I Hate the Word "Czar"

[Uncle Joe]

I thought the Founders fought and died against the very idea of being owned or controlled by royalty, and yet whenever the head of some new department is chosen, they call the position "Czar," I believe this has subliminal national psychological implications.

Czar is a Russian word for Emperor, despot, autocrat or absolute ruler, I'm wondering who's behind this adoption of freedom hating terminology, politicians, the corporate media or both?

[JanMichael]

1. ditto for me. "czar" is not what any decent person would wish to be called nt

[BuyingThyme]

2. Maybe this guy:

[Speck Tater]

16. For the record...

czar
1555, from Rus. tsar, from Old Slavic tsesari, from Gothic kaisar, from Gk. kaisar, from L. Caesar. First adopted by Russian emperor Ivan IV, 1547.

The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages; the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii, 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whence it passed into the Western Languages generally; in some of these it is now old-fashioned; the usual Ger. form is now zar; French adopted tsar during the 19th c. This also became frequent in English towards the end of that century, having been adopted by the Times newspaper as the most suitable English spelling.

The Gmc. form of the word also is the source of Finnish keisari, Estonian keisar. The transferred sense of "person with dictatorial powers" is first recorded 1866, Amer.Eng., initially in ref. to President Andrew Johnson. The fem. czarina is 1717, from It. czarina, from Ger. Zarin, fem. of Zar "czar." The Rus. fem. is tsaritsa. His son is tsarevitch, his daughter is tsarevna.

from: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=czar&searchmode=none

[Randomthought]

3. I agree

It is actually Russian for Caesar.

[leftstreet]

7. Energy Caesar, Drug Caesar, Car Caesar

LOL

That's the ticket!

[Uncle Joe]

8. That's right.

I forgot about the root, when I made the O.P. but it doesn't change my feelings toward the use of this word.

Caesar might be good a name for a salad or salad dressing but I don't care for my political or governmental leaders to be referred to as such.

[brendan120678]

9. Just like Kaiser is the German word.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. It comes from Caesar

you connect dots

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Interesting thought - who was the first appointed 'czar' in this country?

I can't think of anyone prior to the guy Nixon appointed as 'drug czar' for the 'war on drugs' in, what?, '72?

[Uncle Joe]

13. Take this article for example, who was behind using that word

the President or the media?

If it was the corporate media, this may help explain why some people have a knee jerk reaction against the government having any power of oversight or benefit to the public while those same people are mindlessly enslaved by corporate supremacy.

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-technology/20090529/US.Obama.Cyber.Struggles/

WASHINGTON — America has failed for too long to adequately protect the security of its computer networks, President Barack Obama said Friday, announcing he will name a new cyber czar to press for action.

<snip>

[Karenina]

6. Me too.

[Taverner]

10. Me too

How about "Manager"? - that has worked fine in the biz world

[omega minimo]

11. Da!!!

:bounce: It's a Reagan mindfucker term

[Uncle Joe]

17. That wouldn't surprise me, he never did think government was good for

anything except to wage war and bust unions.

However watching the corporate media adopt the term and apply it to any head of a new department smacks of serious irony, considering the corporate dominance over the "people s's government.

The question begs as to who are the real Czars in contemporary American Society, our supposed representative government or the corporations that fund and hold them by the short hairs?

The corporate media would imply by their language that government holds totalitarian power and yet the corporate media and their client corporations have for the most part with their out sized lobbying influence served to hinder the effectiveness of a truly representative peoples' government from operating.

In short they implicitly, consciously or subconsciously curse the darkness of which they only help to bring about.

[chaplainM]

12. Czar Romero would have never been cast as The Joker n/t

[ContinentalOp]

14. I hate it too.

If we are going to use those kinds of terms we should mix it up a bit. Drug Tsar. Drug Lord. Drug Kaiser (as mentioned upthread). Drug Boss. Drug Decider. Drug Punisher. The Emperor of Drugs. King Drug. Cocaine Caliph. The Shah of Schwag. Opiate Overlord. Marijuana Maharajah. Rex Rx. etc.

[LooseWilly]

15. I actually rather like the word.

Czar... it's got a nice "buzz" to it.
I like Czech too. As a matter of fact, I think the word "check" should be banished from the English language, and replaced with "czech".

More 'Z' Representation Now !!

The zoo is lonely...

[Mr. Ected]

18. This Thread Is Really Biczar

I'm just sayin'...

[Uncle Joe]

19. Only to keep pace with current affairs. n/t

[rvablue]

20. So does Obama. IIRC, Obama said early on they will not be using this title anymore. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

21. I think that's great but I will be surprised if the corporate media follow suit

as per my post #13.

The way I see, the vast majority of the corporate media and their clients have an inherent interest in separating the American People from their government.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

22. Superman didn't take any shit off of the Czar

[david13]

23. I say we go with BIG CHEESE n/t