Bread And Circuses

(Conspiracy Nation, 8/14/02) -- At times, the phrase "bread and circuses" is evoked to sorrowfully describe the American citizenry. The term, "bread and circuses", is an ancient one, dating back to Roman times.

Thanks to the efforts of Renaissance-era progressive-type scholars, Roman authors were rescued from the oblivion of dust, neglect, and time. The manuscripts had lain forgotten in medieval monasteries until enlightened researchers independently began rescuing the various parchments:

The dust on the hands of the searchers "was a devastating indictment of monkish librarians who had allowed the classical heritage to decay..."
"When Boccaccio visited the great Benedictine library of Monte Cassino, he found it a room without a door, with grass growing on the window sills, and the manuscripts covered with dust, torn and mutilated. Profoundly dejected, and in tears, he asked one of the monks how such desecrations could have been permitted, and was told that the monks would tear off strips of parchment, to be made into psalters for boys or amulets for women, just to make a little money."
Poggio Bracciolini "made forays into monasteries in Switzerland, southern Germany, and eastern France and returned laden with invaluable manuscripts and reports of indescribable neglect." (Source: The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, by Peter Gay. New York: Knopf, 1966)

Among the Roman authors rescued from oblivion was Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (ca. 60 A.D. - 140 A.D.), commonly known today as Juvenal. Satire X, lines 77 through 80 of his book, Iuvenalis Saturae (Satires of Juvenal), is the origin of the term, "bread and circuses":

iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli vendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium fasces legiones omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses.

Now That No One Buys Our Votes

Last week Conspiracy Nation received a mailing from Congress Critter Tim Johnson. "Hmmm.... Haven't heard from old Tim in two years. I wonder why he's sent this now?" Yes, it's election time and old Tim wants your vote.

Old Tim seems to still be "buying" the votes, of some at least. Seen in his mass mailing is that he cares about the seniors. The senior citizens vote, so they are catered to -- or is it that the senior citizens are catered to, and so they vote? One hand washes the other in the cozy world of Congress Critters and the powerful Association of Retired Persons. The seniors, part of the "Greatest Generation", are not dummies: They know which side their bread is buttered on.

Old Tim cares about "education" also. In Juvenal's time, "no one buys our votes"; but in our own time the powerful National Education lobby pays heed that they get a piece of the pie.

No pictures occur in Tim Johnson's mass mailing of Old Tim caring about the working poor. Those folks are so busy working they have little time for politics. And those folks are so poor they can't afford a powerful lobby to demand a payoff for their votes.

Why won't the working poor get hep to the political deal? Maybe it's beneath their dignity to awaken to slimey realities. But the "greatest generation" has no such qualms: just look at your paycheck and see how much of it is going to them. The senior citizens, by and large, are definitely the "greatest" when it comes to wheeling-and-dealing with those who want their votes.

Bread And Circuses

Substitute beer and beef for bread. Substitute professional sports for circuses. The public casts off its cares. It abdicates its role in government. The "greatest generation" likes bread and circuses also, but they are hep on how to milk the system. The plebeians (working poor)...

...are too "dumbed down" by overwork and bad "education" to connect-the-dots and see how they too can sell their votes, just like the "greatest generation" has been doing so well and for so long?
...are too idealistic to grasp how worldly politics can be: the smoke-filled rooms, the nod-and-the-wink, the motto of politics: "Where's mine??"
...are already so overworked and exhausted, defeated by an older and cannier "greatest generation", that they embrace a misery of booze and mindless television?
...all of the above?

"Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses."

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