Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 10:19:06 -0500

From: Mark Mandel Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM

Subject: media-cracy



Barry A. Popik writes:





Media-cracy is a combination of "media" and "democracy" made to

sound like "mediocrity."





I don't think the second half can be firmly attributed to "democracy". That

component is common also to "aristocracy", "meritocracy", "kleptocracy",

and probably others. It comes from Ancient Greek "kratia", meaning 'rule,

government'.



In fact, "meritocracy" is itself an argument for "-cracy" as a suffix. In,

hmm, Plato's I think, analysis of government (probably in "The Republic"),

it's called "timocracy", lit. 'rule by honor', in which the state is ruled by

those chosen by their fellows for their ability. But in English, more familiar

with Latinate roots than Greek ones, that "tim-" tends to be

misunderstood as 'fear' (cf. "timid"), and the word to be critically

misunderstood as 'rule by fear'; and, I guess, "meritocracy" is used for

that reason. It can't be a Greek word because "merit" comes from

French.



Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com

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