Individuality

Individual. An individual is a single human being as distinct from a group, class, or family.

Everyone closed their eyes. The teacher put the lights off. Everyone buried their heads into their arms. We waited in silence. Do you like sports or art? Do you like math or science? Do you like to eat or sleep? At each question, everyone raised their hand in the category they favored. Art. Math. Sleep. Majority likes art. Majority likes math. Majority likes art. We let majority rule.

Perhaps in these minor situations, we let majority rule, but how about when questions such as whether you are for or against medical marijuana, prolife or prochoice, for or against euthanasia? Should you let your individual voice be heard? Risk it and hope for the best? From On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, “I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency” (1020).  This quote, itself, is a true representation of importance of an individual.

The importance of an individual is unexplainable. When the question arises as to whether government or the individuals that make it up are more important? I believe that the individuals are more important. If Gandhi hadn’t starved, perhaps India wouldn’t be free. If Martin Luther King hadn’t painted the picture of a harmonious society, perhaps America wouldn’t be standing together. These historical events prove that every individual, every individual’s opinion, every individual’s faith and belief, should be heard. Each one of those opinions, faiths, and beliefs, make up the government and its duty to deliver to the people. In other words, if the government wishes to provide and protect the people, then it must listen to the people as well.