Majority Rules

The story below popped up on my Facebook Memories page, and I thought it was worth sharing here.

When I was very young, I was in love with the Disney program on Sunday evenings. It was my favorite program. I loved the cartoon characters; I loved the stories. I even loved Walt Disney who, like a grandfather I never had, introduced each episode.

Unfortunately, we had only one television and my father decided the family viewing habits were to be governed based on majority rule. The result was that every Sunday evening, everyone except me voted to watch Gunsmoke, a program on a different station that ate into the first half-hour of the Disney program. But I usually watched the second half alone in the living room.

One evening at the end of the Disney program, there were previews of the next show. It showed the story of a ballerina who worked very hard to become a dancer. [Please feel free to read into this any subtexts you find appropriate.] It looked so beautiful that I just had to watch it. So, I asked my mother whether I could watch the entire program the following week. To appease me for the moment, my mother simply agreed. I was happy and kept thinking about the show all week.

Apparently, my mother had not communicated this agreement with my father. When the next Sunday evening arrived, I announced that I was going to watch the Disney program from start to finish. My father said that we needed to take a vote. Majority rules. And then I did something that I had never done with my father: I exploded with disagreement, crying that if it was always majority rules, I would never be able to watch a complete Disney program. Not knowing exactly where this was going, I continued my emotional melt-down until my father angrily gave in, yelling “Fine, watch your damn sissy program.” To my surprise, I had somehow won.

None of my siblings wanted to watch it with me, so they all retreated to their bedrooms while I was left alone in the living room to watch the program. It would have been nicer to be able to share it with at least one other person. But no, I sat there alone in front of the television. Soon, I began to feel guilty for having chased everyone else from the room (including my mother).

I was excited when the show began, seeing the same previews that I had watched the week prior. But as it turned out, the program bored me and I left the room in the middle of the program. But my father insisted that I return to the living room and watch my program. So, I sat through until the end finally came.

That day, I learned something important: Don’t demand something that you may not want. But my father unwittingly also learned an important lesson as well: Majority Rule but Minority Rights.