Kakistocracy

This 2017-02-14 InfoGalactic article was updated/overwritten with a Wikipedia-copied mirror-article on 2019-10-25, then both versions were merged into this forked article on 2019-10-28.

Kakistocracy [kækɪ'stɑkrəsi] is a political term for a system of government or rulership run by the "worst" people - meaning the least qualified and/or most unscrupulous citizens. The word was coined as early as the seventeenth century.

Meet The Kakistocracy - Tjeerd Andringa on The Corbett Report by James Corbett (journalist) of The Corbett Report, 2017-01-09.
See also: Corbett Report "Interview 1024 – Tjeerd Andringa Exposes the Kakistocracy" (the modern western political elite), 2015-04-10.

Etymology and meaning

The word is derived from two Greek words, kakistos (κάκιστος; worst) and kratos (κράτος; rule), with a literal meaning of government by the worst people. Its root is the Greek word kakós, "bad".

The word is a conscious antithesis to the classic political term aristocracy, an ancient Greek word meaning the rule of the "best" (Greek aristos) - in contrast to democracy (rule of all the registered citizenry), oligarchy (rule of the few), monarchy (rule of one) and ochlocracy (rule of the mob). See too, the ancient Latin political terms optimates, derived from optimus (best), and populares, derived from populus (the people, or populace as a whole).

A kakistocracy hallmarks a civilization in decline and in addition to corrupt and venal leaders public morals may also degrade. Spiritual corruption may be a related stage in the collapse of civilizations.

History

The earliest use of the word dates to the seventeenth century, in Paul Gosnold's A sermon Preached at the Publique Fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644 at St. Maries:

"Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against such: against those Sanctimonious Incendiaries, who have fetched fire from heaven to set their Country in combustion, have pretended Religion to raise and maintaine a most wicked rebellion: against those Nero's, who have ripped up the wombe of the mother that bare them, and wounded the breasts that gave them sucke: against those Cannibal's who feed upon the flesh and are drunke with the bloud of their own brethren: against those Catiline's who seeke their private ends in the publicke disturbance, and have set the Kingdome on fire to rost their owne egges: against those tempests of the State, those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy. Good Lord!"

English author Thomas Love Peacock later used the term in his 1829 novel The Misfortunes of Elphin, in which he explains kakistocracy represents the opposite of aristocracy, as aristos (ἄριστος) means "excellent" in Greek. In his 1838 Memoir on Slavery (which he supported), U.S. Senator William Harper compared kakistocracy to anarchy, and said it had seldom occurred:

Anarchy is not so much the absence of government as the government of the worst—not aristocracy but kakistocracy—a state of things, which to the honor of our nature, has seldom obtained amongst men, and which perhaps was only fully exemplified during the worst times of the French revolution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most horrid flame. In such a state of things, to be accused is to be condemned—to protect the innocent is to be guilty; and what perhaps is the worst effect, even men of better nature, to whom their own deeds are abhorrent, are goaded by terror to be forward and emulous in deeds of guilt and violence.

American poet James Russell Lowell used the term in 1877, in a letter to Joel Benton, writing, "What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? 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?"

Usage

Use of the word was rare in the early part of the 20th century, but it regained popularity in 1981 with liberal critics of the Reagan administration. Since then it has been employed to negatively describe various governments around the world, like post-Apartheid South Africa. In the twenty-first century, kakistocracy is used to criticize populist governments emerging in different democracies around the world. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck used it to describe the Obama administration, and Donald Trump opponent Amro Ali wrote "stupidity in governance needs to be treated as a political problem". Salon magazine credited Ali's blog with popularizing the term.

The word returned to use during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, particularly by opponents and critics of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In May 2016, academic and blogger Amro Ali argued that kakistocracy was a word that needed to be revived. Salon would later credit Ali's blog post with initiating a wider conversation on the term.

In August 2016, Dan Leger of the Halifax newspaper The Chronicle Herald suggested that a Trump victory in the U.S. presidential election would require renewed use of the term "kakistocracy."

Since November 2016, the word has been used to describe the Trump administration by critics of that administration on multiple occasions.

On 29 June 2017, Merriam-Webster reported that searches for the word on its online dictionary had spiked to an all-time high that day. The Washington Post reported on the use of the word going viral to describe the Trump administration on 13 April 2018.

Examples

The collapse of the Roman Empire was preceded by several self-centered, frivolous, or outright diabolical emperors, like Elagabalus and Caligula. The papacy had produced multiple corrupt popes by the late Middle Ages, helping to usher in the Reformation. During the era of stagnation, the USSR experienced social decline and economic hardships as its leadership class stopped believing in communism but strove only to gain power and personal wealth.

Blogs

"The Kakistocracy" is also the name of a political blog started in 2014 by Porter that discusses the alleged decline of Western Civilization. It has a particular focus on the theme of Third World immigration into the West, and the supposed IQ-lowering effects of population replacement. Social decline, governmental degradation, and alleged misrule by self-serving elites in the early 21st century are also themes of other blogs like Chateau Heartiste and Jim's Blog.

See also

• Corporatocracy
• Idiocracy
• Khakistocracy
• Kleptocracy
• Negative selection (politics)
• Ochlocracy
• Pedophocracy, secretive child sexual abuse and occultic practices among the ruling class, usually dismissed as conspiracy theories by corporate media if even addressed at all.

External links

• Corbett Report "Interview 1024 – Tjeerd Andringa Exposes the Kakistocracy" (the modern western political elite), 2015-04-10.
• Corbett Report "Meet The Kakistocracy – Tjeerd Andringa" (video), 2017-01-09.