The cost of monoculture (Gen Kanai)

The cost of monoculture (Gen Kanai)

Posted Jan 30, 2007 10:13 UTC (Tue) by ekj (subscriber, #1524)
In reply to: The cost of monoculture (Gen Kanai) by drag
Parent article: The cost of monoculture (Gen Kanai)

There's a rule. Goes like this. When a country explicitly names itself something, it never actually is

Deutsche Demokratische Republik may have been "Deutsch", but it was not really what we think of a a Republic, and certainly not democratic.

The Peoples republic of China is also not really controlled by "the people" in any reasonable interpretation.

Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya isn't really any of those things, except possibly libyan.

For that matter, even the kingdom of Norway isn't actually in any reasonable sense a kingdom. I mean, *technically* there is a king, but he doesn't actually rule the country. Infact he has very very close to no power whatsoever, certainly MUCH less than most presidents.

My point ?

The fact that some entity chooses to name itself something is no indication whatsoever. Infact it's frequently the oposite. Countries without "democratic" in their name are, on the average, a whole lot more democratic than those *with* that in their name.

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