Bread and Circuses

The Roman Colosseum

In High School, I learned about a phenomenon that occured in Ancient Rome (Remember them? Collapsed civilization? Burned? Guy with a fiddle?).  The idea of "bread and circuses" has been on my mind a lot the last few years.  I don't know if it is because I am getting older, or more aware, or that there is just so much dreck out there I can't avoid it... I question if we are experiencing the same issues?

The Romans had a practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power through populism.  In effect, buying their vote.  Pay attention to the "Americans for Prosperity" campaigns; the corp sponsored political movement with paid pseudo-celebrities, i.e. Joe, The Plumber, who get paid to travel and speak to groups of people in order to sway votes and public opinion.

According to wikipedia:  "In the case of politics, the phrase ("bread and circuses") is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man."

There are days that I look at the hundreds of TV channels and programming available and wonder if we (as a race) are concerned with the things that really matter.  The internet is a "superhighway of information" and yet it is filled with so much flotsam and jetsam that it becomes close to impossible to weed out the nuggets that are meant to inform, educate, and lift us to a place of enlightenment.

I am not a conspiracy theorist in any way shape or form.  I do not believe that characters like "Snookie" are government created distractions that keep the common man from thinking.  But even if the "Housewives of Wherever" aren't a tool created by some monsterous government agency, isn't the effect the same?  A populace more concerned with drug-induced ramblings of celebrity than what laws are passing?  Citizens more entranced by the drunken escapades of a pop-star, than the actions taken on foreign soil in "their name"?  Sports figures are more revered than the leaders of any specific country or religion?

Politics has been a polarizing force recently.  At least for those paying attention to it has been polarizing.  The LOUD people on the Right and the LOUD people on the Left all have an opinion.  But that HUGE gap in the middle....the ones busy watching reruns of Springer, "The Jersey Shore", and "Housewives of Wherever"... when that group wakes up from the bread and circuses, where will they stand on issues of Abortion, Gay Marriage, the Deficit, and Industry regulation?

This will be interesting.  Anyone have a fiddle?

Democrats are Optimists?

After speaking with someone about Republicans and Democrats and the fundamental ideological differences between them, I began to realize something.  Democrats are not the optimists that everyone paints them to be.

(Before you start the hate mail, hear me out.)

We are all equal on the day we are born.  In the most basic of ways.  Gasping for air, confused, hungry and covered in the ooze that kept us alive.  But right after our first gasp of air, HEAPING mounds of circumstances start to hit us in waves of inequality.  Were you born healthy or with a specific challenge?  Were you born in a country where a 3rd grade education is the highest achievement or born the child of a wealthy oil czar that has a university named after him?  If you are reading this, you are probably somewhere in between those two extremes.

What does this have to do with Democrats?  Well, it is in the leveling of those two extremes that gives Democrats their fuel.  We believe that people should be given equal chances to succeed in life.  That the child born to poverty has the same chance at being the next Einstein as the one born to riches.  That one man taught to fish might teach another man, who might teach another.  Not buy the pond, erect a fence and post a sign that says "NO FISHING!"

This all sounds great.....right?  A chicken in every pot?  The opportunity to succeed for everyone?  Hurrah!  All very noble goals.  But that is where Democrats start to lose their optimism. 

(Start composing your hate mail now.)

Democrats understand the human condition to be one of challenge and battle.  They understand that human instinct (since the beginning of time) is about survival of the individual and not necessarily of the species.

With that understanding, the Democrat becomes a pessimist. 

Democrats no longer believe that Companies will do what is right for society "because it is right."  They believe that the company will act much like a caveman in crushing it's competition and to find a way to survive without much care to the impact of the environment, their employees, or the businesses around them.  So they legislate and create Government programs like the EPA and band together to make Labor Unions.

Democrats no longer believe in the "kindness of the human being".  They believe that given the chance, people would rather shoot each other.  So gun laws are passed.

The free market is a great idea...in theory.  But a truly free market (with no legislation or regulation) will only serve to create a huge gap between those that have opportunity and those that don't.  Because those that can afford to BUY more opportunity will do so at the expense of everyone else around them.  Imperial England was a free market.  Eventually, giving rise to a monarchy and a rich ruling class with slaves and indentured servants.  Come to think about it, why didn't "Trickle Down Economics" work there?

Democrats understand this. 

Social rules (manners, like "Don't shoot your neighbor") are made to prevent someone from breaking them.  Laws are made because too many people broke the rules and there needs to be an accepted form of punishment.

Democrats are well known for creating Government Programs and legislation that "spend tax dollars" to empower the poor, down trodden, and disenfranchised.  In doing so, they have earned the name "bleeding heart liberals".  This may all be true.  But I wonder if this is a reaction to the overwhelming evidence that human nature is more about individual survival in any way possible and less about lifting up your fellow man.

Maybe the Democrats heard a Republican tell the following joke:

Two men were walking in the woods, when suddenly they saw a bear charging at them from across a field.  One man yelled "RUN!" hoping to benefit both people from the alarm.  The other stopped to put on some running shoes.  When the one who yelled asked the other what he was doing, he replied "I don't have to run fast.  I just have to run faster than you!"