BREAD and CIRCUS

Aren't we all modern and everything sitting in our living rooms watching 500 channels on our flat screen TV. Every sport on the planet at our fingertips. Thanks to the educational system you are probably unaware of the been there-done that nature of your existence. In Ancient Rome, they had this big stadium called the Coliseum. The lives of the people were pretty intolerable. There was unemployment, hunger, and the Barbarians were at the gate. Rulers being what they are, anxious to remain in power, discovered that if you take the people's minds off their miserable lives and entertain them and keep their bellies full they will not Storm the Bastille and chop off your heads like in the French Revolution.

Those in power in our country are generally inept and self serving. We let them stay the course and keep their jobs (?) because the system keeps us entertained. We have all those sports and clever (?) reality shows on TV and a McDonald's on every corner. Rather than being hungry we are obese. Rather than being discontented with our taxes going to shore up governments in countries half way across the globe who hate us, we sit on our couches and root for the team of our choice. Three seasons a year at least. Bread and Circus. The Romans used it to control their people. As Reagan used to say... "Here they go again." But then again if you were educated recently in America, you probably don't know who Reagan was, so "Never mind,"