Sunday, March 5, 2023

A couple useful terms: Cabal and Purge

- Cabal. 

From Fed 10: In the first place, it is to be remarked that, however small the republic may be, the representatives must be raised to a certain number, in order to guard against the cabals of a few; and that, however large it may be, they must be limited to a certain number, in order to guard against the confusion of a multitude.

From Merriam Webster

the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government)

also : a group engaged in such schemes

From Wikipedia

A cabal is a group of people who are united in some close design, usually to promote their private views or interests in an ideology, a state, or another community, often by intrigue and usually unbeknownst to those who are outside their group. The use of this term usually carries negative connotations of political purpose, conspiracy and secrecy. It can also refer to a secret plot or a clique, or it may be used as a verb (to form a cabal or secretly conspire).

_________

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Purge.

remove (a group of people considered undesirable) from an organization or place in an abrupt or violent way.

"he purged all but 26 of the central committee members"

- Wikipedia:

In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself. Purges can be either nonviolent or violent, with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the imprisonment, exile, or murder of those who have been purged.