America's Bread and Circus Society by Chuck Baldwin

[Stephane Budge]

The Roman poet Juvenal (circa 100 A.D.) wrote regarding the way
latter-day Roman emperors retained power and control over the masses
that were seemingly more than happy to obsess themselves with
trivialities and self-indulgences while their once-great-and-powerful
empire collapsed before their very eyes. He wrote:

“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.”

I submit that a good many in America are, like Rome of old,
carelessly frittering away their God-given liberties, foolishly
clamoring for nothing more than government handouts and never-ending
entertainment. Millions and millions of Americans (especially males)
are literally intoxicated with sports. Sports are no longer a great
American pastime; they are now a great American obsession.

Mind you, this writer has been a sports fan all of his life. I began
playing organized basketball in the fifth grade; I was on the high
school wrestling team; I played football in high school and college;
and I ran track. Still today, I enjoy watching a good NFL game (yes,
I’m still a Green Bay Packers fan), a good college game when the
Gators are playing, a good NCAA men’s basketball game (especially
during the tournament--even more so when the Hoosiers are in it), and
any NBA championship series between the Celtics and Lakers (I root for
Boston). And I even like to watch a round of professional golf once in
a while (it helps me go to sleep when I’m trying to take a nap). But
none of the above will interfere with anything that is important, and
I am not going to plan my whole universe around any of it. If it is
convenient, I will watch. If it’s not, I will read about it in the
sports section of the newspaper. And I’m certainly not going to
spend my hard-earned money following any sports team (even those I
like) all over the country like some rock band groupie.

I am not talking about sports in general; I am talking about the way
many American men have allowed sports to control and dominate their
lives. With many, sports are not just a hobby; they are a religion. I
cannot count the number of conversations between men that I overhear
in restaurants, airplanes, boardrooms, and, yes, even church houses,
in which every man in the circle is literally consumed with all sorts
of sports facts, information, and opinions. In many such discussions,
these men will talk about nothing else. To these men, there is
absolutely nothing in the world more important than the latest sports
score, announcement, or trade. NOTHING!

And there is also a very real psychological pitfall associated with a
man’s intoxication with sports. I submit that an obsession with
sports gives men a false sense of masculinity and actually serves to
steal true manhood from them.

For example, it used to be when men stripped their shirts off and
painted their faces, they were heading to the battlefield to kill the
tyrant’s troops. Now they are headed off to the sports coliseum to
watch a football game. A man’s ego and machismo was once used to
protect his family and freedom; now it’s used to tout batting
averages and box scores. The fact is, if we could get the average
American male to get as exercised and energized about defending the
historic principles upon which liberty and Western Civilization are
built as he is in defending his favorite quarterback or NASCAR driver,
our country would not be in the shape it is in today.

The sad reality is that much of today’s masculinity is experienced
only vicariously through a variety of sports teams and personalities.
Instead of personally flexing our muscles for God and country, freedom
and liberty, or home and hearth, we punch the air and beat our chests
over touchdowns and home runs (even though we had absolutely nothing
whatsoever to do with them ourselves). Instead of getting in the face
of these would-be tyrants in Washington, D.C., who are doing
everything they can to steal the American dream, we get in the face of
the poor umpire who makes a bad call or the Little League coach who
doesn’t play my son enough. Our happiness, well-being, and mood are
not determined by anything personally achieved (or lost), but by what
others accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) at the ball park. Whether
our children inherit a land of liberty and freedom does not seem
nearly as important as whether they make the starting lineup on the
football team.

Add to an epidemic obsession with sports the demand for more and more
handouts from Big Brother and the outlook for liberty is not good.
Everywhere we turn, we seem to hear people clamoring for government to
give them more and more. They expect government to supply their every
need and meet their every demand. They then have the gall to turn
around and say, “God bless America: land of the free”?

Ladies and gentlemen, one cannot have it both ways. If we expect
government to be our supplier, we cannot expect that it will not
become our master. Always remember this: government has nothing to
give except that it first takes it from someone else. Every dollar and
every job that government gives is first taken from someone else.
Furthermore, every job given to government is another freedom--and
another dollar--taken from the citizenry. Every government job brings
with it a restriction, a prohibition, a regulation, an inspection, a
fee, a tax, an assessment, etc. As government grows, freedom shrinks.
As government spends, wealth shrinks. And as government hires,
opportunity shrinks.

Most historians agree with Juvenal that the mighty Roman Empire
collapsed from within due to a morally reckless, selfish,
pleasure-crazed, sports-obsessed, bread and circus society that
willingly surrendered the principles of self-government to an
insatiable central government that, through perpetual wars and
incessant handouts, destroyed a once-great republic.

By all appearances, the bread and circus society has reared its ugly
head in America. And make no mistake about it: if the people of the
United States do not quickly repent of this madness, the consequences
will be just as destructive for our once-great republic as it was for
Rome.