People used to test programs on paper ... Your imagination is at least as mighty, albeit often slower than a PC. English is badly defined, I rather thought about logic. The languages don't really matter, all share the same fundamentals. For algorithms, FP seems just as beloved: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp
Sure, but to know the algorithms is not enough. I remember I was asked to implement a certain prime numbers search algorithm in C, and I spent many hours trying to wrap my head around how to do it, even though the algorithm itself was perfectly clear to me.
Not only that, I then spent several more hours trying to make it faster, which is also language specific. So the language does matter in my opinion.
It's a synonym to democracy, and yes, I agree to some extent. Still, self-control with regards to any system is a widely accepted term, and a comparable metaphor.
