"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain.
Australians are going to the poll this weekend. Essentially to choose between two parties who are about as differentiated from each other as brie and camembert.
Images from wikipedia
Going for the majority may well be a good thing to do in politics. In life and business, following the majority can make life easier.
If you look and act similar enough to most of your competition, or you sell the same stuff, there is less of a need to educate your customers. If you are cheap enough, and in a convenient location, life's good.
If you slot neatly into a set of life expectations shared by the majority of people in your community, you are easily categorised - people know what you do (or they think they do).
The cost of following the majority is innovation and differentiation. Individuals within the majority certainly have ideas of course, but it is much harder to seriously pursue and develop these ideas. Human groups by nature tend to keep every member in check. Consciously or not, groups simply don't take kindly to different thinking from its members, as doing so threatens the stability of the group.
No wonder election after election we don't see anything that is brave and visionary from our "leaders". No wonder we see pork barrelling and other simplistic attempts to suck in the majority. It works!
