Are we really back to bread and circuses?

A POINT OF VIEW

Confession: No, I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. No, I will not be watching March Madness. Yes, I might watch a World Series Game later in the year. Yes, I’ll go to a few Corpus Christi Hooks games during the summer. No, I’ll probably only watch only a few of my alma mater’s college football games when autumn comes.

There! Now that this is off of my chest, let me tell you why. It seems to be that, rather than advancing forward into a new and glorious day, our 20th and 21st century worlds have regressed once again to the age-old problem instituted by a culture and society that truly does have too much time on its hands.

And the problem is what the Roman Empire knew to be true, what the French monarchy knew to be true just prior to the execution of the long and what we are learning again in this age. What is it, I hear you ask? It’s this: The people are bored! They are restless! And if the people don’t get something to excite them, they might go out and make their own mischief, so give them bread and circuses!

Bread and circuses is what we want after all, isn’t it?

How nice it is not to truly have to worry about getting enough to eat, not because it is a question of purchasing power, but because the supply seems to never end.

That is, until a global pandemic threatens us, and we

don’t even stock up on food and essential staples; we would rather stock up on toilet paper. Food is everywhere in our society, so the old hunter-gatherer generations are so outdated now that most people in major cities do not even know that their meat comes from beef cows that are raised on farms and ranches or that the vegetables they munch on came from some plant in a remote part of the world. All that they know is it was in the store, perhaps in a can, and they need to eat it.

As for circuses, how boring are the “real” circuses these days. In old days, the circuses were—shall we say—a less pleasant affair for some, simply because they were the ones being fed to the lions and tigers. These days, our circus of animals and humans competing in death-defying stunts has become too boring. Yes, of course, Harrison Butker’s record achieving field goal kick is laudable and noteworthy, something that is indeed praiseworthy as well. But how many of us lament that there is rarely anything good on the television, and the only joy we can get from watching the TV is through binge watching the entire season of some show that is all the rage, but we really don’t enjoy it, if we are honest. We are entertained, which is the whole point of the circus ... or the Super Bowl or the latest Netflix drama.

Now, I’m really not as cynical as I sound. I love a good sporting match-up. I enjoy a beautiful and engaging film.

Hearing a choral concert or a symphony live and in person still thrills my soul beyond anything else. And, while I know where my food comes from (let the reader understand), I can enjoy a simple fare of meat and potatoes, or even try my hand at a flambé or a crown roast of lamb that has roasted herbs and a buttery sauce that would make Julia Child blush.

But the real question is this: Have we become nothing but a culture that craves the next meal, the next moment of entertainment, the next “fix”? Are we becoming a society that relies solely on what will get us “high” so we can have a momentary and fleeting pleasure? It’s the scrolling endlessly on Facebook, or the incessant playing of a game on your smartphone, only to be topped off by the mindless staring at a flashing box in our living rooms for hours on end that worries me.

Maybe I’m being a little too judgmental; it wouldn’t be the first time. But then again, after the people got used to the bread and circuses of the Roman Empire, it crumbled and fell.