Tyranny is an autocratic form of rule in which one individual exercised power without any legal restraint. The word tyranny is usually pejorative and connotes the illegitimate possession or use of such power.
The recent shut down of our society by state and local government with little or no input from those being governed falls under the classic definition of tyranny.
The most-significant change in the conception of tyranny from the ancient world to the modern lies in the role of the people under a tyrant.
In ancient times tyrants tended to be popular, because the people saw them as upholding their interests. Tyrants often introduced measures to improve the economic and social status of the poor; it was the aristocracy (who wrote the histories) who tended to oppose tyranny, because, in bypassing the constitution, tyranny threatened their traditional privileges.
But as absolute rule became established in the Roman Empire, the terms of debate shifted, focusing on the question of when monarchic power became tyrannical in nature.
From that springs the idea of tyranny in its modern sense: a situation in which the power of the ruler outweighs that of the ruled. That definition allows even a representative government to be labeled a tyranny.
A Bob Dylan protest song from 1965 has lyrics that could have just as easily been written today.
“A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be nothing more than something they invest in.