At 3:46 AM 8/22/95, Jon Lasser wrote:
On Mon, 21 Aug 1995, Peter Trei wrote:
The US is slipping into the second world as we speak, with no signs of a turnaround ahead. Only the sheer size of the economy keeps people from believing it.
Just a nomenclature peeve - I'm not sure of the precise time and place the (first|second|third) world meme originated, but it seems to predate 1970, and until very recently it's meaning was clear:
First world: Western (and Westernized) nations - mainly the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, & New Zealand
Second world: Communist bloc (I can still remember the Cultural Revolution. Prior to that, the Communists seemed a monolithic force, marching in lockstep.)
Third world: The rest, mostly poor nations.
Erm, nope. The "First World" (or old world) was Europe and Asia; the "New World" (not frequently referrred to as the second world, but hey...) The third world was the developing nations. THAT (as far as I was taught in history class, so it MIGHT be a lie...) was how the terms originated...
Then you should sue your history teacher for giving you a defective education :-}. Perhaps she or he was of my generation and was at Woodstock when she should've been doing her homework. By convention, the First World is the set of "Western" nations, the democratic, capitalist nations. The Second World, though not often used as a term, is the set of Communist bloc nations. The Third World, by far the most commonly used term here, is the set of nations not formally affiliated with either the First or Second Worlds. These nations are often poor, though not necessarily poor, and so the "Third World" is often (incorrectly) associated with poverty. And, to confuse things further, the "lesser-developed countries," or LDCs, are often equated to the Third World. When a certain character in a television show referred to "Third World mutants," he was also referring to "your basic brown types." (His words, not mine. Ten credits to anyone who can identify the t.v. show and the character.) The term "Fourth World" has in the last 20 years come to refer to the countries which are so impoverished as to be almost hopeless. Bangla Desh is the canonical Fourth World nation. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."