Panem et circenses

I have been reminded of this phrase of late after reading Thesaurus’ post “Our Own Fault” last week and Chris Hedges “Empire of Illusion” over the weekend, which has me thinking about my country and the spectacles that are weighing it down.  I first came across this idea in Professor Tom’s killer undergraduate trilogy of courses on the history of rhetoric from its Mesopotamian origins up to the recent work of Kenneth Burke (for Professor Tom, all discussion and need for such discussion of rhetoric ended with Burke – post for a later date?).   I came across this term again after a recent reading of “The Hunger Games” – yes, categorized as “young adult” fiction, but too many “adult” friends had mentioned the book – a post-apocalyptic world of slavery and spectacle and revolution that culminates in an annual spectacle of teenagers fighting violently to the death – it was a good read, overall. 

The phrase translated to “bread and circuses” is often considered a metaphor for the superficial agencies of consent and appeasement. First emerging in the Roman Republic as a political strategy for the manipulation and diversion of public approval through distraction and the simple satisfaction of instant, shallow gratifications of the public, panem et circuses, thus produces an erosion of the citizen and brings about an ignorance of civic responsibility.  For instance, this drummed-up argument about religious liberty and female access to contraception.  I am not going to wade into the argument itself as there is no use because the circus is in town and since the only strategy that matters in most media forums is the volume of your voice, the arguments are lost (but it’s not about religious liberty!).  But what I do want to discuss is that this portion of the healthcare legislation that over 60 percent of this country wanted at the time of its passage has been public for months, m-o-n-t-h-s.  In addition, this mandate is already on the books in 28 states.  So why in the second week of February 2012 did this argument “naturally” appear on the national landscape?  Well, political strategists and media operatives created this supposed controversy, plain and simple.  And because we have a commercial media system that needs to be fed every minute, they need programming to fill these 24 hours every day like a dog licks his balls, and since stories about corporate theft or a billion dollar prison industry (doesn’t that sound odd to you, the industry of prison?) don’t get the ratings that produce the best advertising rates, the public is fed these food pellets of manufactured urgency, hysteria, threats, and so on.   

Spectacle is becoming an organizing principle of everyday life and  more and more of our political and social life is shaped by [media] spectacle as social and political conflicts are played out nightly on media screens that display spectacles like sensational violence (Phil Specter, O.J., that girl in Italy – fuck, why do I know this?), celebrity deaths (Whitney Houston the latest example); perpetual terrorist threats, celebrity and political sex scandals (too many to name), sporting spectaculars (Super Bowl that just passed) – the bread and circus that distracts us all, soothes some of us, helps others get through another day.  This is nothing new, obviously as noted above, the Romans figured something out about us humans and our needs and the comfort of the now that produces complacency, acceptance and conformity.  Maybe for us Americans the Jersey Shore, American Idol, and the like is the real, dangerous heroin in this country?   Or do we need these diversions and distractions because the American Dream marketing plan we were sold since the 1950s has finally been uncovered by the majority of us for exactly what it is – a hoax.  And I do love my country, but I don’t love being lied to - so stuff that fallacy up your ass.  Guess what, not everyone in this country can be president.  Not everyone in this country can be a millionaire.  Not everyone in this country can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, because, guess what, they don’t have boots.

I do not begrudge anyone their joys, their entertainment desires – my love of college basketball is no different than a follower of The Voice for its absurdity on several levels (there are no such things as guilty pleasures, you like what you like, you don’t have to defend it) – but why can we not also balance these spectacles with the responsibilities that come with living in a deliberative, participatory democracy.  It breaks my heart when I hear 19, 20 year old college students proclaiming they do not vote because it does not matter.  Naturally a void like that is filled with misinformation, parental passing-down of prejudice and ignorance, and continuous spectacle.  And of course the biggest growth industry in the U.S. right now: strategic impression management.  In an election year, hell, in every year – the help wanted sign is always lit.