Liberian President Charles D.B. King was a
popular candidate, perhaps a bit too popular. When he ran for reelection in May
of 1927, He won with a record-setting 234,000 votes. That was impressive since
the nation only had 15,00 registered voters. The election would since lay claim
to the most fraudulent in history.
In elections
popularity is the goal. People want to be seen as the choice of everyone, yet even
in that venue, it is rarely the case (At least when you are not cheating). Yet we often try to use popularity as the
criteria for our choices.
We think ‘everyone
is doing it’ makes it OK. We claim ‘lots of people think something’ to justify its
correctness. We look at the direction of
a crowd and think it is the way to go.
We even use the appearance
of numbers to push our agendas. I can tell of serval times I heard the critic
of ‘people’ complaining to find out just one or two folks. The reality of the
few would not move the needle but when we make it a crowd it pushes us to
action.
So, should we be so obsessed
with being on the popular side?
Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate; for
the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many
who enter through it. "For the gate
is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it. The many may be easy and clear
but lead to destruction. Few are the pathway to life. There is no ‘safety in
numbers’ rather they may be leading you to doom.
Rather than appeal to the masses we need to be
more concerned with right and proper. Just because you have a lot of people on
your side doesn’t mean that the vote is accurate.
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