Editorial: The Aggressive Minority, the Passive Majority

PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume Vl · Number ? · Autumn 1962 EDITORIAL: The Aggressive Minority, the Passive Majority We ordinarily think ofthe parts ofa healthy organism or organization as being subordinatedto thewhole. Butthereisaclass ofphenomena, notstrictlyhomologous,among living things in which the minority struggles successfully to dominate the majority. Change usually has its beginning with a minority. Either good or evil can come ofit. At the cellular level it may be represented by mutation and can lead either to death or to evolution. At the level ofthe organism, this is the way diseases begin. Cancer and infections start as aggressive minorities ofcells, processes which are at first small and localized but may destroy the organism. At the level ofthe group, this is the way to social evolution , education, discovery, and leadership. Leadership commonly, but not always, represents an aggressive minority. It is alsothewayto dogma, revolution, dictatorship, and war. Much ofhistory represents the successes and failures ofaggressive minorities. The majority may not be entirely passive; it may be restive but consenting. There is no new moral to be derived from this. The individual confronted with a threat to the status quo by the aggressive minorityneeds insights into the complexpatternofcauses which creates disunity and into the possible consequences ofchange. At the social level the individual needsasystem ofethicswhichextends beyondtheprincipleofmajorityrule. Government should accommodate aggressive minorities, afford them means ofdisplay, but should not confer success until there is a cultivated willing consent. Examination ofthe dynamics ofthe aggressive minority versus the passive majority should be an interesting intellectual exercise within a number offields ofinquiry. D.J.I. ...