Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[David]

Spraggadelic spraggialadocious!   


(Um, would saying "Go sprag yourself!" be considered an initiation of force?)

um, more like a nonviolent 'invitation'.   

+1 for Dave. You've hit on exactly the problem: People don't understand what the hell we're talking about most of the time.

I don't know if making up a word is going to solve the problem, though at the moment I haven't fully formulated a better idea.

Agreed.  Most see what they do or vote for in moral terms.  Calling them thugs or refering to them as agressors never registers to them. 
Lately I've called them 'cheerleaders' of force. 

[John]

force

[error]

Perhaps "state-sponsored terrorism" would be the best way to describe it.

[David]

Clair Wolfe uses the phrase government supremists.  I like it. 

[Rosie the Riveter]

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

The book is virtually unreadable for at least 99% of the population,

My favorite kind

I'll get a copy, but only from the library... just in case, I have to return it unread.

I'll smite you later for it.

[Rocketman]

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

The book is virtually unreadable for at least 99% of the population,

My favorite kind

I'll get a copy, but only from the library... just in case, I have to return it unread.

I'll smite you later for it.

Best of luck to you, Kate.  Pynchon also wrote what I consider to be the great American novel, Mason and Dixon, which is only unreadable by about 96% of the population.

It's written in the style of an 18th Century novel, and imaginatively chronicles the travails of Charles Mason, the Royal Society astronomer, and Jeremiah Dixon, the Quaker surveyor, on their line-drawing adventures in the New World.  I think the best scene is where they smoke dope with George Washington -- Martha walks in, smells the smoke, and says "I suppose you'll be wanting these tarts, then."

If anybody's heard Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia" (great tune, duet with James Taylor), it was inspired by Pynchon's Mason and Dixon.

[Rosie the Riveter]

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

The book is virtually unreadable for at least 99% of the population,

My favorite kind

I'll get a copy, but only from the library... just in case, I have to return it unread.

I'll smite you later for it.

Best of luck to you, Kate.  Pynchon also wrote what I consider to be the great American novel, Mason and Dixon, which is only unreadable by about 96% of the population.

It's written in the style of an 18th Century novel, and imaginatively chronicles the travails of Charles Mason, the Royal Society astronomer, and Jeremiah Dixon, the Quaker surveyor, on their line-drawing adventures in the New World.  I think the best scene is where they smoke dope with George Washington -- Martha walks in, smells the smoke, and says "I suppose you'll be wanting these tarts, then."

If anybody's heard Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia" (great tune, duet with James Taylor), it was inspired by Pynchon's Mason and Dixon.

Cool -- I love that song. 

I'll start with Mason and Dixon to warm me up to Pynchon and then read  Gravity's Rainbow. I'll look forward to having a critical analysis discussion with you when I'm done --though you're not allowed to grade me on my comprehension, Professor

[Rocketman]

Sure thing.  No grades for Rosie the Riveter.   

Grades, in many cases, constitute a form of spragging (back on topic).

[Dave Ridley]

here's another quick go at it with a refined definition.   However I'm sure we can come up with a better word.   

chagg [rhyming with brag] (verb):

1) To initiate force against an adult who isn't harming or threatening others, or who is doing so only at their request.
2) To delegate such an initiation of force, usually to a government or policeman.

I've mulled over the word aggress and I tend to think it does not quite do the job for reasons I'll try to explain later...

[Dave Ridley]

OK here are my problems with the existing available words.

"aggress" or "aggression" tend to be interpereted as meaning angry violence, screaming, physically assaulting....

It's hard to pin accusations of "aggression" on stony bureaucrats because the type of force they use is so controlled and invisible.

As for "initiation of force"  that term is a problem because few of us can really say we are against initiation of force in all circumstances.  Most of us are ok with the initiation of force against children by their parents.   I personally would be okay with the initiation of force against a con man or a crazy guy breeding smallpox in his basement. 

But I don't think any of us would be okay with people "chagging," as defined above,  under any circumstances.   

So, its introduction as a word would give us the ability to say in six syllables the entirity of our message....

Us:  "we are against chagging"

Them:  "what is chagging?"

Us:  "Initating force against an adult who isn't harming or threatening others, or who is endangering only other adults with their approval.

[Dave Ridley]

Another refinement in part 1)

chagg [rhyming with brag] (verb):

1) To initiate force against an adult who isn't harming or threatening others, or who endangers only consenting adults
2) To delegate such an initiation of force, usually to a government or policeman.

[Sweet Mercury]

"Violence" doesn't cut the muster?

[David]

Here's three I came up with back in august:
voters-forcimus maximus
polititions-forcius or forcimus maximus
police-forcimus thuggerus
 

[Dave Ridley]

<<"Violence" doesn't cut the muster?>>

no, because most of us agree that violence against criminals can be justified if it's in self defense.  and most state coercion does not involve violence, but is still evil.

[AmerTownCrier]

A new word isn't an entirely bad idea...for now the best I can come up with isn't new...INNOCENT is what should work.