The Open Society and Its Prophets | Hacker News Reader

The Open Society and Its Prophets

tabletmag.com

16 pointslermontov5 comments

This was my morning read & it was a delight. The cycle of open & closed society, with closed being the default, the secure form of society... loved it. Very interesting framing. The turn mid-way through, into those who see what society could be, mystics, was a very fun twist right as it felt like we were about to run out of things to discuss.

I liked the author's write up on liberal democracy, as an embodiment of this mystic spirit:

"Liberal democracy is “essentially evangelical,” founded on a religious insight into humanity’s unity and dignity. Preserving liberal democracy is thus not so much a matter of legalistically defining rights and norms, as of keeping alive this “religious character” of openness to fresh expressions of its founding intuition that all human beings are equal"

"Democracy is not only one form of political regime among others, but a mystical, messianic, open religion."

As per @cratermoon's comments though, I think this is where the article quickly goes a bit off the rails.

"It is also to say that democratic societies can only survive insofar as they remain to a great extent closed, becoming a new kind of theocratic anthill in which the antinomian or anxiety-producing potential of individual thought is largely neutralized by convention and myth."

Here I feel like we're stumbling poorly into the Paradox of Tolerance, confusing the ardency with which openness must be insisted upon with a closed-ness.

The author kinds of glosses over one of Popper's key insights in The Open Society and Its Enemies: the paradox of tolerance. He noted the danger of unlimited tolerance, and that those who are intolerant can exploit the tolerance of the the society to overthrow the open society.

We see this today in those who attempt to weaponize the idea of censorship when society attempts to minimize the destructive effects of intolerant views.