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This is one of Teri's must read articles. Excerpt from Teri's post, originally from the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy:
"According to Plato, most people do not have the kinds of intellectual talents that enable them to think well about the difficult issues that politics involves. But in order to win office or get a piece of legislation passed in a democracy, politicians must appeal to these people’s sense of what is right or not right.
Hence, Plato concludes that the state will be guided by very poorly worked out ideas that experts in manipulation and mass appeal use to help themselves win office.
In other words, Plato's theory is that democracy is fragile because the person who is an expert in manipulation and mass appeal will win, not the person best equipped to govern. In the words of Angie Hobbs, a Professor at the University of Sheffield, Plato's theory of the flaw in democracy "provided a chilling account of how democracy can be subverted into tyranny by an opportunistic demagogue."
It's easy to stir people's emotions. Demagogues have advantages, particularly in the kind of information disruption that we are experiencing now. If we want democracy to succeed, if we want to prove Plato wrong, the task is to educate Americans and teach them to love democracy and rule of law with all of its shortcomings.
I talked about all the Republican advantages. The pro-democracy pro-Truth party has one advantage which, if used, will constantly give the pro-democratic party the upperhand:
There are more of us than them. People who want democracy vastly outnumber the people who don't, which brings me to this question:
Have you voted or made a plan to vote?"
Whether we save our democracy is ultimately up to us...I never would have believed it would come to this, but it has.
