Ross Abrams
English 10
November 30, 2013
Vocabulary Speech Notes
1. Draconian denotation:
adjective
The definition of draconian is laws or punishments that are extremely severe or cruel.
(yourdictionary.com)
The word is based on the Athenian ruler, Draco, who codified laws around 620 BC. The codes
were impartial but extremely harsh, punishing small offenses, like the stealing of food, with
death. According to Aristotle, the laws were so harsh, they were actually written in blood.
2. Sentences in Context:
“George Takei, in a blog post titled, “Sochi: Winter of Hate” spoke against Russia’s
“draconian gay propaganda law,” explaining, “Last week, Russia’s Sports Minister
confirmed that the country intends to enforce its laws against visiting LGBT athletes,
trainers and fans, meaning anyone even so much as waving a rainbow flag (and I presume
many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating) would
be arrested, held for weeks and then deported. Given this position, the IOC must do the right
thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia.’”
(Erin Strecker, Ew.com., 2013).
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will not discuss the "triple
punishment", which has been criticised by some as being too draconian, when it convenes
next month. The punishment can mean a player who gives away a penalty is sent off and
automatically suspended, but critics say a penalty on its own should be sufficient
punishment for non-violent fouls. Franz Beckenbauer led a FIFA working group which
suggested replacing the red card with a yellow except in the case of dangerous tackles. The
IFAB examined that proposal a year ago, but it is not on the agenda for the meeting in
Edinburgh. (ESPN staff, ESPN.com, 2013).
Are college campus smoking bans draconian?
By Valerie Strauss
Towson University, Maryland’s second-largest public university, has banned smoking
anywhere on campus, joining more than 460 other colleges and universities in the United
States that have 100 percent smoke-free campus policies. That leaves about 6,100 colleges
and universities that still allow smoking in some places on campus (based on an Education
Department statistics that there were 6,551 postsecondary institutions in the country in
2008). The American NonSmokers Rights Foundation maintains a list of schools with nosmoke policies, here. It includes some big schools, including the University of Texas at
Austin. (Strauss, Valerie, Washingtonpost.com, 2011).
3. Paraphrase x 4
a. A “law” or “punishment” is draconian when it is extremely “cruel” or “severe.”
b. When an institution has a policy or rule that is draconian it means that the penalty for a
misdeed is out of proportion with the bad act being done.
c. Draconian means overly severe in punishment; for example, if a high school were to enact
a policy in which a single drunk student at a school dance meant that the whole school was
given detention, we would call that draconian.
d. A draconian policy or law is severe and heavy-handed but it is not, by connotation,
discriminatory, arbitrary, or inequitable. An arbitrary law would be one that was applied
unfairly, so that in some cases someone got in trouble but in other cases they did not. A
draconian law, on the other hand, is applied across the board to everyone – the problem is
that the type of punishment is out of proportion with the misdeed committed. From what I
can tell, the word is almost always used to describe what the policies and rules of an
institution rather than an individual.
e. Thankfully, I live in a culture where there are few rules that I find draconian, and beyond
that, I have found that even in the most entrenched bureaucracies there are generally
compassionate individuals who are willing to over-ride draconian rules. For example, in
college, I once forgot to drop a gym class that I had never attended and was told by one
administrator that I had to be assigned an “F” based on the harsh school policy. A higher up
dean told me not to worry about it and that mistakes happen. The policy was “draconian”
but the people in charge of the rules were thoughtful and kind.
1260 degree double cork mctwist
This February, Shaun White, arguably the best snowboarder to ever
live, will be looking to add to his already impressive gold medals at
the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
It is also possible that Shaun White will be sitting on the couch
watching the Olympics instead.
Maybe a U.S. boycott of the Olympics for the first time in over thirty
years. The dispute is over what many are calling a draconian policy
signed into law by Vladmir Putin.
The law makes it illegal to participate in any homosexual acts, such
as the holding of hands or kissing, in public and also makes any progay speech, including the wearing of t-shirts, etc. illegal. Put another
way, if you wear a rainbow bracelet you can expect to go to the jail.
The penalty is a mandatory 15 days in jail, 1500 – 30,000 fine, and
deportation if you are not a citizen.
DRACONIAN – overly harsh punishment out of proportion with the
crime.
Draco (the dragon) – Athenian ruler in 7th century BC
Prior Blood feuds – you killed my brother, I get to kill yours. There
was not set logic to how justice occurred. Some were powerless.
Strong laws – so strong in fact that Aristotle joked that they should
have been written in blood.
Murder = death
Stealing = death
Idleness = death
Draconian is almost always applied to a set of policies, laws, or rules
made by a government rather than to an individual person.
You can call your mother or her curfew rules
draconian but that would definitely be hyperbole.
To call a law draconian is not to call it arbitrary or inequitable. It is
criticizing the extent or harshness of the law rather than its fairness.
Russian anti-gay law might be better called unjustifiable or
unwarranted.
Your turn to try out using this word:
Canada’s new Education Act places a strong emphasis on anti-bullying measures.
One of the rules in the new law requires that “a student … has the responsibility to
refrain from, report and not tolerate bullying or bullying behavior directed toward
others in the school, whether or not it occurs within the school building, during the
school day or by electronic means.” Put another way, if a student sees another
student being picked on anywhere he must report it to the school. If he does not, he
faces a mandatory 5-day suspension. Do you think this rule is draconian? Making
sure to use the word at least three times outloud, discuss with the person sitting
next to you.
In closing, it is worth considering the context of most draconian laws. Arguably our
most draconian rules – such as the airport screening policy – come after time
periods of chaos or uncertainty. Overly strong laws are dangerous.
Ironic, super-crazy version of a draconian punishment. Kafka – “In
The Penal Colony.” German jew in Prague.
Small town.
Draconian laws throughout history
KAFKA story
Draconian policies at airport screening, bullying policies
Conclusion: What gives rise to draconian laws?
Japan Passes
Draconian Secrecy
Law
by
Joieau
Follow
Tweet Email 20 Comments / 20 New
Japan has had some serious issues with leaks over the past two
years and eight months or so, what with three melted-through
nuclear power reactors and 4 reactor buildings blasted to
smithereens, leaving 4 overstuffed Spent Fuel Pools precariously
dangling 100 feet up in the air. Groundwater and coolant water
that has been in contact with molten cores somewhere south of
the basements is leaking to the tune of 400 metric tons per day
into the Pacific Ocean. There is no consensus on what might stop
or at least seriously diminish the leaks, and the world is
concerned.
So, what does the responsible national government do when
faced with such an unthinkable situation? Why, it passes a
draconian "State Secrets" law to prevent civil servants,
whistleblowers, journalists and citizens from talking about
unpleasant things, of course.
The excuse is, as always, 'National Security' and the efforts of PM
Shinzo Abe to strengthen Japan's role in the new 'global security'
market. Abe insists the new law is all about protecting the safety
of the people against the threat of being informed about things
related to defense, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counterterrorism. The punishment for revealing secrets about TPP
negotiations, melting/exploding nuclear plants and such is now
10 years in prison.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party says that the United
States has repeatedly "felt insecure" about sharing secret
information with Japan, and Washington applauded the new
law. U.S. Charge d'Affairs Kurt Tong announced, "It's a positive
step that would make Japan a "more effective alliance partner."
Conversely, Taro Yamamoto, a lawmaker in Japan's upper
house of parliament, said at a Tokyo press conference...
This secrecy law represents a coup d'etat by a particular group of
politicians and bureaucrats.
Yamamoto went on to say that the withholding of radiation data
after the Fukushima disaster showed the Japanese government
was predisposed to hiding information from its citizens and this
law would only make things worse. The Asahi Shimbun
newspaper compared the new law to "conspiracy" regulations in
pre-war Japan and said it could be used to prevent access to
facts on nuclear accidents. As if access to facts about nuclear
accidents were ever easy, anywhere in the world.
The public comment process in September demonstrated that
77% of the Japanese public opposed the legislation. Which, of
course, doesn't mean anything to the Japanese government
because... um... Olympics, TPP and the Brave New World and
and such.
Just a heads-up on fun developments in Japan, where frustration
about the unstoppable leaks at Fukushima Daiichi has not
stopped the Japanese government from stopping leaks about
those leaks (and a host of other things).
cruel
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Relief of Draco, the first legislator of Athens
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Kevin D. Williamson
Y
esterday, I wondered whether anybody in the Obama
administration knows what the word “draconian” means. I
do not think that they do.
“Draconian” refers not to the political structure of a race of
Doctor Who? aliens, but to the Athenian lawgiver Draco,
who lived during the seventh century b.c. and gave the
Greeks an important innovation: written laws. Prior to
Draco, the Athenian law was only an oral tradition subject
to ad-hocracy resulting in blood feuds. Draco had the laws
carved on tablets and displayed in public, so that nobody
would be ignorant of them. This was an enormously
significant milestone in Western culture, an important move
toward what we now call the rule of law, away from the
code of arbitrary power and might-makes-right justice.
Draco’s laws contained some important innovations, such
as distinguishing between murder with malice aforethought
and other kinds of homicide. That was a pretty big deal in
an era during which the inhabitants of the British Isles,
under whose culture the rule of law would reach its most
sophisticated expression, were still a good ways away from
writing much of anything at all.
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Draco’s laws were, alas, a little harsh: The death penalty
was common for many minor offenses and a great many
major offenses. Plutarch reports:
Death was the punishment for almost every offence, so that
even men convicted of idleness were executed, and those
who stole pot-herbs or fruits suffered just like sacrilegious
robbers and murderers. So that Demades afterwards made
the joke that Draco’s laws were not written with ink, but with
blood. It is said that Draco himself, when asked why he had
fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered
that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he
had no greater punishment for more important ones.
The written law was a step toward political equality, but
that goal was still pretty far away for Draco and his
contemporaries. One of the notable features of Draco’s
laws was that debts were handled differently depending
upon the relative social status of the creditor and the debtor.
A lowly man who owed money to a highborn man could be
forced into slavery for his creditor, but the reverse was not
true. Plutarch informs us that one of the celebrated Solon’s
great reforms was the abolition of debt slavery.
Unhappily for us, we have in our constitutional
jurisprudence managed to reinvent the pre-Draconian oral
law (what the hell do you think a “living constitution” is,
sunshine?) while enshrining its class distinctions.
Consider, for instance, our treatment of debt. Most debts
can be discharged in bankruptcy, but there are exceptions,
most of them debts to the state, including (famously)
student loans, taxes, fines, and government fees. Debts that
are not owed to the state but ordered by the state, including
restitution, court-ordered child support and alimony, etc.,
are generally held to be sacrosanct. (Alimony and childsupport debts are a particularly difficult subject, given the
history of parents’ being required to make payments that
are wildly disproportionate to their income, or even exceed
it, fathers being threatened with jail time over missed
payments for children that turn out not to be theirs, etc.
New York recently has moved toward reforming its
particularly bad laws on that subject.)
It may be that we are too lenient with some kinds of debt or
too strict with others, but it is difficult to elaborate a
standard holding that debts to the U.S. Treasury
automatically enjoy a higher standing than debts to Bank of
America without accepting an implicit rule that the state is
simply more important than its citizens — a class above the
commoners, if you will.
It isn’t just debt. In most states, assault is a more serious
crime if you assault a government employee than if you
assault a citizen. We’re all familiar with that rule as it
applies to police, but in Utah, for example, that principle
also applies to elected officials (and nurses, interestingly
enough). In New York, it is a more serious crime to assault
a subway engineer than it is to assault a subway passenger.
New York even runs a bounty system for those who assault
transit workers, a measure it does not offer for commoners.
At the same time, you can videotape the comings and
goings on a public street to your heart’s content — unless
you videotape a police officer at work. Police routinely
arrest citizens for videotaping them in action in public,
even though the federal courts have ruled that citizens have
a First Amendment right to do so.
The most dramatic illustration of this principle can be seen
in action as the Obama administration pulls out all the stops
to prosecute those who leak classified information while
the administration itself leaks classified information as a
matter of course, operating from the unique jurisprudence
of Richard Nixon: When the president does it, it isn’t
illegal.
Draco’s code dealt mostly with things like murder and debt,
and the Athenian government of the time, imperfect as it
was, had very little interest in telling citizens whether they
could add a room onto their homes or direct the education
of their own children. The entire Draconian legal code was
an improvement on what preceded it, and it was less
expansive than some of the footnotes to Obamacare.
Draconian laws? We should be so lucky.