Bread and circuses

Around 100 BCE, the Roman poet Juvenal decried how the people and their public servants had been distracted from their duties by the promise of “bread and circuses.”

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.

Bread symbolized the distribution of a daily portion of wheat to the populace. And circuses, of course, referred to the gladiatorial entertainment of seeing traitors and the condemned forced to fight and die in the arena. No matter how badly things were going in Rome, the public could be placated with bread and circuses.

And now . . .

The current US administration, in a moment of war, high prices, and ballooning health care costs, has chosen this moment to distribute checks — and promise more — to the citizenry.

And has just announced it will televise the execution of convicted mass murderer Nidal Hasan by firing squad.

Bread. And circuses.