PER 2015
Doctrine of Tacit Consent 51 that only when resisted against would a government’s actions become oppressive. As such the definition of oppression I will be using in this essay is a situation in which one’s freedom is restricted by a third party without consent. Over time we see that this oppression has sparked revolt, revolution and reform, and in doing so has helped to construct the world we live in today. In the seventh century BC a poet named Archilochus of Paros popularised the Lydian word ‘tyrant’. Today this term is defined as a cruel or oppressive ruler but three thousand years ago it had no such negative connotations, merely used to describe any monarch or ruler. The modern anti-tyrannical tendencies seem to have most greatly developed during the Peisistratid Tyranny of the sixth century BC. Peisistratus himself was a popular leader and Herodotus writes that he was careful not to exceed his constitutionally granted authority, ruling “fairly and well” 52 . However it was his son Hippias who, following the assassination of his brother Hipparchus over a love feud, became a tyrant in the modern sense. Aristotle writes that “executions and sentences of exile” became common and he even calls it “despotism” 53 . The result was that Hipparchus’ assassins became heroes and revolutionaries in the eyes of the Athenians and with Spartan help they ousted Hippias. Having experienced oppression first hand, the Athenians now under Cleisthenes vowed never again to return to tyranny and instead a new style of government was developed. Thus from this oppression was born Democracy. A system of government created where there were checks and balances on power, where every decision was made by popular vote, where no man was head of state more than a single day and where the only officials not chosen by lot were those charged with the security of the nation. Though little of this original form of democracy survives in practice today, this radical and broadly successful reform was formed from resistance of oppression. Notably, the definition of tyrant changed from ruler to oppressor, a potent reminder and warning to society to enforce restrictions on its leaders. This shift in how people viewed tyranny through the fifth and sixth centuries BC supports Mill’s view that the ancient world considered ruler and ruled to be “necessarily antagonistic” 54 . The importance of freedom and sovereignty has often been underestimated by empires and ruling powers, and it is this which can lead to resistance and change. One example of this is the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, formed in response to British taxation without representation. Though not physically oppressive these taxes angered the Americans in the colonies, who felt like second class citizens to those back in Britain. The Earl of Chatham in January 1775 made a speech to the House of Lords in which he condemned Britain’s treatment of America as “tyranny” and claimed that while the oppression continued revolution was inevitable. Americans, he said, “prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains and sordid affluence” 55 . A mere nineteen months later he was proved correct.
51 – Locke, J. (1689). Two treatises of government. 52 – Herodotus (450-420BC). Histories. 53 – Aristotle (330-322BC). The Athenian constitution. 54 – Mill, J. S. (1859). On liberty. 55 – William Pitt in a speech to the House of Lords (20 th January 1775)
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