Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>
> According to the OED, the word "stagnate" made its first appearance
> in 1669; the word "stagnant," in 1666; "stagnancy," in 1665. The
> world had began to change in capital's image, and it was no longer
> good enough to do as well as before.
>
I always wrote the following matrix on the blackboard in my lit classes:
stagnant = stable
chaotic = dynamic
The equated terms quite often are equally valid as description, the difference lying in the social perspective of the user. "Bourgeois" democracy was chaos from the perspective of those feudal lords who had not (as most English lords had) become capitalists themselves. The modern prejudice for the "dynamic" is an aberration in human history, and is rapidly becoming a barrier to the very continued existence of humans as a species.
Carrol
P.S. The OED is an extremely rich source of cultural, ideological, and social history. Consider the following of the words "sophist" and "demagogue," the latter being introduced into English either by Charles I or by the writer who ghostwrote Charles's final meditations. Eikon Basilike (or The King's Book) was a book of meditations allegedly penned by Charles I during his imprisonment prior to execution. Eikonoklastes was John Milton's defense of the English people against the attacks of the royalists. "Goblin word" is, I believe, an excellent characterization of the reactionary use that both "sophist" and "demogogue" have been put to. Below are the OED entries. Note that "demogogue" has changed from one who espouses the cause of the people to one who decieves the people in his own interests. Charles as it were invented the fundamental cliche of anti-communism, the "outside agitator." Milton tried unsuccessfully to scotch it in its cradle.
DEMAGOGUE
1. In ancient times, a leader of the people; a popular leader or orator who espoused the cause of the people against any other party in the state.
1651 HOBBES Govt. & Soc. x. §6. 153 In a Democraty, look how many Demagoges (that is)how many powerfull Oratours there are with the people. 1683 DRYDEN Life Plutarch 99 Their warriours, and senators, and demagogues. 1719 SWIFT To Yng. Clergyman, Demosthenes and Cicero, though each of them a leader (or as the Greeks called it, a demagogue) in a popular state, yet seem to differ. 1832 tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. x. 224 He was descended from one of the demagogues who, in 1378, had undertaken the defence of the minor arts against the aristocracy. 1874 GREEN Short Hist. viii. §6. 520 He [Pym] proved himself..the grandest of demagogues.
2. In bad sense: A leader of a popular faction, or of the mob; a political agitator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of the mob in order to obtain power or further his own interests; an unprincipled or factious popular orator.
1648 Eikon Bas. iv, Who were the chief demagogues and patrons of tumults, to send for them, to flatter and embolden them. 1649 MILTON Eikon. iv. (1851) 365 Setting aside the affrightment of this Goblin word [demagogue]; for the King by his leave cannot coine English as he could mony, to be current..those Demagogues..saving his Greek, were good patriots
SOPHIST
1. In ancient Greece, one specially engaged in the pursuit or communication of knowledge; esp. one who undertook to give instruction in intellectual and ethical matters in return for payment. In the latter sense contrasted with philosopher, and freq. used as a term of disparagement.
1542 UDALL Erasm. Apophthegms 14b, Sophistes at the fyrst begynnyng wer men that professed to bee teachers of wisedome and eloquence, and the name of Sophistes was had in honoure and price. 1547 BALDWIN Mor. Philos. 1b, The Grecians..naming it first 'sophia', & such as therein were skilled, sophistes or wisards. 1605 BACON Adv. Learning II. 54b, Not onely in the persons of the Sophists, but euen in Socrates himselfe. 1638 JUNIUS Paint. Ancients 98 As well sculpters and painters.., as Sophists and Rhetoricians. 1699 BENTLEY Phal. Introd. 6 The very Sophists themselves..have declar'd him no Sophist, but a Philosopher. 1763 J. BROWN Poetry & Music vi. 137 In later Times it became a common Practice for Sophists and Rhetoricians to contend in Prose, at the Olympic Games, for the Crown of Glory. 1835 T. MITCHELL Acharn. of Aristoph. 717 note, Socrates having ironically addressed the two boasting and ridiculous sophists..as gods. a1842 ARNOLD Later Hist. Rome (1846) II. xii. 451 The profession of a Sophist was a legal exemption from the duties of a juryman. 1864 BOWEN Logic ix. 267 The great use of disputation by the ancient sophists and the Schoolmen, as a logical exercise and a means of education.
2. One who is distinguished for learning; a wise or learned man.
1614 SYLVESTER Bethulia's Rescue II. 320 Whose prudent Problems, touching every Theam, Draw thousand Sophists to Jerusalem. 1645 BP. HALL Treat. Content. 88 Those Indian sophists who took their name from their nakednesse. [CLIP]
3. One who makes use of fallacious arguments; a specious reasoner.
1581 G. PETTIE tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. I. (1586) 34 You knowe also that we naturallie hate cauillers and Sophists, who at euerie word will ouerthwart us. 1771 BEATTIE Minstr. I. xli, Hence! ye, who snare and stupify the mind, Sophists, of beauty, virtue, joy, the bane! 1774 [CLIP]