Please Stop Implying That 'peasant' Is A Rude Word

[Martin]

I am a peasant, and proud of it.

Since we are getting on in years, and can afford it, my wife and I now get some other (landless) peasants to do the work in our rice fields and pay them with half the crop.

(Being middle-class peasants, we have enough rice-growing land that half of its crop is sufficient for the needs of our household.)

And (having been able to put on various acts amongst the academic elite, the technocratic elite, the military elite and the bureaucratic elite) I have pension income that makes our life even more comfortable.

We peasants are the salt of the earth----and carry everybody else in the villages, towns and cities on our backs.

Some of them serve the peasantry well in return, and some just try to exploit us. But all depend on us peasants.

So 'peasant' is not a rude word in my vocabulary.

[English Noodles]

I think you will find that the correct term for you and your wife is 'peasant proprietors' not simply peasants.

[Tywais]

If you think they are being rude then you need to look at this: Peasant

[Martin]

Re post #3, from 'tywais':

I see what you mean. It is an "Urban Dictionary", indeed.

Thinking about it, I suppose that urbanised people have to feel that they are one-up (and not one-down) on the rural lifestyle that they (or their forebears) left behind them.

And, in former times, the only way to get the entertainment and intellectual stimulation of the latest thinking was to get away to the cities, by being the ones who passed their exams and got recruited to urban jobs.

But times have changed with fast, cheap transport, and satellites, and the Internet; haven't they?

[leftcross]

a squat toilet is the next basic step of evolution from dumping in a hole in the ground, so it is for peasants without adequate sewerage systems.

show me one advanced society that CHOOSES squat toilets over western toilets............

[Noel]

I am a peasant, and proud of it.

An inverse snob would be...

[Morden]

a squat toilet is the next basic step of evolution from dumping in a hole in the ground, so it is for peasants without adequate sewerage systems.

show me one advanced society that CHOOSES squat toilets over western toilets............

The French seem still to like them!

[English Noodles]

a squat toilet is the next basic step of evolution from dumping in a hole in the ground, so it is for peasants without adequate sewerage systems.

show me one advanced society that CHOOSES squat toilets over western toilets............

What exactly makes one better than the other? They are just different.

[Cassandra]

I am a peasant, and proud of it.

Since we are getting on in years, and can afford it, my wife and I now get some other (landless) peasants to do the work in our rice fields and pay them with half the crop.

(Being middle-class peasants, we have enough rice-growing land that half of its crop is sufficient for the needs of our household.)

And (having been able to put on various acts amongst the academic elite, the technocratic elite, the military elite and the bureaucratic elite) I have pension income that makes our life even more comfortable.

We peasants are the salt of the earth----and carry everybody else in the villages, towns and cities on our backs.

Some of them serve the peasantry well in return, and some just try to exploit us. But all depend on us peasants.

So 'peasant' is not a rude word in my vocabulary.

It is not possible to be a "middle class peasant" by any sensible definition.It is however possible to be a prosperous peasant and there are many of these in France, Spain and Italy.They lead a lifestyle that I think is to be envied, though their days are probably numbered.There was also the more prosperous type peasant in the USSR dring the 1930's, a different category altogether.These poor people or "kulaks" as they were known were judged by Stalin to be on the wrong side in the class war, and were mostly murdered or deported.In Thailand the continued vitality of the peasants is an irritant for the Sino-Thai ruling elite who don't think it is consistent with a modern country.I disagree and would look to France as an exemplar.But inevitably like France the peasantry will shrink in Thailand which is a shame.

[Greer]

The Urban Dictionary quoted above can be described in one word: rubbish.

Here is the definition of the word "peasant" from an on-line dictionary source quoting proper reference sources:

peas·ant ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pznt)

n.

A member of the class constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture.

A country person; a rustic.

An uncouth, crude, or ill-bred person; a boor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Middle English paissaunt, from Old French paisant, from pais, country, from Late Latin pgnsis, inhabitant of a district, from Latin pgus, district. See pag- in Indo-European Roots.]

[Download Now or Buy the Book]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

peasant

n 1: a country person [syn: provincial, bucolic] 2: one of a (chiefly European) class of agricultural laborers 3: a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement [syn: barbarian, boor, churl, Goth, tyke, tike]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

By the way - squat toilets are simply a LOT cleaner than sitting ON the bits of disgusting mess left by whoever the previous occupant was! Try going into any public toilet anywhere in the world - do you really not mind placing your naked backside on the seat, thus collecting whatever bacteria have been left or are growing there after the last few hundred people have left their fecal matter there? Not me - squat toilets are better anytime and anywhere!

Edited March 7, 2006 by Greer

[steveromagnino]

a squat toilet is the next basic step of evolution from dumping in a hole in the ground, so it is for peasants without adequate sewerage systems.

show me one advanced society that CHOOSES squat toilets over western toilets............

what is a western toilet?

Is this the disgusting wipe your hole with dirty paper smearing things around then throw it all in the bowl and send it into the nearest river system?

Or is it the one with the water cleaning device thing and warm seat and so on?

What I cannot understand...a peasant is a bird right that hunters shoot? So why can't they just go where they want?

Martin

Don't fool yourself. probably as a result of your money, you and your wife are now land owners. The people who are doing all the work for which you get 50% are the peasants (and as Seinfeld would say not that there is anything wrong with that). I am sure that as a landowner and receiving a pension to boot, that the peasants would not consider you a peasant either.

You might or might not be a pheasant, but that is by the by.

You might or might not be pleasant but that is also by the by.

So on the offchance that you systematically missed an H or an L, then it is quite possible I have misunderstood.

I do understand and agree with the sentiment though. Ironically with ALL the complaints that many foreigners make about Thai people's class system and looking down or up at others, the first thing many do, is quickly calculate where they rate in the system, and do exactly the same thing.

I know I do I look down on dem short people innit.

[gburns57au]

You are a land owner who hires others to assist you in your labours.....

Sir you are not a peasant....more likely a pissant....

You deign to put yourself in the same category as the people who live hand to mouth existencies. When it is obvious you are not in that category...

Oh please......

[greg.d]

Who really cares, it is a rather old fashion word that has probably lost it's true meaning through evolution.

So let's just enjoying taking a sh1t wherever and whoever you are!