Yusuke Umezawa: Is Popularity Justice?

2024/08/21

"If what sells is good, then the best-tasting ramen in the world is cup ramen." This is a quote often seen online, attributed to a certain famous musician. While the source is unknown, what is noteworthy is that a significant number of people regard this as a "persuasive quote."

I myself have dedicated a considerable portion of my life to things that are consistently "unpopular": American football, brutal death metal, and the history of political thought. The ramen mentioned at the beginning is also a part of my youth. During high school, after American football practice in the summer, I ate ramen almost every day at Hiyoura (the area behind Hiyoshi Station). (By the way, I also love cup ramen.) However, even I do not have as much confidence in my palate for judging the taste of ramen as a critic who eats it 365 days a year. When looking for a new ramen shop, I refer to the opinions of ramen critics rather than someone who only eats ramen once a year. This is because I believe there are qualitative differences in "opinions."

However, in the political system of "democracy" that we employ, every opinion is counted as the same "single vote." While democracy realizes the important value of "political equality," does it not perhaps sacrifice another important value, "expertise"? Driven by such concerns, I recently published a book titled "Questioning Democracy: Lectures on Political Thought for Thinking for Yourself" (Chikuma Shinsho, 2024).

In elections within democratic countries, the person who secures the most votes, regardless of the method, is basically the winner. Such principles are not limited to the institutional level but can also be found in social trends. The idea that what everyone thinks is "good," or what anyone can understand the value of, is indeed "good." The musician's words mentioned earlier expressed a sense of unease toward these values.

A "university" is a base of resistance against such societal tendencies. Just as coffee starts to taste good when one becomes an adult, there are many things in the world that require a bit of effort or growth to understand their value. I feel happy now to be involved in helping others discover the value and charm of new fields—in helping with "growth" in that sense.