Panem et Circenses

In His Name, the Most High

Literally, from the Latin, meaning: "Bread and Circuses".

Basically, a policy used by the politicians of Rome, during its heyday, and leading to its decline. The politicians placated the masses by making sure they were well fed, and well entertained. They were selected, elected, not on who would be the best public servant, but on who would provide the most entertainment, and make sure the bread never was in short supply.

Sound familiar? It should. We here in the West are headed that way, if we are not already there, and the rest of the world does not get so lucky.

From the food point of view, there is this incredible delivery network and infrastructure that means that food is readily, readily available to all of the population. And it's cheap too…relatively speaking. I read somewhere (I think, Affluenza by Oliver James) that this generation, and the one just before, has, proportionally speaking, spent less of its income on food than any other generation in the whole of history. This means that, whilst a massive number of people in the world starve themselves to sleep, we have it on tap. Food supermarkets leverage massive economies of scale to make it cheap for us, and buy and stock so much that it just cheapen it, lessens its value in our life.

And entertainment? Do I even need to ask this question? Every house has a TV set. Cinema is big business, with blockbusters grossing hundreds of millions of dollars, and streaming/ on-demand in the early stages of taking off in a big, big way. Sports are big business, with stadiums seating tens of thousands of people at a go, watching the modern equivalent of gladiatorial battles, which are also televised across the globe. Music sells by the truckload, and malls are pretty much thronged with people (maybe not as much as before, but still).

All distraction. And when people live lives of ease, and all this is placed within easy reach, few really think about it. It becomes a sort of default. People will take the path of least resistance, and it flows into other aspects of their life. And the politicians will learn, and begin to expect that the electorate doesn't really care for their fellow human beings, and that they can get away with a lot more than they think possible, as long as they keep the domestic affairs running smoothly.

Gah. There has to be a better way

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Of all the things that could spark such thoughts, The Hunger Games series is probably among the most unlikely. Nevertheless, this is true. This is the point where I recommend them, and yes, indeed, read them.