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B R E A
AND CIRCUSES
produced,
•ightfully l*fi
ported almost half the population;
lind brutal gladiatorial combats to filmed by the pertain and distract, all combined to
ide them or form a setting for moral decav of the
ic may steal' people.
,er\ cannot f prom g6 A D to 180 A D there
only deprive lvas a perj0(J 0f 54 years during which
live remarkable men occupied the
■throne ol Home in succession. The last
SOCIAL CAN°ol these was Marcus Aurelius, one ol
_ the best men who ever wielded politi-
aid down the |al power. If a social cancer can be
his bread r» lured from the top down merely by
kit, unfortunj butting good men into public office,
:ople who iA listory would surely record it in this
•ove on the Instance. For if ever rulers were able
ings. So, thejand unselfishly devoted, these men
a man-made V, ere. ijut t|u,y faiiet]
are smart el* . A philosopher and student of his-
vou can <-';" f°r>-, Albert [ay Nock, has observed
of the otne'ol this period, "They clearly foresaw
the upshot of organized mendicancy
he smart l«hand subvention, of the growing power
jf acquiring f bureaucracy, of the growing ten-
ithout worKiO lency tQ centralization. They did the
[uest and *9 lest they could to cheek these malig-
ered. At the |ant growths, but could do nothing,
to another e*j • • The emperors of the second cen-
; reins of g° ury remind one of nothing so much
of a rulinS^s an array of the world's best physi-
ed their p°*Jans striving to reclaim a hopeless
ncer patient . . . The tiling could not
se lli",eJ»e done. . . The cancer . . . had so far
appease • ■■- ,: -- -"<,,v. . . me uaueer . . . nau so lar
ortable by l 'Veakened its host that at the death of
lers resorted, W areas Aurelius there was simply not
legislation, enough producing power left to pay
'welfare !>**' he |,i|ls. Under the exactions of the
ruining <>1 "I J0'' holders, nobody could do any
lieh returneol lusiness, fields went unfilled and even
, thus W» pe army had to be recruited among
;lisrepute; * foreigners. . . Eighty years of eontin-
governtneiit Jous effort by five of the world's best
1 of clear-c"1 md ablest rulers could not prevent
at dole wh>c hv Roman populace from degenerat-
n'-i into the very scum of the earth,
worthless, vicious, contemptible, sheer
lunian sculch."
1 PROSPERITY - BY GOVERNMENT
SUBVENTION
There are no precise records which
Pscribe the feelings of those for
'""" the poet Juvenal felt such
torn. But using the clues we have.
■tkI judging by our own experience.
e can make a good guess as to what
>e prevailing sentiments of the Ro-
P'Mi populace were. If we were able
0 take a poll of public opinion of first
"''I second century Rome, the over-
helming response would probably
live been - "We never had it so
Pod. Those who lived on "public
Pjstance" and in subsidized rent-free
1 low nut dwellings, would certainly
j>ve assured us that now, at last, thev
|rj security.'' Those in the rapidly
|panding bureaucracy - one of the
most efficient civil services the world
lias ever seen — would tell us that now
government had a "conscience" and
was using its vast resources to guarantee the "welfare" of all of its citizens;
that the civil service gave them job
security and retirement benefits; and
that the best job was a government
job! Progressive members of the business community would have said that
business had never been so good, that
the government was their largest customer, which assured them a dependable market, and that the government
was inflating currency at about 2 per
cent a year, which instilled confidence
and gave everyone a sense of well-
being and prosperity.
And no doubt the farmers were well
c Ion
,ve the
ations?
pleased, too. They supplied the grain,
the pork and the olive oil, at or above
parity prices, for the government's
doles.
The government had a continuous
program of large-scale public works
which were said to stimulate the economy, provide jobs and promote the
general welfare, and which appealed
to the national pride.
The high tax rates required by the
subsidies discouraged the entrepreneur with risk capital which, in turn,
favored the well-established, complacently prosperous businessman. It
appears that there was no serious
objection to this by any of the groups
affected. An economic historian, writing of business conditions at this period, says, "The chief object of economic activity was to assure the
individual, or his family, a placid and
inactive life on a safe, if moderate,
income. . . There were no technical
improvements in industry after the
early part of the second century."
There was no incentive to venture.
Inventions began to dry up because
no one could reasonably expect to
make a profit out of them.
Home was sacked by Alaric and his
Goths in 410 A.D. Hut'long before the
barbarian invasions, Rome was a hollow shell ol the once noble republic.
Fe
■brw"m
Fa(ts Foki-m News, February, 1956
Its real grandeur was gone and its
people were demoralized. Most of the
old forms and institutions remained.
Rut a people whose horizons were limited by bread and circuses bad destroyed the spirit while paying lip-
service to the letter of their once
hallowed traditions.
The fall of Rome affords a pertinent
illustration of the observation by the
late President Lowell of Harvard University, that "No society is ever murdered — it commits suicide."
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
ol 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
tor 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 worse than weeds."
CAN WE PROFIT FROM HISTORY?
But something else was happening
far below the surface of Roman political life during the first three centuries
of our era. Here and there in parts
of the Roman Empire around the
Mediterranean were little groups of
people who were trying, as best they
could, to follow One who had said,
"I inn the Way, the Truth and the
Life." These groups, so insignificant
at first in numbers, later to be subjected to persecution and slaughtered
in the games to provide entertainment, were eventually to become the
force that would stop the cruel combats of the arena and, when Rome collapsed, would salvage from the ruin
the remnants of Home's grandeur for
a legacy to Western civilization.
The doles and games lasted for centuries in spite of attempts to stop them
by political power. They continued
until a new religious faith gave the
multitude something to live by and
to die for! Man does not live by bread
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