Too-heavy-state

[e_mir]

If you’re going to discuss some libertarian ideas on Russian – you need to be ready for major misunderstanding and problematic terminology. Russian language is a product of russian history, and its development was slowed by totalitarian Soviet state. True and honest debates were virtually impossible, so modern political terminology was also useless.

So today russian libertarian discourse uses mostly translated terms, and some of them are ambiguous and even contradictory. E.g. one of the most used terms in modern libertarianism - minarchism (idea of minimal government) and its opposite – Big Government.

Russian translation for Big Government isn’t literally – “Большое государство” rather means Big State, not Big Government. But in Russian “Big State” sounds really cool. It’s not a kind of bad thing, russians love everything big – Tsar Bell, Tsar Cannon and of course Mother Russia itself.

Personally i prefer my own translation – “Heavy State“. It’s much more descriptive and expressive. The Heavy state is not servicing and protecting its citizens, instead they serve it and are oppressed by it. Heaviest, totalitarian states – Soviet Union (especially in Stalin age), Nazi Germany, North Korea. Lighter states tend to be more libertarian: less taxes, less government, more Laissez-faire.

Comments

[tymofiy.livejournal.com]

should I send in corrections?

[tymofiy.livejournal.com]

and nice post, thanks.

[e_mir]

Конечно.

[tymofiy.livejournal.com]

it development
its development

True and honest debates was virtually impossible
were

one of most used terms
one of the most used terms

The Heavy state not servicing and protect its citizens, instead they serve to it and oppressed by it.
The Heavy state is not servicing and protecting its citizens, instead they serve it and are oppressed by it.

[e_mir]

Спасибо большое.

[e_mir]

Но в целом - терпимый язык? Не слишком глаз режет?

[1n5ecto1d.livejournal.com]

"... in Russian"
"Personally I..."

[tymofiy.livejournal.com]

Мне терпимый, но я к текстам non-native speakers привычный.

[e_mir]

Спасибо.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_submarine_/]

Сорри, вклинюсь: the heavy state _does not_ service and protect... Continuous здесь не нужен, вторая часть этого предложения у вас в правильном времени стоит.

[rukenau.livejournal.com]

I like this term a lot. And generally, what you are writing about is, I think, a very good illustration of what is collectively (and apparently wrongly) best known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis—that language determines cognition and ultimately behaviours; I'm sure you know about it. (Clearly it is much more complex than that and overall, I seem to recall, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is no longer seen as valid.) But I think the problems aren't limited to the omnipresence of Soviet paradigm in Russia of the twentieth century; we as a country always used to be either very fractured, or very unfree, or both, and Russia as a collection of various nations and ethnicities does not have a history of peaceful well-managed democratic coexistence.

[e_mir]

Это тоже (http://e-mir.livejournal.com/2695789.html) хорошо рифмуется с теорией Сепир-Ворфа.