Tyrant

A tyrant (Greek τύραννος, tyrannos), in its modern English usage, is an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution, or one who has usurped legitimate sovereignty. Often described as a cruel character, a tyrant defends his position by oppressive means, tending to control almost everything in the state. The original Greek term, however, merely meant an authoritarian sovereign without reference to character, bearing no pejorative connotation during the Archaic and early Classical periods. However, it was clearly a negative word to Plato, and on account of the decisive influence of philosophy on politics, its negative connotations only increased, continuing into the Hellenistic period.

Plato and Aristotle define a tyrant as "one who rules without law, and uses extreme and cruel tactics—against his own people as well as others". It is defined further in the Encyclopédie as a usurper of sovereign power who makes his subjects the victims of his passions and unjust desires, which he substitutes for laws. During the seventh and sixth centuries BC, tyranny was often looked upon as an intermediate stage between narrow oligarchy and more democratic forms of polity. However, in the late fifth and fourth centuries BC, a new kind of tyrant, the military dictator, arose, specifically in Sicily.

Tyranny (Julian Casablancas+The Voidz album)

Tyranny is the first studio album by American band Julian Casablancas+The Voidz, which was released on September 23, 2014 by Casablancas's label, Cult Records. The first single from the album, the 11-minute track "Human Sadness", was released on September 2, 2014. The music video for the second single "Where No Eagles Fly" was directed by guitarist Jeramy "Beardo" Gritter. On September 19, Tyranny was made available to stream on the websites of Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media.

The album was placed 50th in NME's Top 50 Albums Of 2014 list.

Reception

Rolling Stone gave the album 3.5 stars, calling it "the sound of a man shedding his skin. Not pretty, but more compelling for it."Paste gave it 6.0, while Exclaim! gave it 8 out of 10, calling it "a seriously sad album...compelling." Lucas Villa of AXS awarded four out of five stars, writing, "Casablancas continues to exercise his experimental muscle in the most raucous ways with The Voidz in tow." Benji Taylor of Clash Magazine gave the album 7/10, calling it "a weirdly wonderful mesh of awkward time signatures, unconventional song structures and, in general, unbridled madness".

Tyranny (TV series)

Tyranny is an American drama and political thriller web series that premiered on March 11, 2010 on KoldCast TV. Written and directed by John Beck Hofmann, the series is centered on a man who, after volunteering for a neurological experiment at UC Berkeley in 1999, finds himself having visions of a troubling future and must understand what the visions mean before that future comes to pass.

Hofmann has said that the movies Twelve Monkeys, The Game, Manchurian Candidate, and Kafka were influences on Tyranny.

Characters

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht (German pronunciation: [kʁɪsˈtalnaχt]; English: "Crystal Night") or Reichskristallnacht [ˌʁaɪçs.kʁɪsˈtalnaχt], also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, Reichspogromnacht [ˌʁaɪçs.poˈɡʁoːmnaχt] or simply Pogromnacht [poˈɡʁoːmnaχt], and Novemberpogrome [noˈvɛmbɐpoɡʁoːmə], was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.

Estimates of the number of fatalities caused by the pogrom have varied. Early reporting estimated that 91 Jewish people were murdered during the attacks. Modern analysis of German scholarly sources by historians such as Richard J. Evans puts the number much higher. When deaths from post-arrest maltreatment and subsequent suicides are included, the death toll climbs into the hundreds.

Kristallnacht (album)

Kristallnacht is an album by John Zorn first released in 1993 on the Japanese Eva label and subsequently in 1995 on Zorn's own Tzadik Records label.

Background

Zorn's compositions for the album were based around the events before, during, and following the infamous Night of Broken Glass and represented his first musical exploration of his Jewish cultural heritage.

Zorn has stated:

It’s tied together with passion and research. Every Jew has to come to grips with the holocaust in some kind of way and that was my statement, that’s how I did it. I do not need to do it again (…) it meant a lot to me. It was like a whole lifetime of denying my Jewish heritage coming out in one piece -- John Zorn on BBC Jazz File (July 2000)

Reception

The Allmusic review by Joslyn Layne awarded the album 4½ stars stating "John Zorn has created a musical work that powerfully represents the different stages of this historical event... Zorn's forceful undertaking is realized through the expert and passionate musicianship". Guy Peters stated "Kristallnacht is an attempt at a musical recreation of one of the darkest chapters of the Nazi reign, with music ranging from fairly conventional roots music to extreme near-industrial chaos... Zorn has never aimed at major popularity, preferring total independence above all, and this is what makes an album like Kristallnacht possible... Luckily there are several tracks in which he finds a much more impressive and bearable balance between disturbing noise and affecting beauty, a combination that’s characteristic of several of his releases. Or maybe it’s about disturbing beauty and affecting noise, I’m not entirely sure".