Ideas From an Article Called The Open Society and Enemies (Article Critique Sample)

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According to Plato, a philosopher is a king because for a city to be there and to run in the right way there must be somebody to design it and make it grow. Plato was a philosopher and he used to claim that a philosopher is a lover of the truth but his statements used to contradict his definition of a philosopher. According to his writing, for a person to rule, he/she must us lies and deceit the citizen and the privilege of the ruler should not be touched. He believes in totalitarian rule where the ruler should force the subject to do what he believes it is right. If the citizen refuses to obey the rulers’ orders, the ruler will have a right to decide the punishment to be given (Stewart 54). That should not be expected from a person who loves the truth, because if the ruler decision will be unjust to the people.
Plato wanted the rule of the master to be strengthened and anything that serves that interest of the country must be believed and should be called the truth. One man rule is always dangerous and for proper leadership there should be the rule of law and people should be allowed to choose their own leaders. The rule of the law should be followed because people have different views on different things and the rule of law will be the best compromise position (Stewart 54).
Some of his ideas are good, for example when he said, a man who cannot carry out duties should not be treated because such a person is useless to himself and a burden to the country. This is similar to religious teachings that if a person refuses to work he/she should not be allowed to eat. But it should be a decision of a person to work or not and no person should be forced to work if he does not feel like. He claimed that lies should only be used like medicine. According to him a ruler should not be like coward doctors who fear administering strong medicine to their doctors (Karl 23). So a philosopher or a ruler should be a courageous man who is ready to administer a lot of lies and deceptions for the benefit of ruling.
Lies is always a propaganda that is used my many politicians to convince the voters to vote for them. If the citizens agree with leaders that use propaganda, they always regret because they rarely do what citizens expect from them. This has led to many problems in many countries and it has resulted in civil unrest in many states. The lies and deceit of race and tribe are a big problem today in many countries. Many leaders who come from a large race or tribe always make to the top in political contest. Once they get there they always punish the minority leading the country into many problems. So the lies of propaganda the Plato advocated for is does not work in bringing the country together (Karl, Alan, and Gombrich, 158). Persuading a person to believe in a lie is misleading him. Though at some point he insist on the rule through persuasion, that is okay but a person should be persuaded to do what will help develop the country and not destroying.
When it comes to religious matters Plato believed that religion and faith is an opportunist lie. According to him religion is an inspired lie by a great and clever person and installation of rites gods and gods is a work of a great thinker (Walter 208). Religion has some feelings and to human it is very difficult to deny the existence of God especially when we look at the way the world exists. Religion sometimes can be distorted especially when an individual use for its benefits. In his writings, he demanded that the punishment for those who believes in god is contrary to what the state demands, they should be given a chance to recant their statement and if they refuse they should be punished by death (Karl, Alan, and Gombrich, 158). This is against the freedom of worship and forcing people to have beliefs who can only be accepted by the state is equivalent to idol worship. Even great philosophers like Socrates were once a victim of such leadership. Sometimes Plato contradicts himself because at one point he teaches that god will punish those who disobey him severely. Sometimes he equates the rulers to gods.
Platonic approach towards politics was dangerous for a society to develop. According to his believe any rational action must have an end. So before acting on anything you must first choose the end. If this principle is applied in a society, it means that we must have an ultimate political aim or ideal state to achieve our goals (Roger 131). This principle is not possible because it is impossible to have an ideal society because there is no institutional way of makin...