“Popular” Does Not Always Mean “Good” or “Right”

Back in the Y-Zero-K Days, a whole raft of people told Pontius Pilate to crucify a rabble-rousing Rabbi from Nazareth. Whipped into a frenzy by the pundits and politicians and preachers of the day, the popular opinion was to kill a man who had never done a lick of harm to anyone. Today, of course, we know that they were wrong to do so.

Back in the last century, a skinny little Austrian with a good speaking voice managed to whip millions of people into a frenzy of hatred and embark upon a mission to rule the world. Millions upon millions of people died in the ensuing war, and we can see the horrible aftereffects to this day. Today, of course we know that the German people and their allies were wrong to do so.

Today, we have lots and lots of people doing as the Pharisees and the Nazis did, and millions of people following along, whipped up into a frenzy against gays, our big-eared Prexy, immigrants, Moslems, women, and other folks. It is “popular”, and the “will of the people” to persecute these folks. We are told, for example, that as a “Christian Nation”, the majority may impose its will upon the minority and do as we wish to them.

It would do us all well to remember the countless times in history when large groups of people have been conned into doing unspeakable things to their fellow man. In the future, people will regard us as unkindly as we today regard the gullible fools that enabled the Romans, the Nazis, the Klan, and other like-minded slimeballs.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/popular-does-not-always-mean-good-or-right/