Just finished the listening to the lecture from Week 3 of Hillsdale College's FREE Constitution 101 class. It's title was "The Problem of Majority Tyranny". I can't help but relate what our Constitution says and the founding of our country to the problems I see in our country today.
Madison talked about "factions" large and small. A faction can take control of our government and wield power over the rest of the country. When you think of factions though, you probably think of a small group that somehow grabs power and controls everyone else. But it can be the majority as well, consider slavery. But our constitution attempts to control majority rule as well, to protect the minority from the abuses of the masses.
I have often heard people complain that a new law is "what the people want". Or that our government cannot serve the people if it doesn't do what the majority has voted to do. But think on this. What about the minority? What that undeclared war? What if I don't want my son drafted into a military that is fighting for something that I don't believe in? You know, the draft still exists. We just aren't using it. But your son still has to register. Draft! The ultimate offence to liberty.
My questions today.
Why were the Federalist papers published anonymously? When the people were reading them in their newspapers and pamphlets, did they know that the authors were part of the group writing and discussing the new constitution? Did you know there were ANTI-Federalist papers? And that in them, all many of the problems we are having now in our own time were foreseen?
I'm reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card again, and it it two characters write in all the debates, chat rooms, and blogs (equivalent of newspapers) to influence the people to start a war and change the world government. They are brilliant children, posing as adults, and one of them wants to rule this new world. It sounded like the Federalist papers to me. I don't consider those, or the anti-federalist papers, to be malicious, only a way to get people to think about the ideas they were presenting. But in Ender's Game, I'm getting the vibe of meanness. That Peter is doing this to get control of people's mind. I can see, however, how people today could think of our founding as a similar situation. Lot's to think about. And so much more to learn.
Madison talked about "factions" large and small. A faction can take control of our government and wield power over the rest of the country. When you think of factions though, you probably think of a small group that somehow grabs power and controls everyone else. But it can be the majority as well, consider slavery. But our constitution attempts to control majority rule as well, to protect the minority from the abuses of the masses.
I have often heard people complain that a new law is "what the people want". Or that our government cannot serve the people if it doesn't do what the majority has voted to do. But think on this. What about the minority? What that undeclared war? What if I don't want my son drafted into a military that is fighting for something that I don't believe in? You know, the draft still exists. We just aren't using it. But your son still has to register. Draft! The ultimate offence to liberty.
My questions today.
Why were the Federalist papers published anonymously? When the people were reading them in their newspapers and pamphlets, did they know that the authors were part of the group writing and discussing the new constitution? Did you know there were ANTI-Federalist papers? And that in them, all many of the problems we are having now in our own time were foreseen?
I'm reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card again, and it it two characters write in all the debates, chat rooms, and blogs (equivalent of newspapers) to influence the people to start a war and change the world government. They are brilliant children, posing as adults, and one of them wants to rule this new world. It sounded like the Federalist papers to me. I don't consider those, or the anti-federalist papers, to be malicious, only a way to get people to think about the ideas they were presenting. But in Ender's Game, I'm getting the vibe of meanness. That Peter is doing this to get control of people's mind. I can see, however, how people today could think of our founding as a similar situation. Lot's to think about. And so much more to learn.
