The Tyranny Of The Minority

I had an online conversation the other day with a young man who is currently a university student. To his credit, he is working his way through university and while he finds it difficult he is meeting the challenge. He believes that a university education should be declared a right and asked me why I thought it shouldn’t.

It was a good question and while we didn’t come to an agreement, it was also a good discussion. It was respectful and thought provoking. In the end, neither of us changed the other’s mind but the mere fact that we could have the dialogue was encouraging.

I contrast that with the actions of Quebec students and others, like Occupy who seem to believe that the only good dialogue is mob violence.

For the record - access to a university is a right but only if you qualify academically. Having someone else pay for it isn’t a right nor should it be. For weeks, Quebec students have “protested” announced increases in tuition. The original increase amounted to seventy-four cents a day but after a few weeks of rioting, smashing windows, throwing smoke bombs into the subway system and generally making a nuisance of themselves, the students were offered a comprise that would see their tuition rise by approximately fifty cents a day. 

They rejected that compromise and yesterday, a group of one hundred or so invaded (and there is no other word for it) the campus of the University of Quebec in Montreal where they sprayed graffiti on the walls, intimidated other students still attending class and disrupted classes in violation of a court order.

This isn’t protest; it’s a hissy-fit by self-absorbed, self-indulgent enfants terrible with an inflated sense of self-importance brought about by adolescent thinking.

Despite their claims about standing up for and respecting democracy, nothing could be further from the truth. They are bullies who use mob intimidation to mask their cowardice. They are so committed to self-righteous sanctity of their cause, they bravely hide their faces behind masks and run for cover when the police arrive.

They are not alone.

This has become the option of choice these days for any special interest group with an axe to grind. The Occupy Movement elevated stupidity to an art form at the very costly expense of others.

Occupy started with a singular idea but quickly became intoxicated by delusions of grandeur and were co-opted rather easily by anarchists, radicals and the remarkably unenlightened. Where Occupy originally was able to garner support across many levels of society and also able raise a significant amount of financial support, it has now degenerated into a pathetic and humourless joke that few find amusing.

Like the students in Quebec, Occupy undermined its opportunity to achieve something of value  because of  its tactics which included violence and a stunning disregard for the law and the rights of others.

Personally, I’m tired of having our streets overrun by punks, radicals and the tragically uninformed. I’m tired of watching mobs trash the property of others, of watching them burn cars, smash store windows and intimidate citizens who have an absolute right to enjoy their cities and their parks, to attend class or to go to work without the fear of being bullied and even injured by the antics of an out of control rabble.

I’m tired of politicians standing passively with a deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces, unclear of how to proceed and too cowardly to take decisive action to enforce the law and to protect the majority from this ongoing tyranny of the minority.

I’m tired of the politically correct that are not personally affected by what is happening voicing criticism of the authorities who are trying to maintain order and who confuse criminal vandalism with the right to protest and demonstrate.

I'm tired of listening to civil rights groups, unelected human rights tribunals, watchdog agencies and others issue reports criticizing law enforcement for their handling of a protest that turned into a riot while remaining silent on the people who actually did the rioting.

Most of all, I’m tired of the fact that too many blame someone else for their situation whatever their situation is. 

We all have basic rights but those rights do not confer on us the right to have someone else pay for our lives. We have the right to speak freely and to voice our opinion but that does not give us the right to shout down or prevent others from enjoying that same right. We have the right of freedom of assembly and to protest but that doesn’t give us the right to prevent others from assembling freely with flash mobs or other disruptive behaviour nor does it give anyone the right to riot, vandalize or terrorize others.

We have the right to access continuing education beyond high school but that does not transfer the responsibility of paying for it onto others. 

In other words, we not only have the right to pursue our lives as we see fit, we also have the responsibility for our own lives. We are individuals, each with our own lives to live. Expecting to have the right to live your life as you want but having others take responsibility for the hard part, like paying for what you want, is absurd.

I’m tired of people deciding that others should take responsibility for giving them what they want when they want it simply because they find it too difficult to earn it for themselves. I’m even more tired of these same clueless people trashing our cities, degrading our democratic principles and eroding the moral values of our societies. 

Most of all, I am tired of the lawless and careless behaviour of groups like this and I believe the majority of us have been silent for too long. I believe it is time to demand that our political leaders enforce the law and stop pandering to special interest groups simply because they’re loud. Occupy cost taxpayers more than $50 million and the Quebec student hissy-fit has already cost millions.

This isn’t a right or a left issue. It doesn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative, we all have the same basic rights and they are being abused by punks and the clueless. We need to demand more from politicians regardless of which side of the political fence they represent.  This is an issue that has nothing to do with political ideology, it has to do with our communities and we all need to remind the politicians, from whichever party we support, of that simple fact. 

To do less will mean that we have surrendered our rights to mobs and rabble. To do less will mean that we will have lost the ability to protect our communities from any who wish to undermine them and if that happens, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

It really is our choice. We are the majority and even if we cannot be united on issues like abortion, gay marriage or countless others, surely to God we can unite on protecting our communities, our values and our democracies from the tyranny of the minority.

If we can’t, we don’t deserve the opportunity that living in our democracies gave each of us.


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