Panem Et Circenses What They Stole From Us – Blog Post #2 2/8/19
What They Stole From Us – Blog Post #2 2/8/19
Panem Et Circenses – Bread and Circuses
There is so much news this week that I will not be covering this as in depth as I had intended. But I still wanted to give my take on the Superbowl and the stunning similarities between Ancient Rome and America. Why this obsession with the Circus and free bread helped collapse Rome and how its helping to collapse the West.
There is nothing inherently wrong with liking football or any other sports. But its time people understand it for what it is, or rather it has become. It is a way to tap into inherent tribalism that we as humans cannot avoid. Its natural and a hard-coded survival mechanism. False tribes, false warriors, false warrior culture and false simulated battles with false victories. It triggers a natural impulse in Men. The impulses of call to war to defend your homeland or the acquisition of resources. Except this is not your tribe. You tribe is your family, your country, your religion and your local community. Even to a lesser extent, your ideology and race can even be considered tribes. Instead, that instinct is being channeled away from the thing it is meant for to something that has no bearing on your life. When this natural safety mechanism is being triggered at something that doesn’t mean anything, you are less likely to have that war footing reaction towards the things that ‘need protecting’ or ‘resources that require acquisition’.
As things began to descend into chaos in Rome, the people were provided grain and circuses. The spectacle was put on free of charge and the grain flowed freely to the plebs. The people were no longer participating in the Democratic process as they did during the Roman Republic, this was the Roman Empire after all. Gone were the days of the Republic and numbered were the days of the Empire. The populace required bigger and bigger spectacles to maintain the distraction and the spectacles did grow. But like Cicero (also attributed to Col. Ben Moreell) wrote;
“The evil was not in the bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease.”
Is the contrast to today’s society not apparent? Our addiction to spectacle. Our need to be fed for free and entertained to death. The increasing scale of spectacle that it takes to satiates us. The increasing degeneracy and lack of righteous indignation at the degradation of society. The breaking of your morals and morale. The worse thing about this contrast is that we do this to ourselves. We could just turn the TV off. Not watch. Not devote the time and energy to the spectacle of professional televised sports. To turn down the circus and time it takes away to the things that matter in society.
Take back your Sunday. Go back to church if that’s your thing. Spend time with your family. If you don’t have traditions, start one. Take back your tribe at home. Think about all the things you could have been doing with your family then do them. After you reconnect with that most fundamental of tribes, you can expand it outwards. Throw a block party and meet your neighbors. Start a tradition and continue it if you were not raised with them. There is a beauty of tradition that we have forgot. Tradition continues after you are dead and gone. The tradition will outlast you and can last until people don’t even know your name. But the beauty is that your created and participated in something that was bigger than you and outlasted you. This is more rewarding than watching millionaires play ball with other millionaires. For the profit of billionaires who run this ‘non-profit’ organization. Inside of multibillion-dollar stadiums that you payed for with your taxes. You have dilapidated infrastructure, but you have the greatest modern Roman Coliseums your money can buy.
As far as the ‘free bread’ in this equation is concerned, we will discuss that in this blog at length sometime in the future. But, as it relates to the Panem et Circensus, as in Rome so it is in The United States. Nothing is free. The welfare, while not exactly tied to the Circus in modern times has the same effect it did then. The fed pigs get slaughtered, do they not? Welfare keeps those indebted to it, voting for it. Maintaining the power of the Empire and the consent of populace to the injustice the Empire gives out. Reject this. There is no judgement towards those on this welfare. Seek to get away from it though. You can’t see the trap when it is feeding you. Do you seek to better your career, education, skills and circumstances if your life is subsidized? No. You don’t. You need to live, so eat while you have it like the football critique, I am not aiming to pass judgment. Seek a sustainable solution for yourself. Never forget that government dependency is the currency of the left to control that government. An Ouroboros, a serpent devouring its tail, a symbol for infinity. Just like this system of control is meant to last, infinity.
Yes, I understand “muh sportsball is stoopid” comments were all the rage last week. I am not trying to shit on people who like football. Enjoy what you enjoy. But think about the false tribalism aspects. Figure out if, for you, this may be a waste of energy that wouldn’t be better spent on something that matters a little more. It’s going to be different for every individual but if this didn’t have some truth to it, we wouldn’t see the effects of the bread and circus from Rome repeating themselves here. Your families could use more of you anyway. Spend more time creating and cultivating that strong family, and you will want to oversee getting your own grain, as it were. Why would you take the free grain if you are aware it will cost you the freedom and drive?
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Source Links:
NFL is a 501c6
https://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/12/tax-exempt-the-nfls-nonprofit-status-by-the-numbers.html
Tax Payers pay for stadiums
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/22/nfl-stadiums-cost-taxpayers-billions-of-dollars/
Why Tax Payers Shouldn’t
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnotte/2018/08/17/your-tax-dollars-at-play-how-stadium-tax-scams-pick-fans-pockets/#14476d286fb9
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-07-16/four-reasons-taxpayers-should-never-subsidize-stadiums
Cicero
http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/Marcus_Tullius_Cicero
Also accredited to
Col. Ben Moreell, "Of Bread and Circuses", The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32
Juvenal - Satura X
https://www.ancient-literature.com/rome_juvenal_satire_X.html
Similarities between Rome and America
https://fee.org/articles/of-bread-and-circuses/