The Hebrews spoke of "after the many to act badly" (Exodus) (אחרי רבים לרעת) ... The Greeks called it ochlocracy (ὀχλοκρατία) ... The Romans thought similarly (ochlocratia) ... Here, in the West, we think of mob rule or the Tyrany of the Majority.
How to create a system of governance that listens to the aggregate but keeps in mind the rights of minorities? For $1,000 or more per ticket, I could go see the rap-version of this on Broadway ... of how the American Founding Fathers tried to work around this obvious gliche that exists in Democracies. The requirement for supermajorities in certain actions taken by a legislative body or regs for the pas de deux done by two such law-making bodies, in concert ... these were established in the Western Representative Democracies to protect the populace from
The Supermajorities of the Senate, the requirement for even bigger majorities to over-ride vetoes of the Executive Branch ... all have the same general goal ... .
Curious, then, it is that a simple majority in the House of Representatives can block even votes on legislation that a supermajority might favor. 50+% of the House can block any legislation that might limit the availability of certain types of guns or certain weapons to certain people even if 75+% of the population is in favor of such laws.
Complicated, isn't it? The Second Amendment protects by permitting the population to maintain armaments. A good thing, I would think. Wouldn't want a 3 year old armed with AR-15's or a psychologically troubled adult to own RPG's (Rocket Propelled Grenades). Wouldn't be great for your local Chevy dealer to sell Surplus Sherman Tanks to any of us ... or so I would think.
Still, we know of countries where dissidents are given labels and incarcerated in Gulags ... and the US knew times when dissidents were followed, investigated and scapegoated.
I feel too old to figure this out ... to consider all the complexities. Still, I'm plagued by two thoughts:
(1) Some cancers have gone too far to treat ... 300,000,000 guns in the USA? Maybe the dangers inherent to this arming of a nation is irreversible? I dunno.
(2) I find it disturbing that a simple majority in the American House is curiously capable of shutting down the introduction of any laws that might tweak the Right to Bear Arms.
The Tyranny of the Majority is a knife that cuts both ways.
There was a discussion among the Masters of the Babylonian Exile. One group of Fundamentalists was moved to cite Scripture in its arguments that "The words of this Law shall never leave your mouth" (לא ימוש ספר תורה זה מפיך), while another group thought it wise to enact in such decisions Common Sense (דרך ארץ). What should we do when intuitive common sense goes against Constitutional Fundamentalism?
I dunno.
