John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a visionary. He saw that women deserved equality and that everyone should be entitled to free speech and their voice be heard. His ideas were very forward thinking for his day and which he was very outspoken about. He writes in Ch. 3 of "On Liberty",

“The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they now are (for it is they who make them what they are), cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody; and what is more, spontaneity forms no part of the ideal of the majority of moral and social reformers, but is rather looked on with jealousy, as a troublesome and perhaps rebellious obstruction to the general acceptance of what these reformers, in their own judgment, think would be best for mankind.” Pg. 517

Another reformist such as Hardy, John Stuart Mill saw that there needed to be changes in the social and political area of this time. He saw that the majority system with which seems like a good idea, has major faults. Just because a majority vote is had doesn’t mean the issues that are to follow is the most important. This is the major fault with this style of government, which usually leads to the election of a lesser of two evils. When one is elected, the important issues that were upheld by the fallen party are thrown out the window.

In his writing “Statement Repudiating the Rights of Husbands”, Mill shows us that he sees women as being equal and that he will acknowledge his wife as having her rights. In his day in age Mill was seen as a reformist and maybe even radical but today we view him as ahead of his time. Mill’s understanding that all people should be created equal was a view that many did not uphold. Through his writings the audience can see exactly what Mills thought. He was one to put his thoughts straight on paper.