mo·di·cum noun. Definition: a small portion: a limited quantity.
ve·rac·i·ty noun. Definition: 1. devotion to the truth; truthfulness. 2. power of conveying or perceiving truth. 3. conformity with truth or fact; accuracy. 4. something true <makes lies sound like veracities>
fe·lic·i·tous adjective. Definition: 1. very well suited or expressed: apt <a felicitous remark>. 2. pleasant, delightful <felicitous weather>
Or in black & white: a bit of clarity is in order.
Okay, so what’s my point? I’ve been reading so much debate about how we’re becoming a blood-sucking socialist society, overrun by capitalist pigs, or undermining our democratic principles that I thought it was time to take pause. Sorry. Read my bio. I went to college, okay?! I just like to get my facts right before poking at others’ misuse.
So now for a little intellectualism. Courtesy of Merriam-Webster, I have summarized some of the most misrepresented words I’ve come across in the debate. Take a moment to reflect and commit to your permanent memory.
Let’s start with the basics:
de·moc·ra·cy noun. Plural. Definition: 1(a). government by the people; especially; rule of the majority. 1(b). a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. 2. a political unit that has a democratic government. 3. [if] capitalized: the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States. 4. the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority. 5. the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.
By the way, the query for democracy, brings back four entries: 1) democracy, 2) pure democracy; 3) social democracy, and 4) Tory democracy. Just so you know, here in the U.S.A., we are NOT a pure democracy. Pick up Plato’s The Republic for much enlightening coverage of that (yes, seriously). While we are a republic, we are also a social democracy: “a democratic welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices.”
Which brings me to the next series of definitions:
re·pub·lic noun. Definition: 1(a)(1). a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president. 1(a)(2). a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government. 1(b)(1). a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law. 1(b)(2). a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government. 1(c). a usually specified republican government of a political unit <the French Fourth Republic>. 2. a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity <the republic of letters>. 3. a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Yugoslavia.
so·cial·ism noun. Definition: 1. any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. 2(a). a system of society or group living in which there is no private property 2(b). a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state. 3. a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
cap·i·tal·ism noun. Definition: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
com·mu·nism noun. Definition: 1(a). a theory advocating elimination of private property. 1(b). a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed. 2. [if] capitalized: 2(a). a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 2(b). a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production. 2(c). a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably. 2(d). communist systems collectively.
While idealistic in terms of imaging that the ultimate innate good in our human nature might prevail, we are not a communist form of government. But we are also, ultimately selfish. Thus the Soviet Union, China, etc., have never been able to advance the theories of communism to the final bucolic stage, but rather remained in the totalitarian government stage. Funny how what we think of as communism in modern society by definition is not.
The same generally goes for the rest of the definitions above, which is what drives me crazy about the Black & White rantings of those who “think” they know what these words mean.
As long as you are expanding your horizons (or refamiliarizing), join me in subscribing to the Oxford Dictionaries “Word of the Day” at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/.
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