[lojban-beginners] Re: Politics

[mungojelly@ixkey.info]

Quoting "A. PIEKARSKI" <totus@rogers.com>:

> Is anyone prepared to offer a new word for 'politics'?  The only   
> words I've encountered so far are {lo jecta srana} and {lo   
> girvlici'e}.  Neither seem to be quite right.  Obviously, there are   
> two kinds of politics.  The narrow definition refers to the state,   
> the broader to groups (e.g. the office} in general.  In both cases,   
> we seem to be talking about activity-to-increase-power.

Parson me!  I am anarchist!  My politics is mostly about decreasing,  
distributing, & decentralizing power. :)

I don't think that Lojban should or can have a "word for 'politics'",  
except of course "la'e zoi zoi. politics .zoi".  In general if we just  
go around making Lojban words for English concepts, we'll make a  
Lojban which is a clone of English, & miss most of the potential  
whorfian fun to which Lojban is supposed to entitle us!

We're talking about power, so instead of looking at it from an English  
perspective, let's try a Lojbanic perspective.  There's a useful word  
available right there in the gismu "vlipa": a tervlipa is a condition  
under which lo vlipa has power.  So zo tervlipa is already a useful  
word for discussing politics.  I think it does us good to use words  
that start with "ter" and "vel" and get our places down. :)

Some other related gismu are catni (authority), cecmu (community),  
damba (fight) especially terdamba (a contentious issue), fuzme  
(responsible) especially terfuzme (someone to whom someone is  
responsible), ganzu (organize), gubni (public), gugde (country), jdice  
(decide), jikca (social), jitro (control), jecta (polity), jivna  
(compete), kamni (committee), krati (represent), minde (command),  
natmi (nation), nobli (noble), tcadu (city) especially tertcadu (the  
political division a city belongs to), tinbe (obey) especially  
tertinbe (someone who commands obedience), turni (govern), tutra  
(territory), xlura (influence).

Phew!  I didn't really expect to list so many.  But I think it makes  
my point, which is that there are a LOT of ways to talk about politics  
in Lojban.  You can make a fantastic number of words for different  
aspects of human political relationships just by combining those  
gismu, & even more by adding other gismu to describe particular  
characters & shapes & systems.

For instance:

selgubnyvelganzu: a public's system of organization.
kratyterjivna: a representation competition, an election.
jikcytertinbe: social control.
turnyterjdice: the matter of deciding who governs.
cecmytercatni: the basis by which a community derives authority.
jitryxlura: to influence those with control.
jikcyjdicyvlipa: powerful by social decision.

Or you could apply many of them to various roots, say "ciste" (system):

vlipyciste: a system of power.
tercatnyciste: a system of how authority is derived.
turnyciste: a system of governance.
jdicyciste: a system of making decisions.
jectyciste: a political system.

Or perhaps "cuxna" (choose):

kratycuxna: choose representatives.
jikcycuxna: decide socially.
cecmycuxna: decide as a community.
mindycuxna: choose who's in charge.
turnycuxna: choose a government.

Here's one I like: "vlipyterlanxe", the various forces which together  
form the balance of power.

So yes!  A better question is, what's the English word for  
vlipyterlanxe?  The answer: There isn't one!  Lojban is a fun *new*  
language. :)

mu'o mi'e. bret.