Conflict/Consensus

“If there is no solution that isn’t in everyone’s interest more debate will usually produce agreement.”

–Astra Taylor

It is widely accepted that conflict is an unavoidable burden of democracy while consensus is a utopian desire. These contrasting ideas, however, may be more intertwined than imagined. What if consensus wasn’t the key to democracy, but it's fatal flaw? And what if conflict was our only hope for true democracy? True consensus is an impossibility. It can never be attained by the entirety of society. The modern world is simply too large and too complex, inevitability leading to a small group of people gaining power and withholding it from the rest of the demos.

Black Sam Bellamy’s crew of 1717’s loot recovered from the Whydah shipwreck in Cape Cod.

Shocking yet instructive, English pirate ships in the 18th century had what many modern democracies yearn for: consensus. They divided loot equally, had considerable racial tolerance, and elected a captain who only held absolute power during combat and was otherwise a regular crew member. Their consensus is admirable, but impossible for a modern nation to replicate. Consensus appears to only be possible with a small, contained, and like-minded population. The deck of the pirate ship might have achieved the democratic ideal of consensus, but if their tiny, isolated demos expanded to include all other ships on the open seas, consensus could never have been reached. Like our modern democracies, the unbalanced power distribution, corruption, and polarizing views prevents consensus.

Democracy is perpetually in tension between majorities and minorities, each vying to impose its preferences or the consensus that best fits their beliefs and ideas. While it seems vital to experience consensus to form a quality democratic society, it is frankly impossible to do so, given the population and imbalance of power to the extent that if consensus was attained it could never account for everyone. In all democracies, conflict created them and regular debate sustains them furthermore, conflict is essential for the system to progress and thrive. As a democratic society, we should be prepared for conflict to flare up among our constituents but believe that the differences can be overcome with time and patience, and better resolve the disparities within our world more so than resorting to an overall consensus. In a democracy, if everyone has a voice and everyone’s perspectives are legitimate, then disagreement, conflict, and argument are inevitable. Consensus isn’t necessary to obtain democracy, but conflict is.

Sam S Nyna G

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