John Stuart Mill On Liberty Analysis

Cierra Patterson

A Harsh Reality: Understanding Mill’s Message from ‘On Liberty’ When people consider John Stuart Mill, they usually quote his views on the importance of the individual without looking deeper into his true message. Many believe him to be the poster child of individualism. They praise him for standing behind the ideal society in which the individual conducts a life doing what they are passionate about. However, what most they don’t tend to grasp is that Mill believed people should do things for their own self-interest, but only if the individual had a certain maturity level. This excluded the working class who Mill believed (along with the rest of the bourgeoisie) them to be drunkards, promiscuous and unable to
He believed that the good of the individual would produce the good of society. He preached an utilitarian view that the individual had the right to do whatever they wish with their lives. This could only be obtained if the individual’s choices didn’t hinder the growth of the state and/or harm others. However, Mill felt that the power popular opinion has a big influence on the individual causing them to not depend on their own personal thoughts, but instead the thoughts of the majority.“...The nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. A question seldom stated, and hardly ever discussed, in general terms, but which profoundly influences the practical controversies of the age by its latent presence, and is likely soon to make itself recognised as the vital question of the future.” (Mill, Introduction). Mill feels that the will of the people is actually the will of the majority of those who are in charge of governing others. To Mill, this is the tyranny of the majority which to him is just as evil as the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way. In order to fight against this tyranny by preserving dissenting