Modern Day “Bread and Circuses”
- Todd A. McKinley
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (AD 55–128) known in modern times as Juvenal, was a Roman poet who authored the Satires, which was/is a collection of satirical poems, which addressed real and perceived issues facing Roman society at the time. In Satires X (yes that’s Roman numeral 10) Juvenal observed that commoners can be placated with panem et circenses, in Latin, translated to English as bread and circuses. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition bread and circuses mean, “a palliative offered especially to avert potential discontent.” In other words, the public exchanged their civic duties for things and goodies that the elites were happy to give to them in exchange for not drawing their ire.
Juvenal offered his thoughts after observing Roman life at the time, as he looked around, he observed how the common people allowed themselves to be essentially bought off or at least allowed themselves to be distracted by those in the senatorial class or and upper class as they regularly supported games that came with free or very cheap food and other public giveaways like free grain and other items akin to our modern welfare system, all which had the effect of keeping the public distracted by things that aren’t central to true public life. In other words, if some immediate needs and wants were satisfied, then the citizen simply went along, even when facing bad decisions by their so-called leaders, after all, the more one could get for free, the more they allowed the ruling elites to get away with and the cycle devolved Rome itself until the esteem and virtue of civic life wasn’t.
Today, just as in Juvenal’s time, our culture seems to be circling a drain, people rarely take pride in civic duties and we seem to elect those with name recognition, who in most cases give away money and other goods from the public treasury then force the citizenry who pay any form of taxes to pony up just a bit more, after all, they call it paying one’s “fair share,” which is a misnomer. We’re to the point that those gaming the system believe they’ve earned something and don’t remotely view themselves as a big part of our collective problems.
President John F. Kennedy (JFK) a Democrat said in his inaugural address on January 20th, 1961, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” fast forward just a couple of decades and many who voted for JFK in their younger days began voting Republican, or as President Reagan said, "I didn't leave the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party left me." Now nearly every Democrat who runs for President callously boast about “spreading the wealth around,” as if the suckling pig that is the federal government wouldn’t get their beak wet from that as well, but not the point. Just think, Senator Joseph McCarthy was mild to milk toast compared to many in Washington today.
Not to go further into the weeds, but how have we arrived at this point? How is it that we’ve constructed for ourselves a luscious proverbial smorgasbord of sports and entertainment at our fingertips, where billions are being made from virtual nontangible ones and zeros, where lives revolve around the latest fight or game, where viral videos set weird trends. We also fall for every crypto venture believing it will make multimillionaires in minutes where people exchange real money for the latest crypto coin that’s designed to steal your real money and thus creating multimillionaires in minutes, just not you and nothing is truly done about it, after all, you should have known the risk, especially when someone from Hollywood is promoting it, including their latest tequila venture. Think about it, how many poor souls nearly every day sell their soul for a shot at 15 minutes of fame, not the guarantee of 15 minutes of fame like many once sold their souls for, no matter how shameful or sinful they have to get, they want it and are eager to see it to fruition no matter the cost and we gleefully lap it all up.
We shouldn’t care what someone else is doing and where they’re doing it, nor should we go around comparing our lives to those portraying a false sense of who they are all for likes, views, thumbs ups and whatever other emoji you can think of, it’s perverted. We allow those who are truly prostituting themselves to influence our lives as if the glamour they’re portraying is somehow real, in most cases it’s someone selling their selves on any number of websites and we glamorize it daily, this includes parents monetizing their kids on social media.
Speaking of real smorgasbords, at nearly every corner in Anytown, USA there’s endless fast-food options, deserts, drinks of all kinds with countless calories that’s far more than most people need in a day, all being consumed in one meal. Also, in many cases a lot of drugs can be found on far too many of those corners and in our schools as well. Also, our food shopping habits have changed from fresh and healthy food options when families cooked, ate together and had real discussions, to what we find these days which is often a lukewarm hours old hamburger in a bag and a screen to stare at until bedtime, no need to go run off any calories outside. In fact, kid’s bikes are now electric, so there goes that bit of exercise. Besides, why exercise when one can take some pills and a few injections every day, that’s allowed to be advertised as being somehow healthy. Many times, we don’t even leave the home, we simply order our meals on an ap that delivers to your front door or apartment toot sweet. The processed, saturated fat filled, sugary goodness that makes us temporarily feel good when we eat it is also killing us for many reasons, far faster than Juvenal could have imagined.
At this point we can continue to allow the modern-day bread and circuses to destroy us, from our diets which is destroying our health, creating a national security dilemma given how many can’t qualify for service, and overwhelming our healthcare system by far too many easily preventable diseases and other health concerns that can be reversed by moderate diet changes, but not my main point.
The real point is we have the power to steer America towards a brighter star. One thing you can do is simply do your part and vote for better people to represent us at all levels, especially in Washington, after all Election Day is upon us and most candidates sell more bread and circuses.
“VOLS: Veterans Offering Lifelong Service”
Todd A. McKinley, BA, MSL
SFC, USA-Ret.
