The Opinionless Majority
Witness all the fan ravings and critic bashings of your most/least favorite thingumy. Wow, the louder of the two must be right.
Here’s something I’ve learned from having to do support for a teensy little app with over half a million users… the majority don’t care all that much, don’t write in to complain, and certainly don’t congratulate. The ones who do like it are usually silent; they simply continue using a tool they like. The ones who dislike it immediately are usually silent; they simply delete it and move on.
With a large enough population, of course, the concept ‘edge case’ or ‘corner case’ ceases to be a meaningful excuse. One lonely percent of half a million people is still five thousand. When the response ratio is 5,000:1, it’s hard to filter.
I (unoriginally) believe this has held true through the ages — certainly you come across similar examples in early history until now. Socrates, Plato… they knew. The Allegory of the Cave? Well-traveled territory there.
This may be one inroad into how we perceive social justice. We ourselves believe we are of a particular opinion, with a voice for or against, or maybe just *of* a particular cause. The greater reality indicates, however, that we are generally of the ‘opinionless majority’ — and to return to another phrase I dislike, certainly not a silent, ‘moral majority.’ If we were ever so ‘moral’ — and I must sadly include myself in this passive category more often than not — would we be so silent? How can we, when we have eyes and ears and reasoning faculties of our own?
