Authored by Nicole James via The Epoch Times,
Democracy, that ever-so-fleeting fancy, tends to tumble right into a little bit of a tizz earlier than it topples over, panting and gasping like a winded walrus.
John Adams, ever the prophet of doom, as soon as quipped, “Democracy by no means lasts lengthy. It quickly wastes, exhausts and murders itself”—a sentiment echoing by means of the corridors of time.
And sounding very like the belch of a senator post-banquet in historical Rome, the place democracy was extra an idea for philosophical banter than a apply.
Certainly, Rome, with all its pomp and voracious urge for food for self-indulgence, serves as a cautionary story. It’s a well-trodden path.
As soon as upon a time in Rome, there was Juvenal. Not your garden-variety naysayer, however a person whose tongue was so sharp, he might slice the ethical material of society with a mere quip.
“Bread and circuses,” he scoffed.
“Maintain the plenty stuffed and entertained, they usually received’t utter a peep towards you.”
How a Nice Empire Withered on Opulence
And so, Rome bloated, not simply within the midriff however in its sense of self, as leisure grew to become the nationwide pastime.
Again then, over 200,000 souls, their fingers sticky from pastry, discovered the idea of lifting a finger (except it was to sign for an additional serving to) totally overseas.
Rome was reworked right into a grand stage, the place virtually every single day was a competition, and the residents had been both performers, spectators, or busy within the vomitorium making room for the following course.
Naval skirmishes in makeshift lakes, chariot races that put the quick and livid to disgrace, and theatre so risqué it might make a statue of Venus look prudish, had been all funded by the very folks it was designed to distract.
Ninety-three days of sheer, unadulterated spectacle annually, turning Rome from a republic into an extravagant manufacturing, the place democracy was however a whisper drowned out by the roar of the gang.
Sound acquainted?
A face-masked man walks by the traditional Colosseum in downtown Rome on Dec. 5, 2020. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP through Getty Pictures)
Because the mighty arm of the empire started to resemble much less of a fearsome gladiator and extra of a feeble previous man waving a stick at rambunctious youths, the calendar began to appear to be a mushroom farm after a spring bathe, every new vacation popping as much as toast to victories most had forgotten the style of.
Appears positively modern, what with the world operating out of calendar days and having to rejoice Easter Sunday on Trans Consciousness Day, an occasion that absolutely had the ancients rolling of their extravagantly adorned sarcophagi, perplexed by the trendy conundrum of “calendar overcrowding.”
Emperors, these illustrious leaders of males, had been diminished to headline acts on this comedic opera, plastering on smiles and feigning a zeal for the video games that would rival a moist sponge’s enthusiasm for a desert trek.
On this farce, the as soon as hallowed ceremonies now resembled a confused shuffle of days, the place the one factor extra bewildering than the vacations themselves was the populace’s capacity to maintain monitor of what they had been celebrating.
Gone had been the times of the iron-fisted rule of Julius Caesar or the crafty Augustus. Now, the sceptre was within the shaky grasp of the likes of Commodus and Septimius Severus, whose reigns had been as inspiring as a flat ale on a scorching day.
Management, as soon as a strong wine, had develop into a watery vinegar, with emperors inflating their egos and coffers, whipping up the populace right into a frenzy with what amounted to little greater than patriotic chest-beating and flag-waving.
(Africa Studio/Shutterstock)
The spectacles, in the meantime, morphed right into a grotesque parade of the weird and the barbaric, a stark distinction to the fading actuality of employment and land possession—these grew to become the stuff of fairy tales.
Even the steadfast Marcus Aurelius watched helplessly because the empire’s coinage grew to become as flimsy as trendy guarantees of fiscal restraint, shrinking in each measurement and value.
Bread and Circuses of the Current
Leap ahead to the current, and the circus hasn’t a lot as ended because it has swapped costumes.
Right now’s coliseum is full of Drag Time Story Hours and a calendar so filled with celebrations of each stripe of satisfaction and tradition that one would possibly want a information to navigate it.
Subsidies bathe down just like the finale of a firework present, making certain the populace stays too stuffed on the bread and dazzled by the circus of actuality TV outrages and viral sensations to note the bottom shifting beneath their ft.
On this grand competition of the now, one has to surprise if we’ve develop into spectators in our personal model of Rome’s downfall, squinting on the brilliant lights, too entertained to note we’re perched on the sting of historical past’s best pratfall.
Will the grand banquet of our occasions finish in a burp of remorse?
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Views expressed on this article are opinions of the writer and don’t essentially mirror the views of The Epoch Occasions or ZeroHedge.
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