<p>Please grade my SAT essay. :)</p>
<p>Prompt:</p>
<p>[We must seriously question the idea of majority rule. The majority grinned and jeered when Columbus said that the world was round. The majority threw him into a dungeon for his discoveries. Where is the logic in the notion that the opinion held by a majority of people should have the power to influence our decisions?</p>
<p>Adapted from James A. Reed "Majority Rule"]</p>
<p>Is the opinion of the majority--in government or any other circumstances--a poor guide?</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<p>For thousands of years, people have clung to the idea of majority rule. People obviously like this idea or we would not have democratic government. Nonetheless, the majority is sometimes wrong. Still, in most circumstances, the opinion of the majority is what best serves the people. We can look at numerous past events to clearly see this.</p>
<p>First of all, the United States itself is a prime example of majority rule being effective. While our country has had issues like those involving civil rights, we are progressive, and generally end up making the right decisions. Although at first people accepted the idea of slavery (and later segregation), we are now a very accepting society--one of all different colors, shapes and sizes, and the vast majority of people agree with these ideas of civil rights. </p>
<p>Secondly, the majority rule is generally better than it is worse. We can again look at the United States, and compare it to other countries that don't use majority rule or democracy. Take for example, Egypt, which for the past 29 years has had a dictator ruling it. If majority rule was not an effective means of running a society, then the United States would not have lasted and continued to prosper through the present, and Mubarak's regime might still be in power.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I have seen this principal of majority rule in action, and it is almost always a "good guide." For example, just last week in Chemistry class, we were doing a lab with air pressure. My teacher poked a hole in a water bottle, capped it, and filled it up with water while covering the hole. My teacher gave us a query: "Using what you know about air pressure, what do you think will happen when I take my finger off the hole?" We took a vote, and most of the class thought that the water would stay in, because there was nothing to replace the volume of the water if it were to come out. The top, we must remember, was capped. We were right; it stayed in. The majority of the class believed something, and the majority was right.</p>
<p>So, in at least some regard, James A Reed was wrong in saying "We must seriously question the idea of majority rule." While he is correct in saying that sometimes people are irrational, in a progressive, democratic society, we always come to the right conclusions--at least eventually.</p>