Here is another title in similar vein:
"...His Supremacy, Viceregent of the Spirit of Man of the Stars, Supreme Autocrat, Legitimate Governor, Beloved of the Legislative Council, of the Clerett Dynasty the First."
-The Forge, CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 190.
We notice a church-state unity: the Autocrat also represents the Spirit. Historically, the Japanese Emperor is the highest authority in Shinto. The Queen of England is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Pope and the Dalai Lama are heads of states.
The Roidhun of Merseia is also boosted as "his Supremacy." See here.
I prefer a milieu in which we address each other as "brother/sister" or "Comrade" and mean it but deeds can contradict words.
(Recent posts have visited some very strange places.)
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Short of the second coming of Christ we are not going to see that "brother/sister" thing. And forget "comrade," not after the bloody record of the Communists has discredited that word. Also, we should keep in mind the common human longing for titles and honorifics. And I don't think that's necessarily all bad, as I discussed in my article "Andersonian Themes and Tropes," quoting from both Anderson and Stirling. I think a certain degree of ceremoniousness for heads of state or other high officers is called for.
Would you really call her Majesty, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, "Lizzy"? I read that the correct mode of address in informal situations is "Ma'am."
I do wonder if Drake/Stirling took their use of "Supremacy" for the Governors of the Civil Government from Anderson's Roidhun of Merseia.
Glory to the Emperor! Sean
Glory to the Emperor!
(I don't think the Nazis have discredited the ancient symbol of the Swastika although it is now wrong to use their precise version of that symbol in anything but a dramatic presentation. I got the fright of my life when, in a trade union center, I saw a man in a black shirt with a swastika arm-band standing to attention outside a room. Then someone said, "Drama group!")
Kaor, Paul!
Maybe, strictly speaking, the swastika symbol should not be considered discredited. I know it's a very ancient symbol meaning things like good luck, good fortune, etc. But, the Nazis have become so strongly associated with the swastika that it's difficult to separate it from them. As the case you cited demonstrates.
Sean
Sean,
But the symbol still appears in temples where it does no harm.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Granted, of course. I assume you meant Hindu temples.
Sean
Sean,
And Buddhist and Jain, I think.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And all of them in India, where not so MANY people are all that familiar with the Nazis, and hence less likely to feel uncomfortable about using the swastika.
Sean
To me, the Hammer and Sickle still means Workers and Peasants, not dictatorship, despite later aberrations. Much evil is done under good symbols.
Kaor, Paul!
I am sorry, but I absolutely disagree. That (obscenity deleted) means ONLY cruelty and tyranny masked with a uniquely revolting hypocrisy. Lenin, who may have cooked up that Hammer and Sickle emblem, never cared a DARN for those "workers and peasants."
Sean
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