to do so, just as I did. I don’t think that you are immoral or evil or stupid because of (what I presume to be) your choice of candidate. I don’t think that the majority of people are evil or immoral (and that’s a whole gray area unto itself) or truly stupid. The older I get, the more it seems to me that most of America just doesn’t want to think, and would rather be told what to think and feel because it’s easier. It scares me that huge numbers of Americans don’t care enough to want to think for themselves or act in accordance with the greater good. And even though my personal feelings are that Bush and his policies and decisions are not in accordance with the greater good, I’m not really just talking about Bush vs. Kerry here; I’m speaking really in general terms about our society as a whole.

So I understand your points, but I think you’re overrating the social awareness and responsibility of the majority with respect to their ability to make well-thought-out decisions based on reason instead of fear, greed, or religious fundamentalism.