Can Society Legitimately Exercise Power Over The Individual?

On the one hand, the central question of ‘On Liberty’ is: to what extent can society legitimately exercise power over the individual? Power can be exercised either by different governments such as authoritarian, monarchical or democratic, which are always a threat to individual liberty. Or by self-government, ‘’of each by all the rest’’, i.e. following the rule of the most numerous or active part, the majority, anonymous social force that destroys the freedoms of individuals. This is due to the fact that the needs and wants of the minority are not taken into consideration as the formation of any individuality is prevented. These people only act in interest of the majority. For instance, the ban of gay marriage in Spain started as a tyranny of the heterosexual majority, but it is allowed since 2005 (1). Another example of this may be that most Americans in the slave era were white and free and they used the power the majority held to keep slavery from being abolished. The rights of black Americans were infringed till 1808 (2).
Every society adopts customs, beliefs, opinions and attitudes that are accepted by the majority as the right way of thinking and living and the minority is forced to adopt them. Those individuals that show signs of going off the right course are forced by pressure to conform what the ‘’prevailing opinion and feeling’’ (p.8) wants. Subsequently, development is fettered. What if a minority that has a specific disease wants to buy an expensive machine for the local hospital in order to treat it? According to this bulk of the population, it would not be purchased as the majority believes it is avoidable and costly. Therefore, there should be a protection against the tyranny, both of the magistrate and of the