What Does "Bread With Circus" Mean?
Many people have asked me about the meaning of the site's name.
In Roman times, Caesar quite accurately realized that the unwashed masses (that's you and me)
could be kept pacified through a policy of "bread and circuses." (panem et circenses
for the Latin buffs) First you make sure that the people can find enough food to eat.
Then you distract them with mindless pageantry. Gladiator shows and chariot races seemed
to suffice. Even with barbarians at the city gates, Roman citizens sat in the coliseum,
stupefied by displays of meaningless violence, the glory of Empire. Rome fell. Today,
2/3 of us in the West are overweight on deep fried fat. We watch "reality television" while
our "forces of freedom" slaughter innocents for distant oil fields. When an important issue
arises, we get distracted remarkably easily by celebrity justice, fear of the next super-bug,
by the culture of consumption. Our leaders have deceived us, and our freedom erodes but we
don't seem to care. History has taught us that all empires fall, usually because they rot from within.
Now we're circling the drain. We haven't much time.
A post-Roman coin features Attila the Hun, the bearded evil-doer of the era.
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