Re: lexicon

I'm not sure if my earlier reply to this got thru a broken 'net connection,
but it's at any rate not showed up in my inbox yet, so I'm writing this for
safety's sake. Sorry for the double post, should one arise.

Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > While certain Americans would probably claim to be oppressed by
> Washington,
> > today's USA certainly isn't a _gravun_.
>
> By "American empire" I actually referred to the nominally independent
> countries
> outside America that somehow tend to end up doing what we say.
That's hardly enough for classification as a _gravun_. Whatever one can accuse
American foregin policy of, territorial expansion has not, during the last
century or so, not been its defining characteristic.

> > As long as the "dictatorship" isn't assumed to necessarily imply a
> single all-
> > powerful dictator at the top of the heap, I guess this is the best
> translation.
>
> A non-hierarchical army?  That is an unusual concept.
It's been tried ...

The prototype _blankergast_ is Keizdreze where final power, at least
theoretically, lies with a council of retired generals. The armed forces (the
main arm of which being the space fleet - this is a SF coniverse) are pretty
hierarchically organized, but there is no single dictatorial leader on the
national level.

                                                              Andreas