Tuesday, February 17, 2004
No More Bread OR Circuses
I would like to start this entry with the following text from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy at bartleby.com:
"BREAD AND CIRCUSES = A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: 'Two things only the people anxiously desire—bread and circuses.' The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. (See Colosseum.)"
Back in the days of Rome, the art of Bread and Circuses was in its infancy. Today, it is perhaps the most developed art and science on the planet.
As a live foodist, I'm especially fond of the phrase "bread and circuses." Bread itself is PART of the circus, part of the spectacle used to distract us from our own power to become a Revolution of One. In the proper hands, food and entertainment are equally powerful tools of control. Why exert control over the population through the use of force when you can instead stuff them full of drug-foods and drug-media that diminishes their capacity to understand and resist your goals? Technically, they're always "free" to choose to live in more empowered and revolutionary ways that have never even occured to them, so you don't even look like a bad guy. You're just a government/business providing a service [which just so happens to enslave the recipients to you just like any junkie is enslaved to their dealer].
Today, I feel a not-uncommon mix of excitement and frustration. The excitement is due to my vision for a new society and my hope that we'll actually make it at least partway there during my lifetime. The frustration is with the sheer inertia that exists in this society -- inertia that is largely maintained by Bread and Circuses.
In my personal life, I'm coming out of a rut that set in over the winter. I've pretty much cut dried foods and salty olives out of my diet, eating only fresh raw foods that are helping in my healing process. If I choose to get a decent amount of sleep, I'll be zipping along toward my goal of excellent health in notime. I've also got plenty of inspiration for my writing, so I'm bound to get some of these articles, essays, poems, and books published eventually.
But then there's the inertia. Even when I confine myself exclusively to hanging out with people who have some clue of the problems facing the planet today, I can still feel the inertia. It seems like most people are only able or willing to focus on one small part of the problem at a time. I can count on one hand the number of people I know who share my joint interest in revolutionary politics/economics, live foods, permaculture/ecology, and energy work. And yet, a true revolution capable of saving ourselves and our planet from destruction requires a combined knowledge of all of these areas and then some.
I don't know how exactly it's going to happen, but it is -- and soon. For one, I'm going to start taking my own advice and letting it begin with me. There's no point in waiting for a permaculture person to help me start a permaculture garden, a revolutionary to help me start a housing co-op, etc. If my experience with the Saturday Night Live! dinner has shown me anything, it's that if the community is really ready for a project, all it takes is someone to step up and speak it into being. I've spent over three years learning about live foods, so that one was easy. Now, it's time to redouble my efforts to learn more about other revolutionary topics so that I can do the same with those.
[And yes, a live foods diet is revolutionary in the proper hands. So is healing in its many forms. If you disagree with me on this, I'll be more than happy to explain that view in detail.]
So, as Winter slowly transitions into Spring, I find myself in a similar transition point between inertia and creation. The peddlers of Bread and Circuses have done a fine job of making it damn near impossible to create life in the rancid and toxic Necropolis that is today's society. And yet, I can feel within myself a seed that is purging itself of toxins, building its inner strength, and stretching out through the soil in pursuit of fresh air and sunshine.
This may very well be the Springtime when I begin my coming period of truly excellent and successful creativity. Only time will tell...
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"BREAD AND CIRCUSES = A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: 'Two things only the people anxiously desire—bread and circuses.' The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. (See Colosseum.)"
Back in the days of Rome, the art of Bread and Circuses was in its infancy. Today, it is perhaps the most developed art and science on the planet.
As a live foodist, I'm especially fond of the phrase "bread and circuses." Bread itself is PART of the circus, part of the spectacle used to distract us from our own power to become a Revolution of One. In the proper hands, food and entertainment are equally powerful tools of control. Why exert control over the population through the use of force when you can instead stuff them full of drug-foods and drug-media that diminishes their capacity to understand and resist your goals? Technically, they're always "free" to choose to live in more empowered and revolutionary ways that have never even occured to them, so you don't even look like a bad guy. You're just a government/business providing a service [which just so happens to enslave the recipients to you just like any junkie is enslaved to their dealer].
Today, I feel a not-uncommon mix of excitement and frustration. The excitement is due to my vision for a new society and my hope that we'll actually make it at least partway there during my lifetime. The frustration is with the sheer inertia that exists in this society -- inertia that is largely maintained by Bread and Circuses.
In my personal life, I'm coming out of a rut that set in over the winter. I've pretty much cut dried foods and salty olives out of my diet, eating only fresh raw foods that are helping in my healing process. If I choose to get a decent amount of sleep, I'll be zipping along toward my goal of excellent health in notime. I've also got plenty of inspiration for my writing, so I'm bound to get some of these articles, essays, poems, and books published eventually.
But then there's the inertia. Even when I confine myself exclusively to hanging out with people who have some clue of the problems facing the planet today, I can still feel the inertia. It seems like most people are only able or willing to focus on one small part of the problem at a time. I can count on one hand the number of people I know who share my joint interest in revolutionary politics/economics, live foods, permaculture/ecology, and energy work. And yet, a true revolution capable of saving ourselves and our planet from destruction requires a combined knowledge of all of these areas and then some.
I don't know how exactly it's going to happen, but it is -- and soon. For one, I'm going to start taking my own advice and letting it begin with me. There's no point in waiting for a permaculture person to help me start a permaculture garden, a revolutionary to help me start a housing co-op, etc. If my experience with the Saturday Night Live! dinner has shown me anything, it's that if the community is really ready for a project, all it takes is someone to step up and speak it into being. I've spent over three years learning about live foods, so that one was easy. Now, it's time to redouble my efforts to learn more about other revolutionary topics so that I can do the same with those.
[And yes, a live foods diet is revolutionary in the proper hands. So is healing in its many forms. If you disagree with me on this, I'll be more than happy to explain that view in detail.]
So, as Winter slowly transitions into Spring, I find myself in a similar transition point between inertia and creation. The peddlers of Bread and Circuses have done a fine job of making it damn near impossible to create life in the rancid and toxic Necropolis that is today's society. And yet, I can feel within myself a seed that is purging itself of toxins, building its inner strength, and stretching out through the soil in pursuit of fresh air and sunshine.
This may very well be the Springtime when I begin my coming period of truly excellent and successful creativity. Only time will tell...
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