Majoritarianism

I have long admired the fading black notice, to be found on the ramp, on the northern wall of the main station building at Waterloo. Sadly, someone has seen fit to add another notice below it, attempting to further restrict the areas in which smokers are allowed to take a puff. As if out on the ramp were not fresh air enough.

I associate to the people who get exercised about fox hunting, a sport I do not particularly care for, but see no need for prohibition.

While the Economist, perhaps in two successive issues, has carried articles about what might be called majoritarianism.

In the first article, we had depressing stories about religious and racial intolerance in parts east. One lot of Muslims hates another lot of Muslims. Hindus hate Muslims. Muslims hate Hindus. Buddhists hate Muslims. Tamils hate Sinhalese. Hates which seem to be especially virulent where one has, say, a 80-20 split in a country, with the 80's in a big majority but with the 20's being quite thick enough on the ground to be a good target for hate. Hates which are often left over from the minority having once ruled the majority. And in most electoral systems - including our own - majorities have the power to be unpleasant to minorities, power which they will exercise when hate comes into play.

In the second article, we had depressing stories about the relatively new countries in central Europe, new countries built from a mess of old peoples, new countries which, in an understandable search for heritage and legitimacy, are all too likely to build national myths around the dominant group or race, to the exclusion of the others. Exclusion which is all too likely to be translated into discrimination and worse. The Economist quotes a cynical Czech who defines a country as a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and hatred of their neighbours.

Perhaps we in the UK ought to look across the water and learn from the bad examples of others to be more tolerant of our own minorities.