Bread and circuses

"Bread and circuses" is from Latin, panem et circenses. It is a metonymic idiom for a superficial means of appeasement. It may also be translated bread and games.

In reference to politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval or the quieting of dissent through diversion, distraction, or the mere satisfaction of the immediate self-indulgent interests of the people.

Juvenal wrote "that the common people—rather than caring about their freedom—are only interested in “bread and circuses” (i.e. food and entertainment)".

This phrase originates from his Satire X. It implies the erosion or ignorance of duty amongst the people which weakens society. Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C. to win the votes of these new citizens: giving out cheap food and entertainment, "bread and circuses", would be the most effective way to rise to power.

Polybius, a Roman historian, believed all democracies fail.

"The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch."

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist.

"The evil was not in the bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease."

The only difference now is with GMOs and food additives the evil may be in the bread.

John the Baptist, Jesus and the Church provided the Daily bread of the people through faith, hope and charity and the Perfect law of liberty in what was called the Daily ministration. This can only be done by people who accept the spirit of Christ in their hearts and choose to follow the ways of Christ. 100 years after Christ others were still warning the people.

“The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” Plutarch

"I do not imply that bread and circuses are evil things in themselves. Man needs material sustenance and he needs recreation. These needs are so basic that they come within the purview of every religion. In every religion there is a harvest festival of thanksgiving for good crops. And as for recreation, we need only recall that our word 'holiday' was originally 'holy day,' a day of religious observance. In fact, the circuses and games of old Rome were religious in origin. The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease. The moral decay of the people was not caused by the doles and the games. These merely provided a measure of their degradation. Things that were originally good had become perverted and, as Shakespeare reminds us, 'Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.'"

Galatians 5 tells us 13 "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

Social democrats have used this plan to obtain power since Cain and Nimrod. Many a politician was led by the same plan to obtain power over the people for they love power more than the people. They seal society into bondage to their will by spreading amongst them many benefits.

… 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..."

This was the sin of Sodom.

Ezekiel 16:49 "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

None of this would be possible except that the people love themselves more than their neighbor in contradistinction to Moses and Jesus and all the prophets of old.

People think that Religion is what you think about God and Government is supposed to fulfill your duty to your fellowman by forcing people to contribute. Pure Religion is to perform your duty to God by loving your neighbor enough to provide for his Welfare by charity. The Church was instituted to help people to actively love their neighbor as themselves in real ways.

There were lots of Welfare systems in the Roman Empire and even Judea but Christians would not take those benefits because they were provided by the World through force. This is what John's Baptism was about, what Jesus preached about Benefactors who exercised authority and the Corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. This welfare by charity was at the core of the Christian conflict and the Eucharist was the bread of that welfare through love.

We have need of Repentance and to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is to attend to the Weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith which include caring for the needs of our neighbors and the widows and orphans of our society through Pure Religion in matters of health, education, and welfare. We are NOT to provide for the needy of society through the Covetous Practices and the men who call themselves benefactors but who exercise authority one over the other like the socialists do.

The Way of Christ was like neither the way of the world of Rome nor the governments of the gentiles who depend on those fathers of the earth through force, fear and fealty who deliver the people back in bondage again like they were in Egypt. Christ's ministers and true Christians do not depend upon systems of social welfare that force the contributions of the people like the corban of the Pharisees which made the word of God to none effect. Many people have been deceived to go the way of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and out of The Way of Christ and have become workers of iniquity.

The Christian conflict with Rome in the first century Church appointed by Christ was because they would not apply to the fathers of the earth for their free bread but instead relied upon a voluntary network providing a daily ministration to the needy of society through Faith, Hope, and Charity by way of freewill offerings of the people, for the people, and by the people through the perfect law of liberty in Free Assemblies according to the ancient pattern of Tuns or Tens as He commanded.

The modern Christians are in need of repentance.

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