“Give them bread and circuses, and they will never rebel” - Juvenal
In ancient Rome, the poet Juvenal ironically expressed the phrase: "panem et circenses". Bread and circuses.
He criticized the strategy of power to silence the people, to keep them calm and happy.
As long as people had their bellies satiated with bread and their minds distracted with games, they would overlook the rest of the problems.
Two thousand years later, the world is very different, but the concept of "bread and circuses" is still alive.
Instead of gladiators in coliseums we have football, Netflix and TikTok.
Instead of emperors throwing wheat to the crowd, we have politicians handing out subsidies.
And I don't criticize it.
We need basic material security and some entertainment.
But don't settle for that.
And don't be a slave to it.
Don't stop fighting to improve, both individually and socially.
100 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lux 12 Nov
Is there any irrefutable proof that gladiators fought in colosseums? Or that "circuses" means "gladiators in colosseums"? I know there were games (like today olympics etc) and for sure there were fighters, but, colosseums didn't have stands for the spectators, and there was no space for all that..
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