There’s a good reason Karl Popper titled the first volume of his magnum opus against authoritarianism, The Spell of Plato. For millennia, much of the Western mind has been in thrall to Plato: for better, or more often, for much, much worse.
Plato was one of the giants of philosophy. So much so that Alfred North Whitehead dubbed Western philosophy as “footnotes to Plato”. But, as Popper pointed out, Plato’s brilliance has too often blinded his followers to his very dark flaws — especially in his political philosophy. From The Spell of Plato, Popper traced a direct descent to Marx.
Plato envisioned an “ideal society” which was stratified into a ruling elite, their footsoldiers, and the vast mass of lumpen proletariat, fit only to do as they’re told by their “Guardians”. Class is not defined entirely by birth, however: meritocracy is allowed.
The society is run on strictly eugenic lines and children are raised collectively. Education is rigid and dictated by the ruling elite.
Mass censorship is put into practice. They will tell you which poetry you can read, and they will destroy the rest. They will rewrite the works of great poets, allowing only the poetry that encourages moral behavior. The so-called immoral and amoral works are destroyed.
Before we continue, let’s reflect on the city-state outlined above, and ask ourselves if this is a society that we would like to live in. Further, let us ask ourselves if this city-state sounds more like a harmonious utopia or a tyrannical hell…
You might also ask yourself if all that is starting to sound a bit familiar?
Give or take a few tweaks, Plato’s central idea of an all-powerful state ruled by a meritocratic elite of benevolent dictators has appealed to everyone from the socialists to the fascists and communists. As Popper argued, Plato’s mode of thinking, especially as filtered through Hegel and then down to Marx, is the root of nearly all authoritarian political ideologies in the West (despite its flourishing in the East, it should not be forgotten that communism is thoroughly Western in origin).
Now, I can only speak for myself here – but I’m not much of a fan…
I value freedom and autonomy as a living-breathing individual, this city-state sounds extremely oppressive and tyrannical. I don’t think anyone should dictate what I read, and to establish a city-state on a foundation of self-recognized lies sounds altogether insane.
Although the gold-ruling class is to be comprised of philosopher-kings, I don’t think much philosophizing will be going on. If knowledge is set in stone, there is no room for creative or original thinking.
I think that the ruling-class would be more like computers. They are taught a very specific mode of thinking, and mathematics is of the utmost importance to their education. They would be programmed for certain thought patterns, and they would be instructed to perpetuate the noble lies.
Which sounds exactly like the current left-establishment. As James Delingpole has said, listening to any Guardian (a name straight from Plato, you may notice)-reading drone, it’s as if they’re given a big book on their first day of their Arts degree, This Is What You Think. It becomes their life-long go-to resource. If ever a topic of discussion comes up, why, just ask the Big Book what you’re supposed to think. Easy.
But it is another of Plato’s central conceits that turned the 20th century into a bloody charnel house.
In the same dialogue, Plato wants to claim that if his theory of forms – his ideals – cannot be realized in this world, it is because something is wrong with the world that we find ourselves in.
Classical Wisdom
And that is the defining characteristic of the authoritarians Popper warned against: their utopianism (a word taken from Plato’s very book). As we have seen time and again in the last century, when imperfect humans fail to conform to the perfect theories of the authoritarians, millions die.