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Ibsen, Paul and the 85%

“The majority is always wrong; the minority is rarely right.” Henrik Ibsen

Groups holding a minority opinion often cite the first half of Ibsen’s quote … and omit the second half. It’s a kind of proof-texting pseudo-support for a minority point-of-view, while Christians would more likely quote Paul in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That too would be proof-texting in support of a point-of-view.

Canadians re-elected a Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau recently and in so doing, made his party the majority, hence the government as defined by our constitution. About 85% of Canadians voted to support the majority party government’s urging to be vaccinated. That the majority governments in Canada and the provinces got things as right as possible, history will judge. I daresay that stumbles by governments will become glaringly obvious when we look back.

If we think of the unvaccinated in Canada as the minority opinion, judging by their choice, that would logically be about 15% of Canadians. If we think of the numbers of truckers who are and are not vaccinated, the 85% to 15% ratio probably holds as well. I have to wonder if 15% of us are born with a gene that inclines us toward obstruction, non-cooperation with authority, and that where competing viewpoints become significant and emotional, we’ll generally fall out with that 85% to 15% --- proportionally. (Keeping in mind that I, too, fall far short of the glory of God and could, therefore, be wrong.)

Point is: Ibsen and the Apostle Paul agree: majorities and minorities will generally be shown in history to have failed to embrace their best; both are made up of individual humans who are bound by nature to mess up. Science is fine, but on COVID, it’s frantically playing catch-up to the virus, social media are spouting constant streams of misinformation to which individuals attach themselves depending if they have 15% or 85% genes … euphemistically put.

My advice to governments, 85%ers and 15%ers; stay knowledgeable as you can so unnecessary mistakes are avoided. To governments, try harder to emphasize what is allowed rather than what is forbidden, but stay on course to end the pandemic. To anti-government protestors on this issue, it’s your right to do so but never forget the Golden Rule that says that when we do unto others what we would like done to us, we come closer to truth than we are now. In this case, don’t put your fellow citizens in danger on the highways.

Finally, nothing I've said here is useful unless we learn to say, "I don't agree with you, but I could be wrong," when we want to say, "You're a blathering idiot! Get lost!" Or we learn to say words like, "I'm sorry," or "I don't really know," or "You were right about that and I was wrong," 

Why do we all try to pass ourselves off as bathed in the glory of God? We're not. Unless you actually are; I'm not. To you, then, I say, "You were right and I was wrong. I'm so sorry!"