AN OPEN SOCIETY

Open society (French: société ouverte) is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in 1932 and describes a dynamic system inclined to moral universalism.  Bergson contrasted an open society with what he called a closed society, a closed system of law, morality or religion. It is static, like a closed mind.  Bergson suggests that if all traces of civilization were to disappear, the instincts of the closed society for including or excluding others would remain.

The idea of an open society was further developed during World War II by the Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper. Popper saw it as part of a historical continuum reaching from the organic, tribal, or closed society, through the open society (marked by a critical attitude to tradition) to the abstract or depersonalized society lacking all face-to-face interaction transactions.

Popper saw the classical Greeks as initiating the slow transition from tribalism towards the open society, and as facing for the first time the strain imposed by the less personal group relations entailed thereby.

Whereas tribalistic and collectivist societies do not distinguish between natural laws and social customs, so that individuals are unlikely to challenge traditions they believe to have a sacred or magical basis, the beginnings of an open society are marked by a distinction between natural and man-made law, and an increase in personal responsibility and accountability for moral choices (not incompatible with religious belief).

Popper argued that the ideas of individuality, criticism, and humanitarianism cannot be suppressed once people have become aware of them, and therefore that it is impossible to return to the closed society, but at the same time recognized the continuing emotional pull of what he called "the lost group spirit of tribalism", as manifested for example in the totalitarianisms of the 20th century.

While the period since Popper's study has undoubtedly been marked by the spread of the open society, this may be attributed less to Popper's advocacy and more to the role of the economic advances of late modernity. Growth-based industrial societies require literacy, anonymity and social mobility from their members — elements incompatible with much tradition-based behavior but demanding the ever-wider spread of the abstract social relations Georg Simmel saw as characterizing the metropolitan mental stance.

Investor and philanthropist George Soros, a self-described follower of Karl Popper, argued that sophisticated use of powerful techniques of subtle deception borrowed from modern advertising and cognitive science by conservative political operatives such as Frank Luntz and Karl Rove casts doubt on Popper's view of open society.  Because the electorate's perception of reality can easily be manipulated, democratic political discourse does not necessarily lead to a better understanding of reality. Soros argues that in addition to the need for separation of powers, free speech, and free elections, an explicit commitment to the pursuit of truth is imperative.  "Politicians will respect, rather than manipulate, reality only if the public cares about the truth and punishes politicians when it catches them in deliberate deception."

Popper however, did not identify the open society either with democracy or with capitalism or a laissez-faire economy, but rather with a critical frame of mind on the part of the individual, in the face of communal group think of whatever kind.   An important aspect in Popper's thinking is the notion that the truth can be lost. Critical attitude does not mean that the truth is found.

So, now we are back to that concept of TRUTH...  and, what exactly is truth?  Is truth the conservative points-of-view or is the truth the liberal points-of-view?  

It has always been said and believed that whoever wins the wars writes the history books and the history books give us the truth about what happened...  so, even that is biased...

TRUTH AND THE PRECEPTION OF REALITY is SOROS but, if one's perception of reality can be easily distorted then one's truth is also distorted based upon who distorted the reality...

Truth is synonymous with religion in a sense as they both are perceived by their followers as being the current reality...  and yet, the truth of the religious is disbelieved as truth by those who are not religious citing scientific facts...  and, they make the claim that the religious have had their perceptions of reality distorted...  and yet, to the religious they think...  how can this be?

We will never have an OPEN SOCIETY as there will always be those who for whatever reason will try to manipulate our perception of reality.