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These are the social critiques. See Part 1 for political criticisms. Plato's social critiques are even more shockingly prescient than his political criticisms, and so I think they make for good reading and better contemplation.
Criticism 5: Political discourse in democratic societies will become superficial, and focus more on images and sentiment instead of substantive issues.
-Why is this? He says that the masses are not given to intricate logic, and prefer to be excited than rather than reasoned with. They will in general choose sentiment over sound reasoning.
-So, as detailed in the previous article with respect to qualified leaders, if a good outcome is had through political discourse in a democratic society, it is only good fortune that the right way also turned out to be sensational enough to be popular.
Criticism 6: In elections, policy and platform will take a backseat to how candidates look and present themselves. Images over substance.
-Plato emphasizes again that these tendencies are not an accident, not some trap into which we have fallen out of a failure to properly conduct democracy, but rather they are built into the system.
Criticism 7: Therefore, more weight will be given to emotion than to reason.
-In Plato's view, governments that fail do so because they do not help their citizens distinguish truth from image, reality from illusion. Democracy is the worst offender in this regard, because the citizens are constantly flooded with illusions (ever watch tv?) and sentiments.
-People have many considerations in voting (including policy), but consider how often you hear or see a focus on the following: the way they look (this is why political websites use favorable or unfavorable images), the way they present themselves (do they seem confident? strong enough? did one of them cry?), and just the mere fact of their popularity (smart people you know are voting this way, you should too).
Criticism 8: Democratic societies and their citizens will be victimized by those who can manipulate emotions and images. In short, the real rulers will not be chosen by capability, but by illusions and heartstrings, scandals from unnamed sources, push polls, etc.
-Anyone ever heard of: Lobbyists, advertising companies, media consultants, spin doctors, PR experts? Well, they aren't new, Plato would have called them Sophists.
-These people are not philosophers. They are lovers of power, not lovers of wisdom, and they use their strengths accordingly.
-Images are easy to manipulate, and their manipulation can only serve special interests.
Criticism 9: (You ready for this one?) People in a democratic society will tend to eat poorly.
-This is not as crazy as it may sound. (Although to me my jaw drops thinking about the walking refrigerators and heart-attack-time-bombs in my life right now.) See, he simply means that once people are focused on illusion, then they will be focused on how the food looks, how it tastes, and not necessarily its internal value, the quality of nutrition it provides.
-Anyone with kids (or a gut) knows that healthy food doesn't always seem as appetizing as unhealthy food, but when we are focused on images, that doesn't matter, it takes a back seat to our preferences.
