Editor's Note: When the world was rushing towards technology, William Morris went the other way. In 1874. His life's work launched the Arts and Crafts movement. This begs the question, "Can an ultra minority's preferences dominate the majority?" Says Nassim Taleb, "The minority rule will show us how all it takes is a small number of intolerant virtuous people with skin in the game, in the form of courage, for society to function properly." --Ragu & Nisha

Inspired by the likes of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Marx, Morris became interested in the application of art, design, and architecture in achieving a moral purpose. While the masses made their way to the factories, Morris and his companions began to experiment with different models of life and business, prototyping variations of a new society. They literally built themselves a world of high-quality medieval beauty inspired by nature, the value of craftsmanship, and the romance of a bygone age. He is famously quoted as having said that one “should have nothing in [one’s] house that [one does] not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

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It suffices for an intransigent minority –a certain type of intransigent minorities –to reach a minutely small level, say three or four percent of the total population, for the entire population to have to submit to their preferences. Further, an optical illusion comes with the dominance of the minority: a naive observer would be under the impression that the choices and preferences are those of the majority. If it seems absurd, it is because our scientific intuitions aren’t calibrated for that.

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Be The Change Idea

"What is your art?" In answering that question, with a number of crazy experiments, you just might have a big influence on the question, "What is art?"