Hypothetical situation: Autism Speaks has just ceased to exist. Now what?

I find it difficult, if not impossible, to imagine an organisation that is allowed to call itself a charity being hated by the people it claims to be working for to a greater extent than is the case with Autism Speaks. In fact, Autism Speaks’ behaviour in general reminds me of one of the few moments in RoboCop 2 that even comes close to working. During the MediaBreak segment that opens the film, we are told that the police in Detroit have gone on strike once again. In the accompanying interview footage, an officer states that the company that has taken control of the police service in the city has cut the force’s salaries by forty percent and cancelled their pensions. And now, he says, said company will not even talk to them. “God knows why,” the officer opines, “but they want this strike.”

Democracy and “majority rules”. Why they are not compatible.

Ask a factory worker, a janitor, or even some well-read authors what they think the Greek-origin word “democracy” means, and they will tell you it is where the idea that gets the most votes is the one that gets enacted. This “do whatever fifty percent plus one wants to do” description is even taught to us in primary and secondary schools as if it were factual. Unfortunately, like just about everything in life, there is the surface-scratching shorthand explanation, and there is the detailed, complex explanation. The latter may take more time to explain, and be more difficult for the person hearing the explanation to understand, but as William of Ockham really did say, entities should not be posited without necessity. Well, friends and neighbours, when it comes to what democracy really is, a lot of entities are actually necessary.