On the origins of “bread and circuses”
In the context of the debate over a Winnipeg waterpark (and its pushing forward despite so many other pressing priorities), I was curious about the etymology of the expression “bread and circuses”. Some wikipedia-ing turned this up, for those of you who are curious like me:
…Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions – everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.
— from Wikipedia, from Juvenal’s Satire X.
I hate to be that glass-half-empty guy, but it sounds about right for much of society’s relationship with its government these days. I suppose, as they say (to follow one cliché with another), “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”