1984

1984 is a book by George Orwell which focuses on a dystopian future which is dictated by a tyrannical Big Brother, who always knows people’s thoughts and controls every aspect of life. Whether or not such a dictatorship is preferable to alternative types of governments is an idea raised in this book

Objections to the argument that democracy is needed to create an ideal society include Plato who argues that democracy is inferior to oligarchies, monarchies, and aristocracies because it undermines the expertise which is required to govern societies. Plato argues also that only those who are good at winning will become leaders in a democracy, not those who have the expertise because many people lack the talent which allows them to think about political issues. However, in a democracy politicians are forced to appeal to the moral sense of right or wrong rather than the political issues involved in passing any piece of legislation. Overall, this means the state is led by poor ideas created by those who are experts at manipulating and appealing to the masses. Hobbes argues that democracy is inferior to because it creates dissension among the subjects which could be destabilizing to the government. This is because individual citizens’ concerns are not focused on politics. It is also because politicians only focus on appealing to the people and lack any reason to consider what is genuinely good for the people.

While Plato does not think democracy is necessary to create an ideal society, he did state that the universe is contingent upon natural forms, or the Form of the Good . This acts as the cause of all things, responsible for leading a person to act wisely. In The Republic, Plato suggested that ethics and politics overlapped in terms of their essential features and were, more or less, the same. He did not distinguish between public life and private life, as we do today. No private life was ever kept from the public during his time.

Plato wrote based on utopian ideals of natural law which concerned themselves with the manner in which things ought to be, not the manner in which they were, thereby describing what would be needed to create the ideal society. He described the manner in which people should behave in order to have the perfect society. As such, he greatly argued that a good and efficient ruler would avoid war, though maintains a means of defense, and would remain in complete honesty with his people, always acting upon moral virtue, or knowledge. By the same logic, a democracy IS necessary to create an ideal society because a democracy creates competent and honest leaders out of each citizen who participates.