Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Arvind Subramanian @arvindsubraman in the news for his new book, was given a great deal of press recently - on his use of the word "Draconian" to describe Demonetization

But "Draconian" merely means harsh / severe (which demonetization undoubtedly was)

It is not a negative word

The word "Draconian" as many would know stems from the legacy of the great Athenian lawgiver Draco (roughly 650-600BCE).

Draco has an important place in the history of Western civilization. As he was one of the first democratic legislators

A man who replaced the system of oral law and kinship based biradiri law enforcement with a written code - enforced by a court of law

And he was not a tyrant. He was actually commissioned to write up the laws by the Athenian people

Before Draco, families in Athens often dispensed justice on their own accord using their muscle power

Law was taken by the powerful "into their own hands" so to speak

Draco with his written law, laid the foundation of the later flowering of Athenian democracy

Even Aristotle himself, several centuries later, acknowledged Draco's role as a reformer of the Athenian constitution

Ofcourse some half a century or so after Draco, most of his laws were repealed by Solon - the next great Athenian lawgiver.

But his legacy of "written law" is something that remained and exerted an influence on western civilization

Draco's laws were harsh and unforgiving.

Even minor offenses like stealing a cabbage was met with capital punishment.

Which is why any "harsh measure" these days is described using the word "Draconian"

But that doesn't make Draconian a negative word.

It is a word of great historical significance, and shouldn't be viewed negatively

The Indian media's blatant misuse of the word suggests the need for a stronger classical education

Draconian is not the only word that we tend to misuse in our times.

Another abused word is Tyrant.

Now whenever we use that word, we invoke images of Saddam Hussein or Gadaffi

But Tyrant is not again a negative word in its original meaning.

Tyrant in Classical Greece merely meant someone who acquires political power based on personal ability as opposed to hereditary succession or constitutional process

Athens was in fact ruled by several tyrants during its age of glory. The most famous being the great Peisustratos - who laid the foundation of later Athenian prosperity

Peisistratos features in Athenian history some 70 yrs or so after Draco

He was a tyrant. But a benevolent one

Someone who reined in the aristocracy and laid the foundations of a more democratic Athens in the century after him

We tend to think of "Democracy" whenever we recall Athens. But Democracy was made possible by tyrants / dictators like Peisistratos.

There could have been no Cleisthenes or Pericles in the 5th century BCE without the long benevolent rule of Peisistratos - who engendered the long peace in society that is a pre-requisite for the flowering of greater democracy