I will probably be an Esperanto speaker for the rest of my days. I will continue to attend our local meet-up, as long as it continues, if only in support of the others that come.
I will not be burning any of my Esperanto books, but I will also not be renewing my membership in any Esperanto organizations; I will do no more "varbing (recruiting for the cause)," and my will has been changed to divert all the assets that I had originally steered toward the Esperanto movement (the mid-5-figure range if anyone is interested; sorry, Esperanto-USA and Radio Verda) and give them to other, more worthy, causes.
You're probably asking why the sudden attitude change. Well, yesterday saw more knife blades to my back from so-called "samideanoj (comrades, same-idea-fellows)" and I'm sick of it. The slanderous language, mockery, and bullying I have received (especially the ones that were posted after yesterday's blog entry) from other Esperantists around the globe has shown me that the "community" (a term I now use very lightly) is not worthy of any more of my time or money. I wash my hands of it.
Esperanto had such promise, but alas, the spirit of "more Zamenhof than thou"(no pun intended) not to mention the hypocrisy, arrogance, bigotry, slander, and condemnation I have received in the past few months over a perfectly correct, Zamenhofian, Esperanto word (albeit one that is rarely used, even though it is used in the Ekzercaro and also defined in the Universala Vortaro) has shown me that my time and energy can be put to better use elsewhere.
I wonder, though..........would the reaction to my use of that perfectly correct Esperanto word have been different had it not been out of religious obligation but out of a sense of equality and tolerance and other such nice leftist buzzwords? I guess that will never be known for sure.........however, based on some of the more outrageous comments I read yesterday, I really think it would have. It's sad, really, that a community of people that touts itself to be oh-so-liberal and tolerant would allow such hatred and intolerance (no matter what the cause) to go unchallenged within its ranks.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Mergatroid!
One would think I ate someone's dog!
I'm talking about the reactions i've been getting lately over my use of "ci" in Esperanto. "Ci" was introduced by no less a personage than Zamenhof himself to be a 2nd person singular pronoun. Granted, it's rarely used and is wrongly associated with informality (Zamenhof himself admitted that this nuance was from the outside influence of other languages). It also happens to be convenient for distinguishing singular and plural in the 2nd person. So why the fuss?
I've even had people tell me that the English counterpart (a la Quaker "Plain Speech", i.e. "theeing and thying") is offensive? Sorry but I call BS. This isn't the 1600s people! Put on your big girl panties and deal with it ;).
Considering the reasons why the Quakers retained these older forms, it (insisting that being called "thee" is offensive and "please use "you" when talking to me") strikes me as arrogance, plain and simple. Think about it: back in the day, "thou/thee/thy" was used much as "tu" is nowadays in Spanish and French: with children, animals, subordinates, etc. and "you" was used as an honorific, as a form of flattery or in biblical language, "respect of persons" (which, by the way is condemned in the New Testament). So basically what these people are saying is "I insist that you treat me with a level of honor" one that they probably don't even deserve ;).
Why am I talking about this? Well, as I told you all last time, recently I have adopted some Quaker practices as a way of advancing my spiritual life. I look at a couple of these practices as religious obligations: it is my belief, that it is essentially untruthful to speak to one person with a plural pronoun for one thing. The other is that, in my church tradition, we use "thou" in our prayers, and it struck me one day: by calling God "thou/thee" and calling my fellow humans "you" I was essentially (again, according to my belief) elevating man over God. Now, whether you agree or think I'm a total loon is irrelevant. As the Quakers would say, "it is my leading and not thine". Now, let's return to those poor souls offended by my calling them "thee"......what they're saying is that they are insisting that I bestow honor or respect upon them that I do not give to God. Yeah, good luck with that!
Anyway, to get back to "ci", I use it when speaking Esperanto to one person. No nuance of familiarity or contempt (oh, you'd know when I'm being insulting and it's not because I use "ci"!), just 2nd person singular, plain and simple. I've been told, even, that this is "wrong." Well, it's in the Fundamento. Defined in the Universala Vortaro as 2nd person singular pronoun. If that's the way I use it, then it can't be wrong, can it?
The other thing i've been accused of is "leading beginners astray". Ha! Not bloody likely with the "kontraŭ-ci-istoj" around! Whenever I happen to post something in an Esperanto group using "ci" less than 2 seconds later some buttinski comes swooping in castigating me for it. Yeah, no chance of komencantoj being led astray with that kind of thing going on!
And the nastiness about it! Ho, mia kor'! As I said above, one would think I just ate someone's dog!
So,
1. This ain't the 1600s people, so stop with the "i'm offended" BS. Calumny is wrong.
2. If you must "warn" komencantoj, it is sufficient to say "'ci' is not used in everyday Esperanto even though you may meet some who insist on using it. It is equivalent to the singular use of 'vi'." Anything more than that is unnecessary, and, depending on what you say, can be considered bullying or even discriminatory. Better is expected of samideanoj!
I'm talking about the reactions i've been getting lately over my use of "ci" in Esperanto. "Ci" was introduced by no less a personage than Zamenhof himself to be a 2nd person singular pronoun. Granted, it's rarely used and is wrongly associated with informality (Zamenhof himself admitted that this nuance was from the outside influence of other languages). It also happens to be convenient for distinguishing singular and plural in the 2nd person. So why the fuss?
I've even had people tell me that the English counterpart (a la Quaker "Plain Speech", i.e. "theeing and thying") is offensive? Sorry but I call BS. This isn't the 1600s people! Put on your big girl panties and deal with it ;).
Considering the reasons why the Quakers retained these older forms, it (insisting that being called "thee" is offensive and "please use "you" when talking to me") strikes me as arrogance, plain and simple. Think about it: back in the day, "thou/thee/thy" was used much as "tu" is nowadays in Spanish and French: with children, animals, subordinates, etc. and "you" was used as an honorific, as a form of flattery or in biblical language, "respect of persons" (which, by the way is condemned in the New Testament). So basically what these people are saying is "I insist that you treat me with a level of honor" one that they probably don't even deserve ;).
Why am I talking about this? Well, as I told you all last time, recently I have adopted some Quaker practices as a way of advancing my spiritual life. I look at a couple of these practices as religious obligations: it is my belief, that it is essentially untruthful to speak to one person with a plural pronoun for one thing. The other is that, in my church tradition, we use "thou" in our prayers, and it struck me one day: by calling God "thou/thee" and calling my fellow humans "you" I was essentially (again, according to my belief) elevating man over God. Now, whether you agree or think I'm a total loon is irrelevant. As the Quakers would say, "it is my leading and not thine". Now, let's return to those poor souls offended by my calling them "thee"......what they're saying is that they are insisting that I bestow honor or respect upon them that I do not give to God. Yeah, good luck with that!
Anyway, to get back to "ci", I use it when speaking Esperanto to one person. No nuance of familiarity or contempt (oh, you'd know when I'm being insulting and it's not because I use "ci"!), just 2nd person singular, plain and simple. I've been told, even, that this is "wrong." Well, it's in the Fundamento. Defined in the Universala Vortaro as 2nd person singular pronoun. If that's the way I use it, then it can't be wrong, can it?
The other thing i've been accused of is "leading beginners astray". Ha! Not bloody likely with the "kontraŭ-ci-istoj" around! Whenever I happen to post something in an Esperanto group using "ci" less than 2 seconds later some buttinski comes swooping in castigating me for it. Yeah, no chance of komencantoj being led astray with that kind of thing going on!
And the nastiness about it! Ho, mia kor'! As I said above, one would think I just ate someone's dog!
So,
1. This ain't the 1600s people, so stop with the "i'm offended" BS. Calumny is wrong.
2. If you must "warn" komencantoj, it is sufficient to say "'ci' is not used in everyday Esperanto even though you may meet some who insist on using it. It is equivalent to the singular use of 'vi'." Anything more than that is unnecessary, and, depending on what you say, can be considered bullying or even discriminatory. Better is expected of samideanoj!
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Li vivas! He lives!
Hello, all! Saluton al ĉiuj!
Yes, I'm alive!
First of all I must apologize AGAIN for taking (gulp) 6 YEARS (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!) to come back and update my blog. There truly is no excuse!
So, developments since last time.......well, the most important is I'm now retired. I had very nasty fungal infection in my lungs back in early 2012, which left a lot of damage. Damage to the tune of I only have the equivalent of one lung left, hence being on disability. Other than making it nearly impossible to find work, (I have a LOT of work restrictions, and those combined with modern technology making clerical jobs that are still done by actual warm bodies a thing of the past means there isn't a lot out there I can do) the worst thing about my disability, I suppose, is that I can no longer hold notes nearly as long as I used to when singing. Now to some this may not seem like such a big deal but music, and particularly singing, has always been a very big part of my life. I've been in some sort of choral group since 8th grade (cough1974cough) and am currently one half of the bass section in church choir most weeks.....and once in a while the whole bass section! So, yes, when I have to breathe basically twice as often, most of the time in the middle of phrases I used to be able to sail right through, it's a little depressing. That and the 50% pay cut makes for a very home-bound life!
Esperanto: Due to the above-mentioned pay cut (ouch), my Esperanto activities have not been what I would wish them to be. I never did make it to a Landa Kongreso (not even when it was just down in St. Louis!) and also never made it to Finland. Sadly, the Finland situation may be no longer an option (even if I did have the money). This year there was no week-long course listed and enquiries have returned nothing. Sigh.
I have, however, had great luck with the local Esperanto club! There are now four of us who meet on a weekly basis to chat (I plan a screening of Incubus very soon) and there are more than us four listed on the Meet-up page. Sadly one of those "more than four" is going away to university this fall, 90 miles to the north, so won't be able to join us during most of the year. Another of the "more than four" has disappeared. Ric, where is thee??
Ah, yes. That last sentence brings me to the other big, new thing in my life. I've been doing genealogical research the past couple years (I found some cousins right here in Iowa City!) and one of my discoveries was that one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers (in the Mosier line) and his family were Quakers. Now, I used to belong to a small Protestant sect where the members adopted Quaker-style "Plain Speech" mainly out of scruples about "truthfulness in speaking" and "avoiding heathen ways." This translated to, for us, using the Quaker-style "thee as a subject pronoun" to one person with what is modern English is the 3rd person singular form of the verb ("thee is" instead of "thou art"), as well as avoiding the names of the days (felt to be honoring pagan gods, all) and the months (either honoring pagan gods or else pagan rulers). I have decided (out of 1. a cognitive dissonance that has lately developed in my language-addled brain about using plural pronouns to refer to singular persons, and 2. as a way to honor my forbears) to take up Plain Speech once again. At first I didn't feel any need to go back to saying "first month" for January, and "second day" for Monday, etc. but lately I've "felt a leading" (as the Quakers would say) to do that as well. Please note, all you who speak languages with a T-V distinction, that my use of this form does not carry any particular nuance of familiarity or contempt (unless, of course, my voice is dripping with scorn, lol)
I guess that's about enough for today. I promise you all! I will be updating this at least once weekly (usually on Tuesday night after our local Esperanto club meet-up). Till then,
Cheers
Dimo
Yes, I'm alive!
First of all I must apologize AGAIN for taking (gulp) 6 YEARS (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!) to come back and update my blog. There truly is no excuse!
So, developments since last time.......well, the most important is I'm now retired. I had very nasty fungal infection in my lungs back in early 2012, which left a lot of damage. Damage to the tune of I only have the equivalent of one lung left, hence being on disability. Other than making it nearly impossible to find work, (I have a LOT of work restrictions, and those combined with modern technology making clerical jobs that are still done by actual warm bodies a thing of the past means there isn't a lot out there I can do) the worst thing about my disability, I suppose, is that I can no longer hold notes nearly as long as I used to when singing. Now to some this may not seem like such a big deal but music, and particularly singing, has always been a very big part of my life. I've been in some sort of choral group since 8th grade (cough1974cough) and am currently one half of the bass section in church choir most weeks.....and once in a while the whole bass section! So, yes, when I have to breathe basically twice as often, most of the time in the middle of phrases I used to be able to sail right through, it's a little depressing. That and the 50% pay cut makes for a very home-bound life!
Esperanto: Due to the above-mentioned pay cut (ouch), my Esperanto activities have not been what I would wish them to be. I never did make it to a Landa Kongreso (not even when it was just down in St. Louis!) and also never made it to Finland. Sadly, the Finland situation may be no longer an option (even if I did have the money). This year there was no week-long course listed and enquiries have returned nothing. Sigh.
I have, however, had great luck with the local Esperanto club! There are now four of us who meet on a weekly basis to chat (I plan a screening of Incubus very soon) and there are more than us four listed on the Meet-up page. Sadly one of those "more than four" is going away to university this fall, 90 miles to the north, so won't be able to join us during most of the year. Another of the "more than four" has disappeared. Ric, where is thee??
Ah, yes. That last sentence brings me to the other big, new thing in my life. I've been doing genealogical research the past couple years (I found some cousins right here in Iowa City!) and one of my discoveries was that one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers (in the Mosier line) and his family were Quakers. Now, I used to belong to a small Protestant sect where the members adopted Quaker-style "Plain Speech" mainly out of scruples about "truthfulness in speaking" and "avoiding heathen ways." This translated to, for us, using the Quaker-style "thee as a subject pronoun" to one person with what is modern English is the 3rd person singular form of the verb ("thee is" instead of "thou art"), as well as avoiding the names of the days (felt to be honoring pagan gods, all) and the months (either honoring pagan gods or else pagan rulers). I have decided (out of 1. a cognitive dissonance that has lately developed in my language-addled brain about using plural pronouns to refer to singular persons, and 2. as a way to honor my forbears) to take up Plain Speech once again. At first I didn't feel any need to go back to saying "first month" for January, and "second day" for Monday, etc. but lately I've "felt a leading" (as the Quakers would say) to do that as well. Please note, all you who speak languages with a T-V distinction, that my use of this form does not carry any particular nuance of familiarity or contempt (unless, of course, my voice is dripping with scorn, lol)
I guess that's about enough for today. I promise you all! I will be updating this at least once weekly (usually on Tuesday night after our local Esperanto club meet-up). Till then,
Cheers
Dimo
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