There might have been a misunderstanding, as to my reason for turning up at the town hall, in Korpilahti, last Monday, to invite our representatives to vote against the merger between Jyväskylä and Korpilahti. Personally, my views were and are against the merger. It was however something that I considered more important that my own views that took me to the town hall.

As people, we are different and we hold different views of the world, in which we live together. These different views we have suggests that for every situation that would require action, there would be people in support of the action and people who do not support the action.

Given these differences in opinions, I believe that there are two possible ways that choices, on what action to carry out, can be made. The first would be by asking everyone in society what their opinions are and carrying out the action that the majority wants. This is what I believe is referred to as democracy. The second way would be to ask a part of the society and then carry out the action based on what that part of society wants, which, in my opinion, would be imposing the action on those whose opinions were not asked.

I, as a human being, believe that I have the capacity to choose what I think is best for me. As such, no matter how well-intentioned another person is, if they took it upon themselves to speak for me, without my permission, they would be imposing on me. This would mean that I would not be at peace until I am allowed to speak for myself. I hold the view that I am no different from any other human being, and as such if someone took it upon himself or herself to speak for others, the chances are that those others, just like me, would not be in peace.

If the goal of a society is to reach a state where the people who live in it, live together in peace, then the only way that this peace can be achieved is to allow the members of the society to speak what they think, and if there are actions that would affect them, for the opinions of the majority, after everyone has been asked for their opinion, to form the basis of the action. Another way of putting this would be to say that the only way a society can be at peace is if its actions are based on democracy.

It was this belief in democracy that took me out on Monday, as I wanted to defend it. I would still have come out to defend it if my opinion was not with the majority, and I felt that the majority’s opinion was not going to be implemented. This is because I believe that for us to live in peace, my opinion, though important, is not as important as the opinion of the majority.

As it was, democracy was defeated by the vote carried out by the representatives. Since their decision was legally binding, it means that there is, at least in this instance, a conflict between democracy and the law. In other words, the laws allow for decisions that are not based on democracy, and as such have the likelihood of not allowing us to live in peace.

The question, as I see it, is what can we do to make the laws align themselves with democracy so that we all can live in peace? I believe that the only thing that we can do is to ask for the laws to be changed and based on democracy. This is what I think, and though my opinion is important it is not as important as the opinions of the majority. So what do you think?