A few years back, there was a bit of a brouhaha when Pluto was demoted from being the ninth planet of the Solar System to a "Dwarf Planet." However, the use of the phrase "Dwarf Planet" raises some problems semantically.
Riddle me this Batman:
If a cellphone is still a phone & a raincoat is still a coat, how come a Dwarf Planet is not a planet?
I've always been fascinated by language, in the respect that no matter how many "tongues" humanity may have created or how many differences may exist between disparate people, connections are still possible. But the reverse is true too. The malleability of "colorful words" allows for some words & phrases to be everything to everyone, and thus mean nothing at all.
It's a lazy Sunday night, so I thought I might return to a subject I've touched on in the past; names & euphemisms. Not the names of people, but titles & the official names of countries. Is there anything that can be deduced by the use of Kingdom, Republic, Federation, Democratic, United, or People's within a country's name?
When you look at the name of this country, United States of America, the name generally represents what we are (at least post 1865). Do we exist in America? Yes, the northern one. Are we a collection of states? Yes, fifty of 'em, plus a district, some territories, and outlying areas. Are we united? While "Your Mileage May Vary" from time to time, we are for the most part.
There are some countries that just are what they are. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, is just Canada (although there's some ambiguity over whether the much cooler "Dominion of Canada" is still operative), with the name derived from the Huron-Iroquois word for village. Canada has been a Confederacy, Dominion, and now just plain old Canada. Our neighbor to the south's official name is the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), with "Mexico" coming from the Nahua Aztec tribe, the Mexica.
However, as a general rule, the use of the phrase "People's Republic" or any combination of "People's," "Republic," and "Democratic" within a country's name is a bad, bad, "get the hell out if you can" kind of sign. In fact, the more a country claims to represent "the people" in its name, the less it usually does. It's sorta like an old, bald guy with a toupee. The more he tries to make you believe his hair is really that dark or long, the worse it is.
For example, North Korea is one of (if not) the most repressive countries on the planet. The official name of North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Not only are three out of five of those words a lie when applied to North Korea, it's also a stupid use of words.
The word "Republic" comes from the Latin Res Publica, which literally means "public matter." So if you couple that with the meaning of "Democratic," North Korea's official name actually means:
"Advocating Government of the People People's Public Matter of Korea"
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TV Tropes claims this kind of inflated style of euphemism is how a "People's Republic Of Tyranny" can be spotted by its love of the Department Of Redundancy Department. Totalitarian states are also fans of Orwellian Ministry of Truth "newspeak." For example, the Union of Myanmar (aka Burma) has been ruled by a military regime since said regime seized power in a 1988 coup. Since then, the Burmese Military Junta has been accused of almost every human rights violation in the book. The regime's official name is the "State Peace and Development Council."
Almost every country/government in the world claims to be democratic & representative of the people, even if they're horrible despotic shit holes. However, this seems to be a post-World War II reaction. None of today's dictators seem to have it in 'em to go full on Bond villain, batshit crazy & try to rename their slice of Earth either some sort of ridiculous name worthy of a ride at Disney ("Doomland") or try to rename the country in their own honor (changing Zimbabwe to "Mugabeland"). I do wonder if the United Nations would actually put up a little placard at the General Assembly for "Doomland" if a despot tried?
If you look at the names of the Axis Powers, they didn't claim to represent the people. Hell no, they're Empires & Kingdoms.
- Nazi Germany - It's official name was "Deutsches Reich" & after 1943 "Großdeutsches Reich," which means German Empire & Greater German Empire.
- Imperial Japan - The official name was "Dai Nippon Teikoku"; literally Great Imperial Japan.
- Italy - From 1861 to 1946, it existed as "Regno d'Italia" or the Kindgom of Italy. After losing the southern half of the country, Mussolini attempted to create a fascist state called "Repubblica Sociale Italiana" or Italian Social Republic. However, after his defeat & the end of World War II, the people of Italy opted for the Republican constitution & became "Repubblica Italiana" or the Italian Republic.
Lying about a country through its name is actually older than print. One of Voltaire's most famous quotes is about the
Holy Roman Empire, which he correctly pointed out was neither Holy (
it was in conflict with the Catholic Church), Roman (
it didn't control Rome), or an Empire (
it was a loose union of states that barely got along with each other).