Economy, politics and idiots
- With the decline of Mycenic civilization, in the Dark Age of Greece and in the Archaic Age, words also defined the difference between the public and the private. From the domestic economy to the politics of the public square and the private sphere of oxen.
Peloponnese, about 3,200 years ago. Natural disasters, internal conflicts and attacks by the Peoples of the Sea led to the decline of Mystical civilization. The big buildings, the writing, the commercial networks… went out and the ancient Dark Age of Greece began.
The rupture of the monarchic structure of micenic power and the isolation caused by peninsular orography led to oikos. Oikos means house, but in its broadest sense: the building itself, the family, the rest of the family’s assets (livestock, land, slaves…) and the laborers who worked there. It was therefore a basic economic entity of the society of the time. And from there comes the economy, of oikonomy, oikos (house) and nemein (manages).
It was only the idiot who dealt with private and private interests, who ignored public affairs. The Greeks attached great importance to public life and therefore the word 'idiotes' acquires a negligible tone
Driven by common interests and the need to protect themselves from external threats, the oikos were merging and a new form of organization emerged: the polis or the urban state. Aristotle said the polis were sets of oikos united for the well-being of people. After the Dark Ages, Archaic Greece was formed by those politically, socially and economically independent communities. But despite the strong competition between the polis, they shared the same language – dialects – religion and culture in general.
The political word comes from Polis. Originally, politics was everything related to urban states. When Aristotle said that man was a political zoon, it meant that man was a social animal living in an urban state and under the laws. Therefore, political and public were synonyms.
In search of antonyms appears the word idiotes, which means private in Ancient Greek. Therefore, originally, the idiot was only the one dealing with private and private interests, which ignored public affairs. The Greeks attached great importance to public life and, therefore, the word idiotes became invaluable.
And so, as they woke up from the Dark Ages, as Greek civilization developed, they built the foundations of European civilization. And politicians etymologically antonyms and idiots were slowly getting closer.
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