Sorry, erinja, I didn't mean to put you on the spot with my question about the weird behavior you have encountered at meetings. I was really curious and I do apologize. Mi vere pardonpetas.

It sounds as though you are talking about a general cross-mixture of humanity that always comes out in droves for any free (or perceived to be free) event. They don't seem to have a life of their own and are perfectly content to establish a symbiotic relationship with others. Usually the 'others' aren't too happy with this.

You always have the core of decent people who are serious about Esperanto. If you are fortunate, these will make up the majority of the meetings. I could also imagine the "wild-eyed fanatic" type who believes every word about the E-o movement and who think Esperanto is the greatest discovery since katsup and Tabasco sauce were discovered.

The type who have difficulty reading social cues have always been around and they are called bores.

Those who dress and adorn themselves in an unusual manner are becoming more and more common. You have only to walk through Wal-Mart to see many of these circus-freak types -- LOL. My God! I don't even own garments that some of these people wear in public.

I'm not sure about the ones who get a kick out of photographing cars. If you are very unlucky, you might encounter this character in a Homeland Security uniform the next time you take a flight.

I've never had the desire to wade through Pride and Prejudice, so I'm unsure about the Mr. Collins type you mentioned. I'm not about to ask either!

OK, you've satisfied my curiosity. I doubt if you were trying to be funny but your post was amusing. Thank you for it. If I ever get a chance to attend an E-o event, I'll do so but I'll also be on my guard.

Alex_G_Sam:moderatoro.

*thumbs-up*

(SCNR)

As near as I can tell, the only language Esperanto ever wiped out is Volapük. Even that wasn't 100% successful.

quieta:I've never had the desire to wade through Pride and Prejudice, so I'm unsure about the Mr. Collins type you mentioned. I'm not about to ask either!

It's actually an excellent book, very readable, clever, and engaging, even today. The 6-episode miniseries from 1995 is wonderful, if it ever strikes you to rent it from Netflix, perhaps.

Mr. Collins is a bore who doesn't know when to cut his losses and stop. Mr. Collins' proposal

.... mine was similar in many respects, though it was by phone and not in person (listing of good qualities, promises of financial stability). However, Jane Austen did not foresee promises of Esperanto-speaking children. And Mr. Collins in the book was not currently married, and not offering to divorce his wife and date Lizzie Bennett until she should fall in love with him.

OK, you've satisfied my curiosity. I doubt if you were trying to be funny but your post was amusing. Thank you for it. If I ever get a chance to attend an E-o event, I'll do so but I'll also be on my guard.

I was intending to be funny, but I was also serious and not joking, if you catch my meaning!

It's true that clubs and organizations attract people who don't fit in elsewhere. My father is a member of an environmental organization and shooting club, and though it seems like they don't have quite as many crazies as the Esperanto movement, they do have a lot.

Damn, now i'm interested in Pride & Prejudice. Kindled and ready to go.

In my mind, I'm combining the Esperanto movement and its people with Pride & Prejudice. That should make a good read! Now, who's a talented writer?

chrisim101010:Damn, now i'm interested in Pride & Prejudice. Kindled and ready to go.

If you ever watch a TV adaptation of it, be sure to watch the 1995 miniseries. The 2005 movie cuts out a lot of the plot, and there's no suspense because the story is over so fast (two hours really isn't long enough to properly tell the story - Jane Austen books don't abridge well into movies, you really need a miniseries).

Some of my favorite Mark Twain quotes are about Jane Austen books:

Jane Austen? Why I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.

- quoted in Remembered Yesterdays, Robert Underwood Johnson

To me his prose is unreadable -- like Jane Austin's [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.

- Letter to W. D. Howells, 18 January 1909

I haven't any right to criticise books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

- Letter to Joseph Twichell, 13 September 1898

I myself have nothing against Jane Austen, though I've nothing for her either, but I've always found Twain's vitriol toward Austen to be interesting.

Let's break this anons post down shall we. Or at least I'm going to break it down as I saw people dismissing points that I felt had some validity.

Why do you find the Esperanto movement to be racist and pro-genocide?

The Esperanto movement is racist and pro-genocide because it considers the fact that people speak different languages to be a problem (la lingva problemo - the language problem), and that the solution to this problem is to have everyone learn Esperanto as a second language (the realization of this aim is called by Esperantists la fina venko - the final victory). Esperanto is unquestionably Eurocentric, both lexically and grammatically. For instance, it employs subject-verb-object word order, uses suffixes to denote femininity in words (meaning the default is masculine) and the bulk of its vocabulary is unquestionably Indo-European in origin.

I do have to say, using the wordage "Language Problem" and putting it next to "The Final Victory" or as a quick Google will pull up "The Final Success" DOES sound creepy. As speaking in absolutes is always creepy. However it seems "The final victory" is some kind of movement.

Esperanto IS Euro-centric and that fact DOES bother me as well. I would like to think an international language would be more... international. As for SVO, I thought Esperanto could be arranged in any possible way. As for the whole "default masculine" that IS a problem that I hope will one day get solved for Esperanto. However some people tend to be sticks in the mud for change.

Esperantists constantly promote their language as being “easier” to learn than natural languages. This is only true if the learner’s native language is Indo-European, non-tonal and written with the Latin script.

Another valid point. One has to ask: Easy for whom?

If adopted internationally Esperanto would inevitably come to be an important vehicle of globalization (as the English language has been), it would supplant local languages, particularly those languages which have no literary traditions and it would lead to an erosion of local culture.

Another valid point that is somewhat hard to test. Most people losing their languages today to English had English forcibly thrust upon them.

In other words, Esperantists argue for a homogenization of world culture, for a world which is obligingly accessible for white people and white culture, and for a world which caters to white need for convenience.

I don't know about the "world culture" part. But having a Euro-centric unflexable language does hold the baggage of being "catering to white language/people" as it doesn't contain (m)any Asian, First Peoples or African words.

If that doesn’t sound racist and pro-genocide to you, I don’t know what does.

Though genocide is the killing of people off. It might kill a language off.

chrisim101010:Damn, now i'm interested in Pride & Prejudice. Kindled and ready to go.

In my mind, I'm combining the Esperanto movement and its people with Pride & Prejudice. That should make a good read! Now, who's a talented writer?

They already combined it with Bollywood and zombies, why not?

Nice feeding of a troll Maverynthia. It's not a good idea to feed trolls, so I suggest that if you genuinely want to respond to the troll, you should do it via private message.