What's in a word? We may live in a very different and much more complex world, but without the ancient Greeks we wouldn't even have the words to talk about many of the things we care most about. Take politics for example: apart from the word itself (from polis, meaning city-state or community) many of the other basic political terms in our everyday vocabulary are borrowed from the ancient Greeks: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and - of course - democracy.

The ancient Greek word demokratia was ambiguous. It meant literally 'people-power'. But who were the people to whom the power belonged? Was it all the people - all duly qualified citizens? Or only some of the people - the 'masses'? The Greek word demos could mean either. There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors. If this theory is right, democracy must originally have meant something like 'mob rule' or 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

Originally posted by Drivel
Err pretty simple really and you call yourself a genealogist?

Genealogies of the presidents of the USA

Due to lack of interest this site will not be updated. It will remain online until the domain expires in May 2006

By way of a final corroboration, let us look at the problem from the opposite end as it were. Instead of asking how many ancestors we should have, let us ask how many descendants a typical citizen of 1300 might have today. For family size I'll use the present average of 2.2, although this is certainly an underestimate for all but the last 60 years or so. How many descendants would he have today if his children, grandchildren and so on for 23 generations all had 2.2 children? The answer: 75,114,133 people in generation 23, plus of course the survivors of generations 21 and 22. In other words, all of us - with a few left over for the colonies. What applies to my "typical citizen", would equally well apply to virtually anyone alive in 1300.

Founders of Freemasonry in Britain dedicated to the free exchange of ideas. First Grand Lodge meeting held and the Goose and Gridiron Ale House in London on June 24, 1717. Almost from the beginning there were hidden agendas. Now known as Freemasons they were instrumental in the formation of secret organizations and also fraternal clubs such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and Odd Fellows.

Originally posted by Hunting Veritas
Back of subject now

www.trosch.org...

I think the masons will be interested to see this.

One rule is that members must lie even to their wives
concerning privileged knowledge and associations.
In court Masons must lie to protect brothers they know to be guilty.

Originally posted by Hunting Veritas
www.trosch.org...

Founders of Freemasonry in Britain dedicated to the free exchange of ideas. First Grand Lodge meeting held and the Goose and Gridiron Ale House in London on June 24, 1717. Almost from the beginning there were hidden agendas. Now known as Freemasons they were instrumental in the formation of secret organizations and also fraternal clubs such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and Odd Fellows.

I think the masons will be interested to see this.