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Popper's return engagement: The open society in an era of globalization

National Interest, The, Spring, 2002 by Neil McInnes

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(7.) Roger Sandall, The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001).

(8.) Ibid., p. 114.

(9.) Colin Simkin, "The Birth of the Open Society", Quadrant (December 1990); Peter Biskup, "Popper in Australasia, 1937-1945", Quadrant (June 2000); and Sandall, "Karl Popper in New Zealand", in The Culture Cult.

(10.) Douglas Williams, Truth, Hope and Power: The Thought of Karl Popper (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.)

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The mythical organization of society seems to be superseded by a rational organization. In quiet and peaceful times, in periods of relative stability and security, this rational organization is easily maintained. It seems to be safe against all attacks. But in politics the equipoise is never completely established. What we find here is a labile rather than a static equilibrium. In politics we are always living on volcanic soil. We must be prepared for abrupt convulsions and eruptions. In all critical moments of man's social life, the rational forces that resist the rise of the old mythical conceptions are no longer sure of themselves. In these moments the time for myth has come again. For myth has not been really vanquished and subjugated. It is always there, lurking in the dark and waiting for its hour and opportunity. This hour comes as soon as the other binding forces of man's social life, for one reason or another, lose their strength and are no longer able to combat the demonic mythical powers.

--Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State (1946)

Neil McInnes is a long-time contributor to The National Interest.

Popper's return engagement: The open society in an era of globalization

National Interest, The, Spring, 2002 by Neil McInnes

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