Lenny Hu

My scary classroom social experiment demonstrating how tyrannies arise from democracies: I gave a bunch of extra credit tickets to the first few students to arrive in class, then everyone else received 1-2 tickets. The kids that came into class last were outraged by the “injustice” of those that came first getting a greater reward. There were no rules or directions for this day in class. I just told them I’d act as an enforcer of whatever they decided to do in the 47 minutes. The girl circled in red- Emily- was a genius. She used her charisma and charm to court the majority of her peers that had less coupons, and played off their resentment of the minority that had earned more tickets for arriving to class early. In the allotted time she convinced her peers that if they voted to give her absolute power, she would confiscate the 40+ coupons held by the minority and distribute them equally. The minority of students were frustrated, but powerless against the majority vote. Emily was elected to a “supreme ruler” position, and as promised she confiscated all of the tickets from the minority of students that arrived to class first. That’s when things got interesting. She kept the vast majority of tickets for herself, and distributed a few to some of her friends. It was a microcosm of what has happened historically time and time again, and the danger our republic faces. I asked the students to write a reflection on how they now viewed unrestrained majority-rules democracy, and their opinions has definitely changed from the day prior.