"And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness." - Alcuin to Charlemagne
We are facing a dangerous trend where people are beginning to think what is moral should dictated by numbers instead of what is natural. Somebody is leading the country to thread on dangerous grounds where people, specially the leaders, believe that truth is subjective and based on popularity. This is the fallacy of democracy.
Without noticing it, there is now a dangerous tendency to determine not only legal, but also moral issues, or what is right and what is wrong, through popularity surveys. Playing the numbers game to decide legal or moral issues is getting to be an accepted norm in our democratic society. The current view is that if 6, 7 or 8 out of 10 people surveyed think that a certain proposition is true and correct, or is legal, then that proposition should be accepted and adopted. If carried to the extremes, it means that if the same number of people or all of them believe that two plus two equals five then it should be accepted as true and correct.
More here:
Determining the truth through surveys by Atty. Jose C. Sison, Philippine Star columnist.
