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Romy, Yos-<br>
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Good example. Also an example of what happens when power is wielded
without checks & balances, by people who are so enamored of a
theory that it obscures the real world. <br>
<br>
The Khmer Rough also routinely slaughtered or interned &
tortured anyone found wearing glasses, because they believed that
glasses were a sign of an attempt to assert status by the
intellectual and technical classes. But the fact is that by middle
age, almost all men and probably at least a majority of women
require the use of glasses to read and perform other short-distance
visual tasks. That inconvenient fact didn't get in the way of the
Khmer Rouge's theory. <br>
<br>
Everyone reading this email is a member of the "intellectual and
technical class," even if a large plurality of us are living on
working class income or less. And the vast majority of us are going
to live long enough to need glasses. Fortunately none of us has the
power to compel any of us to use words a certain way, even though we
can & do argue (as peers) about that. <br>
<br>
-G.<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 13-05-08-Wed 10:21 PM, Romy Ilano
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAFqWQB9P=aeJuGn_npnUst2OBou5zL1G6=FpR=xKee884WPEug@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">There is a yin and a yang to everything.
<div><br>
</div>
<div style="">Here are a few examples of the "dark side" of
reshaping language... </div>
<div style=""><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<div>I've read a lot of history about the Chinese Cultural
Revolution and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge... these groups
were very interested in reforming a corrupt society, finding
new ways of doing things. They are not shining examples but
I can say that their intentions started out pure.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div style=""><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Establishing_the_Constitution_of_Democratic_Kampuchea">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Establishing_the_Constitution_of_Democratic_Kampuchea</a><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px
0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px">On
the surface, society in Democratic Kampuchea was strictly <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarian"
title="Egalitarian" class=""
style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">egalitarian</a>.
The <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_language"
title="Khmer language"
style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(11,0,128);background-image:none">Khmer
language</a>, like many in Southeast Asia, has a complex
system of usages to define speakers' rank and social
status. These usages were abandoned. People were
encouraged to call each other "friend", or "comrade" (in
Khmer, មិត្ដ mitt), and to avoid traditional signs of
deference such as bowing or folding the hands in
salutation.</p>
<p style="margin:0.4em 0px
0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px">Language
was transformed in other ways. The Khmer Rouge invented
new terms. People were told they must "forge" (<i>lot dam</i>)
a new revolutionary character, that they were the
"instruments" (<i>opokar</i>) of the Angkar, and that
nostalgia for pre-revolutionary times (<i>chheu satek arom</i>,
or "memory sickness") could result in their receiving
Angkar's "invitation" to be deindustrialised and to live
in a concentration camp.</p>
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