by Russell Longcore
The term “Bread and Circuses†is credited to Juvenal, a Roman writer and satirist (AD 55-127). He was describing the Roman citizens’ enthusiasm for free food handouts and gladiatorial games at the Circus Maximus and later at the Colosseum. He felt that Romans had lost the capacity to govern themselves through their mindless self-gratification.
“Bread and Circuses†is a phrase that can accurately be used to describe the American population. Americans are so addicted to entertainment and personal pleasure that they ignore civic responsibility and gladly accept government authority with unflinching obedience.
Well, maybe some of us flinch a little. Reminds me of a bawdy story.
Three friends dared each other to go skydiving. They found a skydiving club and paid their money. After a short lesson, the instructor took them up to 8,000 feet and opened the door of the plane. The first two friends jumped, but the third friend was too scared.
The instructor yelled, “If you don’t jump right now, I’m going to rip off your pants, bend you over and have sex with you.â€
“Did you jump?†his friends asked him later.
“Well yes…a little at first,†was his reply.
Americans jumped “a little at first†after the Revolutionary War and up into the mid-1800s. Shays’ Rebellion happened in 1787, The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were written in 1798 an ‘99 by Jefferson in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Nullification Crisis happened in 1832. But by 1860, they were willing to allow Lincoln to make war upon the Southern States and completely ignore the Constitution. It was all downhill from then until now.
Thankfully, there are still some American patriots that jump when someone tries to attack them from behind, so to speak.
Just as Juvenal observed in his day, so I believe that Americans have lost the capacity to govern themselves.
Actions speak louder than words. Stated another way, if you want to learn what people truly value, don’t listen to what they say, only watch what they do.
The majority of American citizens want socialism. They may say that they are against socialism but they continue to elect and re-elect politicians that enact socialistic laws and regulations. They do not storm Washington when those politicians violate the Constitution and commit treasonous, criminal acts. They do not impeach and prosecute the criminals in Washington.
Naw…“Trueblood†is on TV. “Harry Potter†is in the theaters. Football season is just around the corner. Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett just died and we must mourn them indefinitely.
America is on the auction block, and the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal Government are the auctioneers. The American citizens expect their elected officials to “bring home the bacon,†which means get more Federal dollars coming back home than they are sending to Washington. American citizens want more than their share.
America wants socialism.
Over the past 100 years, American citizens have become addicted to the money that comes to them from Washington. It comes as fat defense contracts to little machine shops, farm subsidies, student loans, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, The GI Bill, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security…and the list goes on. Because most Americans have their taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks, they don’t feel the weight of their tax burden. So, it FEELS like benefits are flowing from Washington back to home.
America wants socialism.
In 2008 and 2009, the Federal Government nationalized the banking industry, the investment industry, a giant insurance company and part of the automobile industry. America barely made a peep.
America wants socialism.
Afore-mentioned Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the biggest entitlement programs in the history of the planet, have become as familiar as the air we breathe. Conservatives in Washington accepted the big social welfare programs long ago, and don’t lift a finger any more to fight against them…or even try to control their budgets. In fact, some of the biggest spending legislation ever enacted came from Washington while Conservatives controlled the House and Senate, and Republicans lived in the White House.
America wants socialism.
America totally forgave George Bush for lying the USA into a Middle East war. American has completely accepted an ever-expanding worldwide military, and embraced the wars in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. They festoon everything with yellow ribbons, and “support the troopsâ€â€¦even when the troops are murdering foreign civilians and violating the Constitution with their actions abroad. (By the way, a tenet of communism was to spread communism by military action. Americans think we’re trying to spread democracy.)
America wants socialism.
Washington politicians have gutted what was left of the Constitution since 2001. Individual liberties have been destroyed. The Patriot Act was enacted, the Transportation Safety Administration made airports into “no-rights zones,†and the Department of Homeland Security has vastly expanded its power over American citizens. All done with only a few whimpers and few objections.
America wants socialism.
The Obama Administration is taking this window of opportunity to take over health care and health insurance in the USA. American citizens have watched the nation’s insurance companies destroy the health insurance industry. There are over 45 million Americans today without any health insurance at all. So, Obama and Congress have the political cover to do a government takeover. American citizens are exhausted from fighting to get health insurance. They want health insurance at any cost, and are willing to trust Uncle Sam to run the healthcare and health insurance system.
Americans want socialism. And Americans are getting socialism as quickly as Washington can deliver it.
I always used to think that America was being misused and abused by Washington. I have changed my thinking about that. I believe that Washington is simply giving America what it wants.
Perhaps the Washington politicos are the most astute observers of human behavior. They are certainly the best at survival.
Curious, though…that last sentence also aptly describes the relationship between a leech and its host.
“It is hard NOT to write satire.†~Juvenal , Roman satirist, writing about the Rome of his day)
Russell D. Longcore, owner and editor of DumpDC, also owns Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company and Cornerstone Claim Services in Marietta, Georgia
Copyright 2010 Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Sadly, so true. Or, more correctly than "America wants socialism" is the statement "America has socialism". We have it, and most people want it. The article raises a good point. For everyone who says they do not want socialism, pose to them the question: what benefits are you willing to give up? This holds true at the state level also. It is difficult to project a valid argument for state sovereignty when your state is dependent on federal dollars. What are you willing to give up?
This really hit home this weekend when my boys threw a fit because ol' dad wouldn't buy $2 energy drinks before their basketball game when there is a perfectly good water fountain within 20 feet of our bench. Each of us, individually, has to get off the money train and start standing up each and every time the opportunity presents itself.
Very similar to something I posted on my wall a few weeks ago.
I do not agree with the idea we want socialism. We have succumbed to the slow erosion of our freedoms. If anything Obama may have done this country a favor by waking us up. I am guilty of sitting back. I always voted, so I was a good citizen. Then the Tea Parties made me take a look at what I have lost and awakened me. I think that has happened to many.
Voting has little to do with socialism. All it takes is one to sell his soul for a passage to the new country, America. They called it slavery, back then. Or one can sell his soul today for others gain. Employees live under tyranny. Agreed upon slavery of sorts.
Americans only look at the moment and how it affects them personally. That is what Samuel Adams addressed in this quote,
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. – Samuel Adams
If Americans would reject socialism they accept the responsibility of freedom. The rejection of the following requires responsibility to freedom.
Example: How about everyone pulling their checking and savings accounts out of any bailout banks? Or refusing cash for clunkers? Or buying from a bailout auto maker which also means dealership? Refusing low interest loans(fiat money)? Social Security? Unemployment? Medicare? Ag payments? Guaranteed SBA loans? If Americans reject. There is no need for slavery of taxation or government regulation. Except everyone one of us is guilty for dipping into one of these at one time or another if not still dipping as we call it a right. A right given to us by our slave master government.
Americans are guilty of stupidity and fools to ever think they get something for nothing. Or that it is moral for someone to be robbing one for another. Which is what socialism is.
Are you brave enough to stand for your freedom and reject the government hand outs? Or do you want your rights of enslavement?
I was thinking of posting the article until I read: "The instructor yelled, “If you don’t jump right now, I’m going to rip off your pants, bend you over and have sex with you.”
“Did you jump?” his friends asked him later.
“Well yes…a little at first,” was his reply.
I think those comments were inappropriate for my taste, and I would not post and use the article on my web page at: http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/547
Another analogy to bring out the relevent truths could have been used, other wise I thought it was a good article.
Dear Mr. Haymin:
Simply delete the story if it offends your sensibilities. The rest of the article will flow on.
Russ Longcore, Author
Agreed! You can make a point without lowering yourself to this level. Good grief!
Good article – base way of illustrating it. You know, that's another thing about the Roman empire – their lack of morales!
Rick, your experience reminds me of my own kids who seem to think that if you are hungry, you jump into the car and go to the nearest fast food outlet despite my constant entreaties to them to make something from the goods we have on hand.
When they were small and we were on the go in the car frequently, I unfortunately got into the habit of drive-thru's so that I didn't have to load the kids in and out of the car or stop and go home to make a meal. By the time I figured out to pack food for the trip, they had already become very opinionated about what they were 'hungry' for. It was a real battle and I didn't always stand my ground!
JMCaul, it is difficult. I try to remember that if I can just nicely redirect they'll just forget about it in about 3.7 seconds
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Are you on facebook?
If this article is true, the only hope is that those who do NOT want socialism will congregate ("birds of a feather") in certain states. The difference in the economies of those states, over time, should speak for itself (this may already be true, comparing Texas and California).
Re. the "addicted to entertainment" comment, I agree and I must confess some addiction of my own in that respect. I've lost almost all respect for David Letterman over the years, but I believe he did observe that "Americans are the most overentertained people in the history of the world."
I completely agree with this point, and anticipate it to a certain extent for the future of myself, my family, and my business. In fact, just yesterday I was telling one of my executive level employees, that if the health care bill isn't rejected by the state of Arizona, I will be physically moving to the state that does reject it, and I'll be taking my business with me. If there is going to be a movement to go back to Constitutional principles as the founders intended them, then as I see it there will have to come a time where liberty minded individuals will congregate together physically in a few states to lead the way. We are just too far gone, and the system has become too corrupted, to make an effective stand while we continue to be minorities in our disparate geographical locations.
This article is mistaken. It presumes most Americans know what socialism is and – when informed – opt for it. Polls say otherwise.
The truth is much simpler and more annoying. Most Americans today, and this is actually what permits socialism in this country to grow – have no consistent philosophy whatever. After three generations of a Dewey-designed educational system, abetted by the major media, most Americans are just extremely concrete-bound pragmatists.
I agree that Americans are mostly getting the government they deserve, for not being alert, but I don't believe they understand it as socialism and ask for it.
This article is mistaken. It presumes most Americans know what socialism is and – when informed – opt for it. Polls say otherwise.
The truth is much simpler and more annoying. Most Americans today, and this is actually what permits socialism in this country to grow – have no consistent philosophy whatever. After three generations of a Dewey-designed educational system, abetted by the major media, most Americans are just extremely concrete-bound pragmatists.
The America that we think we live in is only an illusion and has been for a very long time. I'm not sure if it ever existed at all or it was just closer to reality all those many years ago. I do know we were all raised to believe in the illusion; however, even that is definitely slipping.
I suspect we still live in the Roman Empire today and are no more free than they were back then. How was life less free for the slaves than it is for those who believe they have to live as they have been programmed to live, go to college, get a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke), and buy, buy, buy?
Maybe people don't get fed to the lions any more, but we have so many laws that everyone is guilty of breaking something, tax everything excessively, require licenses and permits to put a roof over our head or make a living, are subject to having anything we think we own taken away by government without proof of guilt, have to carry "papers" even when walking where we live and under the Patriot Act anyone can be made to disappear never to be heard from again.
How can so many be so oblivious to what is going on?
That's a very nihilistic view. We were much freer than the Roman empire until FDR started eroding our freedoms with government intervention. And contrary to media reports, a lot of people don't go down that road of college, job, spend. There are plenty of people that take over the family business, or do get a job but stay off the treadmill. Don't believe everything you read.
It started much earlier than FDR! Ole' "honest abe" is where the buck stops! The country our founding fathers intended for us to have died the day lincoln called for 75,000 troops to invade and subjugate sovereign States. This country has been pinned together with bayonets from that day to this.
Nice story, but it doesn't make entire sense. If I want to argue the power of the blood of Christ, I'm not going to repeat long live the devil time and time again. The only people listening to me at that point are the choir. And people who like to see America wants socialism repeated.
Bread and circuses is a quotation of Caligula when he was asked how he could handle the latest scandal to his emperorship and survive. "Give the Roman people bread and circuses," he proclaimed, knowing Romans only too well.
The only power of this movement is to argue with finesse and principled talk. To reach beyond. To inspire States to secede. After the horrors of the Oklahoma city bombing and 9.11, it is the only hope for America today. Otherwise the fed will shred the Constitution entirely. Halliburton is already building 'camps' inside America today. Time is getting short. Let's reach out to the unconverted but true-hearted, not ourselves.
I don’t understand how this is an American phenomenon. Look at soccer in Europe, and Hollywood is popular all over the world. I think it is a Human condition that really hasn’t changed since the Roman times. The real question is, why do people have a need to identify with the boy who is successful at throwing the ball, or with a winning team wearing numbers? We like to judge and we learn their names only to create heros or doofs.
We are social Beings by nature, and there are those who exploit that condition. Few are wakeing to the explotation, but are unable to identify their exploiters.
If America is the last to fall, is it really our fault? Are we are the doofs who missed the winning shot at the buzzer. Is it really all lost?
what exactly is immoral about the article? A little tawdry maybe, but immoral? Murder, abortion, cheating, lying, are immoral actions. Not telling a dirty joke!
Though, I appreciate the position the author takes, and while I love this blog, both in purpose and in content, I have to disagree completely that "America wants socialism". Does a driver who has fallen asleep at the wheel want to kill himself, his own family in his vehicle and the other potential victims in other vehicles? Is that what he wants?
America is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the loss of their freedoms and the rise of socialism within the United States. They simply don't know what's happening around them. The have lived in a society that from their birth has coddled them and cradled them. Then whenever there is a metaphorical loud bang that wakes them up, there are things in place to rock them back to sleep, and a warm security blanket to make them feel at ease.
Parents have failed their children. Teachers have failed their students. On the same note, though our politicians carry a huge responsibility in the failure that we are currently living in, they too are asleep as well. Some politicians erroneously think that they are doing their constituents a favor by "playing the political game". They have no clue what the Constitution really is set up to do. Keep in mind that they too are products of the society that they grew up in.
What we are seeing is a cycle of human nature. It has always happened the same way. It is happening now. Once we safely pass through this "trying time", it will inevitably happen again. Tyrants will rise, and the people will be "disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed".
So, should we be surprised at all to find ourselves in this mess. No. But whether tomorrow or 50 years from now (heaven forbid), the time will come that we will recognize that it is "[our] right, it is [our] duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for [our] future security".
The only people we have to blame are those of us who are awake. Not those who are still asleep.
“The only people we have to blame are those of us who are awake. Not those who are still asleep.”
Brent, how so? If someone is told their liberty is being confiscated, and if that someone doesn’t care to check the documented facts, how is that anyone elses’ fault? What should be done next, pummel him til he believes?
Dave, I think he means that there are so many people so deeply 'asleep' through various addictions that they are primarily concerned with daily survival. My own personal view on this leads to TV. We are on our 3rd or 4th generation of people that have spent a decent amount of their lives zoned out in front of TV's rather than interacting with other human beings. I fall in this trap so easily with my kids because I was an only child and the TV was used excessively as a passifier by my mom. It surely sounds like a weak excuse to someone who wasn't raised like that but its a very very powerful drug.
Rick, I agree and also struggle with that addiction. Entertainment is one thing, but I find it sad that sooo many can be easily programed. Still, I refuse to accept responsibilty for the condition of others. I want to help, but help is only effective where it is welcomed. It’s bad enough to be viewed as a “nut case”.
As divinely created human beings, in every culture, God allowed us free will. We choose apathy which leads to known consequences. Its that simple.
My reservation about people wanting socialism is the following. When people are questioned about capitalism versus socialism by pollsters, for example, I suspect that pollsters are not asking people to first define these systems. And if it turns out that the vast majority of “pro-socialists” don’t actually know what capitalism and socialism are and the differences between them, then these systems might as well be the names of football teams, misguided people merely rooting for their “team” based on political correctness and peer pressure.
It is all about greed and stupidity.Look back before going forward is the only way to learn from mistakes.We take ,take and take some more,thinking it is our right,but what happened to hard work and honesty ?We have all sat back and let this hell open up.Because we were all concerned only about #1(ourselves),most of us had somewhat comfortable lives,meaning we were we able to have the things we needed to survive plus some little added comforts.But then we wanted more,so we took out morgages that we knew we couldn't pay,because owning a home was no longer a priviledge it was our right,forget about hard work and the American dream.And we could "keep up with the Jones's" with a little plastic card.Well we all did this and the only way to get out of this is if we all look back and see what our part in this was and fix it.The government owns us,they have been working on this for years and now they about have us at our lowest point.But "We the people" can do something we can stand together as one,we can help one another and we can vote them ALL out.There are two types of people,those who sit back and watch things happen and those who make things happen.
Sorry for the duplicate posts; a technical glitch the Administrator and I hope has been resolved.
Hmmm. I've been a "protester" all spring, summer. I am attending events on the Constitution, and what we can do nullify this health care bill, and will continue to fight. However, nothing has quite hit home the way this article has. I was worried about my childrens future, yes. But part of that was still the Medicare program which I believe will be gone. Or Social Security. Which they will have paid into for years. OK. Point taken. How in the world do we go back to none of this being available without it happening because of our current government is taking it all away? Meaning Socialism. It's been available for so long. This article is a real eye opener even for people and groups like mine who are fighting against big government! More work on our part sure needs to be done. And education. If there's any time. I'm not sure there is. We're doing as much as we can with what we have to work with. I'm hopeful.