Thursday's Term to Learn - Plutocracy
difficile est saturam non scribere
'It's hard to not-write satire.'
This programmatic satire flashed through my mind when this morning's Today Show announced that Goldman Sachs had received 200 doses of the H1N1 vaccine. If there were adequate supplies to go around, it wouldn't have raised an eyebrow, but there aren't, yet. Immediate questions are of the type: Why does Wall Street get government-funded vaccines ahead of, say, the school-aged (statistically said to be more at risk than healthy adults) kids in my town? There are explanations for it (see Amid shortage, big NYC firms get swine vaccine), but before I read them or even thought seriously about the pros and cons, or researched whether the vaccines were actually being distributed gratis, or checked whether Goldman-Sachs routinely employs statistically-at risk individuals, a topical word for this week's Thursday's Term, Plutocracy, had lodged itself in my brain. I'm truly sorry I can't produce a Roman satire -- in dactylic hexameter or anything else.
Plutocracy comes from two Greek words, ploutos 'wealth' and kratia 'power'. Ploutos should be familiar from the name Pluto that belongs to a former-planet. It comes from Greek mythology: the Underworld god is often called Pluto. The name Pluto suggests the god is the giver of wealth, since it is from the earth that metals come. Plutocracy doesn't necessarily mean rule by the wealthy -- that would be plutarchy; however, the Greek-English lexicon Liddell-Scott defines ploutokratia as an oligarchy of wealth, and cites Xenophon's use of the term.
Among other instances, plutocracy has been used to describe the late archaic and classical age Spartan system, where the elite paid high taxes in order to keep their full political rights, according to "Population Patterns in Late Archaic and Classical Sparta Population," by Thomas J. Figueira. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), Vol. 116, (1986), pp. 165-213.
Comments
Pluto is NOT a “former planet.” It is a planet. Please do not blindly accept the controversial IAU demotion of Pluto, done by only four percent of its members, most of whom are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. One reason the IAU definition makes no sense is it says dwarf planets are not planets at all! That is like saying a grizzly bear is not a bear, and it is inconsistent with the use of the term “dwarf” in astronomy, where dwarf stars are still stars, and dwarf galaxies are still galaxies. Also, the IAU definition classifies objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. If Earth were in Pluto’s orbit, according to the IAU definition, it would not be a planet either. A definition that takes the same object and makes it a planet in one location and not a planet in another is essentially useless. Pluto is a planet because it is spherical, meaning it is large enough to be pulled into a round shape by its own gravity–a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium and characteristic of planets, not of shapeless asteroids held together by chemical bonds. These reasons are why many astronomers, lay people, and educators are either ignoring the demotion entirely or working to get it overturned.
Plutocracy can also mean rule by followers of the Roman god Pluto or rule by supporters of planet Pluto. Take it from a proud Plutocrat!
Pluto is NOT a “former planet.” It is a planet. Please do not blindly accept the controversial demotion of Pluto by four percent of the IAU, most of whom are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. One reason the IAU definition makes no sense is it says dwarf planets are not planets at all! That is like saying a grizzly bear is not a bear, and it is inconsistent with the use of the term “dwarf” in astronomy, where dwarf stars are still stars, and dwarf galaxies are still galaxies. Also, the IAU definition classifies objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. If Earth were in Pluto’s orbit, according to the IAU definition, it would not be a planet either. A definition that takes the same object and makes it a planet in one location and not a planet in another is essentially useless. Pluto is a planet because it is spherical, meaning it is large enough to be pulled into a round shape by its own gravity–a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium and characteristic of planets, not of shapeless asteroids held together by chemical bonds. These reasons are why many astronomers, lay people, and educators are either ignoring the demotion entirely or working to get it overturned. Plutocracy can also mean rule by worshippers of the Roman god Pluto or by supporters of the planet Pluto. Take it from a proud Plutocrat!