Re: CHAT: Support/Oppression of Conlanging

Quoting Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:

> Thomas Wier wrote:
> >It really doesn't have to do with fascism at all so much as
> >totalitarianism. As a cacologist friend of mine put it once, "This is
> >a totalitarian state, right? So, sometime down the line the government
> >is going to have to have a policy on Esperanto." Stalin had lots of
> >problems with Undesirables like Cossacks, Ukrainians, and basically
> >everyone in the Caucasus, and Stalin was no Fascist.
>
> Is _cacologist_ a "real" word, or just something you come up with now?
I coined the word when I met this friend of mine who studies evil
in all its manifestation. (He doesn't *like* evil, he just wants to
understand what it is, and why it arises.)  I've been using it for
over two years now, I suppose.

> Anyways, I invented the word _cacocracy_ "bad government" sometime during
> the winter, partly because I like all those c's, partly because I dislike
> the way that _dictatorship_ (or at least  Swedish _diktatur_) is used of
> absolutely any governments disliked by western democrats, no matter how
> different they may be from eachother. Whadya think of it?
Usually, the suffix "-cracy" refers to a government system where
the set of individuals immediately before "-cracy" has power
(_kratia_ in Greek means "power").  Therefore, "cacocracy" should
refer to government ruled by evil people, rather than bad government
per se.

ObConCulture:  The most powerful regime on Phalera is a schediasmatocracy,
rule by the whim or fancy of a hereditary elite.  This is a calque into
English of Phaleran _Tlolkestik'ura_, from the C'ali _tl'ölaska_ 'whim'
and _tiyk'Ur_ 'regime'.  (C'ali has the same relationship to Phaleran
that Greek and Latin do to English.)

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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