Bread and Circus
appeasing monsters
From Wikipedia:
“Bread and circuses” (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal (Satires, Satire X), a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD, and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts.
In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace,[1] by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment(circuses). Juvenal originally used it to decry the “selfishness” of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population’s erosion or ignorance of civic duty as a priority.
[…] 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. […]
—Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81
… Already long ago, from when we sold our
vote to no man, the People have abdicated
our duties; for the People who once upon a
time handed out military command, high civil
office, legions — everything, now restrains
itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses.[7]
These experiments started in 2024. Sourdough bread and fondant (sugarcoating) became the language of the hands: The absolutely essential to human survival paired with the ultimate of frivolous maneuvering- the lie making believe that it is the truth.
Every time we name something we seal life into an envelope and mail it off to a predetermined yet unknown – because un-experienced – destination. Eventually it will be returned to sender, undeliverable.
