The word Pundit goes back about 3,500 years. I'm told it's a Sanskrit word which
was used to describe a person of erudition, wisdom and learning. Of the many
Hindu Castes, the Brahmin Class was the highest ranking class, and if you had a
question, or wanted to get married, or wanted to know when to plant the crop, or
wanted to improve your chances at blissful oblivion in the next life it was the
Pundits of the Brahmin class who had the answer to everything. During the
British Occupation of the Indian Subcontinent the English used the word Pundit
in two ways. The first way was to describe a local expert in local traditions
and laws who'd advise the British Justice System within the territories the
British controlled. A useful sort of thing for an occupying force attempting not
to aggravate too many of their Empire's many and diverse subjects.
The other way the English used the word Pundit was when for example they wanted
maps of and information about territories they did not control but hoped to
soon. This second kind of Pundit was basically a spy, or a double agent who in
the furtherance of their own ambitions would disappear into the unknown and come
back with useful information. Some time toward the end of the British Empire the
word Pundit earned the category of a derogatory term and came to mean something
like a Talking Head, a worse than useless rabble rouser expressing subversive
unsubstantiated opinions for the highest payer. And now welcome to the 21st
Century, where our Pundits are better than your Pundits, our Pundits can chew
gum and tie their own shoelaces at the same time, yours can't, and so on.
It's a rich passionate dialectic, which would be huge fun to watch if you lived
on the potentially habitable planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, only four and a
quarter light years away.
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