People's Judgement (Dryden) tea towel

‘Nor is the people's judgement always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.’

So John Dryden wrote in his celebrated satirical poem Absalom and Achitophel. The poem is ‘generally acknowledged as finest political satire in the English language.’ In this work, using the analogy of a Biblical tale, Dryden makes a comment on contemporary politics, warning the reader of blindly accepting the will of the majority. We wonder what parallels we can draw with modern-day politics?

The backdrop, by the way, is from a painting by pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt showing all those sheep on the point of following each other over the precipice... 

Let this literary gift remind you: don’t follow the herd – be heard!