Re: Philosophers + Drain
Plato once said that lies infected the soul with evil, and he didn't support the noble lies, as that kind of state was rejected as insufficient (to be fair, Plato rejected all existing states as insufficient.) Also, rule by the best doesn't mean rule by a few or by the rich; it means that those who can comprehend reality and morality best ought to be able to rule. Of course, a few people DO rule modern countries (a few hundred legislatures plus an executive and a supreme/constitutional court rule of states with many millions or even over a billion), and those people tend to be rich. So what I'm saying is, when people criticize Plato, they are really criticizing the world in which we live today, as Plato's philosophy and its ideals (republican government, rule of law, the social contract, etc) have defined the political landscape.
P.S. I called Popper a Marxist because, like Marx, he seems to be upset at the existence of a social contract, or that a state can be guided by an agreement between the government and its people, rather than a monolithic set of ideals as expounded by a single, all-powerful political party. Of course, a single party isn't 100% necessary for Popper, so how Marxist he is is indeed in question, to be fair.
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