[Tichy]

Right: an earlier version of my post specified how Plato thought of the "best" but I yanked it to not go on too long. Best = morally and intellectually disciplined, motivated by the Good, undesirous of wealth and physical pleasure, and uncorruptible. Oh, and, to *not* want political power.

But Plato is maddeningly ambiguous about lying; in general he comes out utterly opposed to it, but then seems completely willing to have leaders tell followers things that aren't true as long as belief in those things will lead the people towards what is truly good.

If someone criticizes elitist or undemocratic elements in Plato's politics, they're not critiquing present-day political ideals -- according to you, they're just misreading Plato. That's been the nature of our debate. I think it's misreading Plato to take him as straightforwardly advocating modern democratic political ideals. There are things in his dialogues that strongly influence those ideals, but he also says things that seem to advocate top-down, undemocratic governance -- and have influenced thinkers who favor those types of governance.

If what you say is true about Popper, he shares one feature of Marx's view, but not the essential stuff about alienated labor, class conflict, and revolution. And to be fair, Marx considered the one-party 'dictatorship of the proletariat' to be a temporary waypoint on the road to freedom...it's just that no existing or extinct communist state ever seemed to get past it.

Going on too long my specialty...