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Two heads better than one?

By George Baumler

  The old adage, two heads are better than one, bears a little closer examination and less faithful acceptance.  The idea of twice the brainpower sounds great, but does it work that way?  Two horses can do more work than just one alone. That's a fact, but the question should be: are two horses any smarter just because there are two of them?  Just because something is an old saying, doesn't necessarily make it accurate.  Many beliefs once held by the majority have later been found to be inaccurate.  The concept of Democracy is somewhat founded on the principle that the majority is wiser than a single individual or the minority. 

   The majority of people now believe the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, but not too many centuries earlier the majority of people believed the opposite.  This clearly illustrates that the collective wisdom of the majority was demonstrably less reliable than the minority who correctly believed the earth rotated and orbited the sun.  Just because an idea is in vogue or is said to be cutting edge or has many adherents doesn't add anything to its credibility.  One example of fairly modern delusion held by many enlightened U.S. citizens is the notion that the war against southern secession was fought over the issue of slavery.  The war against secession began April 12^th 1861; Lincoln didn't free the southern slaves until January 12^th 1863, over two and one half years later.  Obviously if the war had been about slavery Lincoln would have freed the slaves at the outset.  Another widely held delusion is the 1941 attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack, even though it is an established fact that both the Japanese military and diplomatic codes had been broken months prior to the attack.

   Two heads are obviously not wiser than one; in fact the majority represents only the average wisdom or intelligence.  Mental abilities are not like battery voltages that can be added together in series to yield higher potentials.  Mental powers of individuals are more like daily temperatures that, like individuals, vary greatly between extremes.  Taken together, the yield is only the average.  No one I know of would consider it a compliment if it were said, "He has an average IQ."

  The fact that the Majority wants this or that doesn't make it right or bright. The founders of the United States understood that tyranny of an ignorant majority was a real possibility, which is why they founded a constitutional republic and not a democracy.

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