Ludwig wrote:The banking crisis hasn't been "engineered", but it has been managed by the elite.
FFS will you stop calling them the elite. They're not elite, they've just got a lot of money and power. That doesn't make them elite.
Many of the people you are talking about have the same personality defects as criminals so how can they be elite? Criminal elite, yes, but just plain elite, no! It's an insult to our elite sports people or our elite regiments or elite students. Don't be lazy, find a more apt word.
Kenneal, please do a bit of research before criticising others' use of English.
"Elite" derives from the Latin "elire", meaning "to choose". So they are the chosen ones. That does not imply moral superiority, and my use of "elite" is entirely apt.
"We're just waiting, looking skyward as the days go down / Someone promised there'd be answers if we stayed around."
RenewableCandy wrote:my childhood was happy, so I'm never going to be ruthlessly ambitious. I just can't be arsed.
Same here. A happy childhood, with poverty the next rung down, which thankfully we didn't reach. As for ambition, who needs it if you're happy?
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Ludwig wrote:"Elite" derives from the Latin "elire", meaning "to choose". So they are the chosen ones. That does not imply moral superiority, and my use of "elite" is entirely apt.
According to Chambers:
elite or élite noun 1 the best, most important or most powerful people within society. 2 the best of a group or profession. 3 in typewriting: a size of type, twelve characters per inch. adj best, most important or most powerful.
ETYMOLOGY: 18c: French, from Latin eligere to choose.
and best is defined as
best adj (superlative of good) 1 most excellent, suitable or desirable. 2 most successful, clever, able or skilled, etc. 3 the greatest or most
I'm not sure the 99% think they are excellent, suitable or desirable, and the only choice we have is between one lot or an equally bad lot.
"Elite" is to "best" as "McDonalds" is to "restaurant".
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Some of us (guilty as charged!) would still be debating semantics even if we were holed up in a burned-out chateau with our sun-roof nicked and nothing but cabbage to eat. I mean, you've got to have standards.
RenewableCandy wrote:Some of us (guilty as charged!) would still be debating semantics even if we were holed up in a burned-out chateau with our sun-roof nicked and nothing but cabbage to eat. I mean, you've got to have standards.
Yes, cabbage is great. I can't get enough of it.
"Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools". Douglas Bader.
Ludwig wrote:"Elite" derives from the Latin "elire", meaning "to choose". So they are the chosen ones. That does not imply moral superiority, and my use of "elite" is entirely apt.
Did you chose them, Ludwig? They're not chosen, they appointed themselves. A democratically elected government, according to your definition, could describe itself as elite but not the rich. I wouldn't describe the government as elite though.
Ludwig wrote:"Elite" derives from the Latin "elire", meaning "to choose". So they are the chosen ones. That does not imply moral superiority, and my use of "elite" is entirely apt.
Did you chose them, Ludwig? They're not chosen, they appointed themselves. A democratically elected government, according to your definition, could describe itself as elite but not the rich. I wouldn't describe the government as elite though.
Chosen by those already in the elite. That's how society worked through the greater part of history; democracy is an aberration.
This is all academic anyway isn't it Ken, I'm sure you're aware that I despise them as much as you do! However to avoid your ire I shall try to find another word in future.
"We're just waiting, looking skyward as the days go down / Someone promised there'd be answers if we stayed around."
Powerstations in Greece are "under siege" in response to the new tax levied.
Pharmacies are refusing to issue drugs as part of "CoPay" systems, because the health ministry hasnt been paying the excess.
DominicJ wrote:Powerstations in Greece are "under siege" in response to the new tax levied.
Pharmacies are refusing to issue drugs as part of "CoPay" systems, because the health ministry hasnt been paying the excess.
Such events could well be initial signs of a great collapse, but not exactly overnight, the writing has been on the wall for some months WRT Greece.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
True enough, but as a UK parralel, yesterday, you go to the doctors, he gives you a prescription, you go to the chemist, pay your £6.95 and he gives you drugs, reclaiming the rest of the cost from the NHS.
Tomorrow, you arrive at the chemist, and he wants £13, or £33, or £300
Thats an overnight collapse, in a limited area.
DominicJ wrote:True enough, but as a UK parralel, yesterday, you go to the doctors, he gives you a prescription, you go to the chemist, pay your £6.95 and he gives you drugs, reclaiming the rest of the cost from the NHS.
English, not UK. In Wales you go to the chemist and he literally gives you drugs!
