Anyone ever heard the word kakistocracy before?...

[carpe diem]

I had not until yesterday but it should become more familiar to us all...


Kakistocracy (from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)

SYLLABICATION: kak·is·toc·ra·cy
PRONUNCIATION: kak'i-stok're-se, käki-
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. kak·is·toc·ra·cies
Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

ETYMOLOGY:
1829, "government by the worst element of a society," coined on analogy of aristocracy from Gk. kakistos "worst," superl. of kakos "bad" (which is perhaps related to the general IE word for "defecate") + -kratia "rule of," from kratos "strength, power, rule" (see -cracy).

PUTTING THE WORD TO USE:
"Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?" - 1876 OED

[itzamirakul]

1. Obviously we now fall into he realm of

the kakistrocracy....

Thanx for the new word...

[electropop]

2. Nice word, not sure it is catchy enough for debate-framing.

We'd sound like the "overintellectuallizednewenglandliberalgodlessecommielite" the righties are so fond of calling us.

How about "caca cronies?" Fits the 2-word culture.

[hvn_nbr_2]

13. Debate-framing words just take some repeating

Repeat after me:
kakistocracy
cacastocracy
kleptocracy
kakistocracy
cacastocracy
kleptocracy
kakistocracy
cacastocracy
kleptocracy
...

"Political correctness" and "liberal media" didn't catch on overnight either.

[electropop]

14. I tried to repeat after you

Now my lips are bruised and my tongue has a knot in it. ;-)

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. :-) Three easier ones: oiligarchy duplicitocracy scroogeocracy

[Turbineguy]

3. Very interesting

and it fits so perfectly too!

[fryguy]

4. great word - n/t

[Kota]

5. I think we should start using this word or some form of it.

Kakistos and kakos are good to.

[dutchdoctor]

6. it competes with kleptocracy for "best description of current admin." n/t

[Betsy Ross]

7. Call fascism fascism. n/t

[indigobusiness]

12. A fascist kaistocracy

is still a kakistocracy.

[Virginian]

8. Sh*tty Leadership

"Gk. kakistos "worst," superl. of kakos "bad" (which is perhaps related to the general IE word for "defecate") "

Is there such a word as "Skatocracy" or maybe "Poopocracy" ?

[indigobusiness]

16. Poopocracy is Cacaocracy...in Greek

Skatocracy is govt by cat haters.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. yes, read about it yesterday!!

[pansypoo53219]

10. 1st time was

last week.
if we didn't have that word, we would have to create one.

[indigobusiness]

11. Yes. It's been at the bottom of my blog for awhile.

It's a term that should be used more often. After all, we live in a Kakistocracy.

http://sludgereport2.blogspot.com/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Yes, it was used frequently by the late Ace Hayes, a Portland-based

conspiracy buff who had a regular column in one of the independent papers.

I used to think he was a bit off the deep end, but now I'm not so sure.

[EFerrari]

17. Funny how that deep end starts looking not so deep. n/t