Sunday, July 16

Word Nerds love to use big words but are often reluctant to display their knowledge for fear of being tagged, well, 'nerdy'.  But, when it comes to criticising Donald J Trump, there are not enough words in the dictionary to satisfy the commentariat.  No reason, then to hold back.  Drag out all the dusty, little-used epithets so that your comments don't just sound like all the others.

This week, 'kleptocracy' was getting a run.  This means 'rule by people who are raiding the public purse', e.g. Donald Trump.  Why don't we hear this word more often?  Maybe, because it's the norm, in our society at least.  Another word in this set, applied to Donald J, is 'plutocracy', government by the wealthy.  After all, says the President, you wouldn't want a poor man to be in charge of the finances.  There's also 'autocracy': rule by just one person.  Donald might love that but there are probably too many checks and balances in the system. Although, moving against the free press is a good first strategy to change the situation.

He hasn't tried 'theocracy', government on behalf of God but, who knows what's in his head.  My personal favourite is 'kakocracy', government by the wrong people. It's a wonderful word and so relevant in today's climate.  Of course, what we should be striving for is 'meritocracy', government by the most qualified.  Singapore has that aim written in to its constitution, using university qualifications as an independent measure but I suspect that would throw up its own problems.

In any case, DJ Trump went to college and, according to him, was in the top 15% of graduates.  The fact that there's no evidence of that claim doesn't stop him from asserting it's true.

Who would have thought there are so many flavours of democracy!