Freedom a la Popper [is] not a comfortable option for everybody. Above all it makes individuals responsible for choosing, and responsible for the consequences of their choices. The issue is therefore twofold: on the one hand, there are leaders who wish to maintain control over their people and therefore discourage freedom, and on the other hand, there are people who wish to maintain their ignorance and mental servitude so as not to be responsible for their choices and have the anguish associated with making decisions whose consequences remain unknown when making these decisions. Hence, anti-democratic tendencies collide from the top and the bottom in an unholy alliance: who would imagine that individuals would willingly undemine their freedom?
Raphael Sassower
Popper’s Legacy- Rethinking Politics, Economics and Science