3 ms·

It's really just another way of saying "oligarchy", which is the negative form of "aristocracy."

ceejayoz 7y ago
Not really, no. Oligarchs and aristocrats are capable of being competent.
dang 7y ago
Oligarchy means government by the few: https://www.etymonline.com/word/oligarchy https://www.etymonline.com/word/oligarchy (although today we tend to use it as a synonym for plutocracy, which is government by the rich). So the opposite of oligarchy would be democracy. Aristocracy means government by the best: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aristocracy https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aristocracy, so kakistocracy would be its strict opposite. In fact, it was probably coined for that reason, since the people who invented it would have known that "aristos" means "best" in Greek. (Edit: the Wikipedia page says that.) "Best" in aristocracy doesn't mean what we nowadays mean by that word, which is "most qualified". That would be meritocracy. That's strictly a modern notion, in fact a postwar one, and it has not aged well: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20meritocracy&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... Actually it was a satirical creation to begin with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy, and the British academic who invented the word would have been aware that he was sticking a Latin and a Greek root together, making the satire funnier, since in classical terms only an ignoramus would do that. See https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-monstrous-indecency-of-hybrid-etymology/ https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-monstrous-ind... or, if you prefer, https://www.google.com/search?q=%22polyamory+is+wrong%22&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmierM1t7oAhVHpZ4KHclMBXwQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&cshid=1586549824167658&biw=1370&bih=943&dpr=2 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22polyamory+is+wrong%22&sou.... The pre-modern sense of "best" in "aristocracy" has to do with being of the best class or, if you like, having the best breeding. It has nothing to do with individual quality, except insofar as praiseworthy qualities like "nobility" were traditionally associated with the nobility (making the point rather hard to miss). There have been a couple of HN threads about Michael Young, the coiner of 'meritocracy'. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16338360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16338360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179583 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179583 From the Economist (see the first of those links): Young used the term pejoratively on the grounds that meritocracy was dividing society into two polarised groups: exam-passers, who would become intolerably smug because they knew that they were the authors of their success, and exam-flunkers, who would become dangerously embittered because they had nobody to blame for their failure but themselves. Sounds just like 2020, no? If you generalize "exams" to "education", things exactly like that are being written today. Relatedly, the 1970s coinage "professional managerial class" is currently undergoing a revival (if there were a language market, I'd go long on that one). https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/on-the-origins-of-the-professional-managerial-class-an-interview-with-barbara-ehrenreich https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/on-the-origi...
papeda 7y ago
Oligarchy translates literally as "rule by the few" [1], and aristocracy as "rule by the excellent" [2]. Kakistocracy is "rule by the worst" per the featured article. So kakistocracy and aristocracy are opposites, and oligarchy describes something different: the number, not quality, of rulers. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy

Not really, no. Oligarchs and aristocrats are capable of being competent.

dang 7y ago

Oligarchy means government by the few: https://www.etymonline.com/word/oligarchy https://www.etymonline.com/word/oligarchy (although today we tend to use it as a synonym for plutocracy, which is government by the rich). So the opposite of oligarchy would be democracy. Aristocracy means government by the best: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aristocracy https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aristocracy, so kakistocracy would be its strict opposite. In fact, it was probably coined for that reason, since the people who invented it would have known that "aristos" means "best" in Greek. (Edit: the Wikipedia page says that.) "Best" in aristocracy doesn't mean what we nowadays mean by that word, which is "most qualified". That would be meritocracy. That's strictly a modern notion, in fact a postwar one, and it has not aged well: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20meritocracy&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... Actually it was a satirical creation to begin with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy, and the British academic who invented the word would have been aware that he was sticking a Latin and a Greek root together, making the satire funnier, since in classical terms only an ignoramus would do that. See https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-monstrous-indecency-of-hybrid-etymology/ https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-monstrous-ind... or, if you prefer, https://www.google.com/search?q=%22polyamory+is+wrong%22&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmierM1t7oAhVHpZ4KHclMBXwQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&cshid=1586549824167658&biw=1370&bih=943&dpr=2 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22polyamory+is+wrong%22&sou.... The pre-modern sense of "best" in "aristocracy" has to do with being of the best class or, if you like, having the best breeding. It has nothing to do with individual quality, except insofar as praiseworthy qualities like "nobility" were traditionally associated with the nobility (making the point rather hard to miss). There have been a couple of HN threads about Michael Young, the coiner of 'meritocracy'. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16338360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16338360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179583 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18179583 From the Economist (see the first of those links): Young used the term pejoratively on the grounds that meritocracy was dividing society into two polarised groups: exam-passers, who would become intolerably smug because they knew that they were the authors of their success, and exam-flunkers, who would become dangerously embittered because they had nobody to blame for their failure but themselves. Sounds just like 2020, no? If you generalize "exams" to "education", things exactly like that are being written today. Relatedly, the 1970s coinage "professional managerial class" is currently undergoing a revival (if there were a language market, I'd go long on that one). https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/on-the-origins-of-the-professional-managerial-class-an-interview-with-barbara-ehrenreich https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/on-the-origi...

papeda 7y ago

Oligarchy translates literally as "rule by the few" [1], and aristocracy as "rule by the excellent" [2]. Kakistocracy is "rule by the worst" per the featured article. So kakistocracy and aristocracy are opposites, and oligarchy describes something different: the number, not quality, of rulers. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy