Bread and circuses (Roman, influence, general, Washington)

[noetsi]

I am a socialist, sort of. Its why I found this amusing, since it comes from a conservative source addressing why the US working class failed to (as in the past or in other countries) react sharply to rapidly growing disparity and income stagnation in recent decades.

Third, and a variation on the consumer mentality, there has been a change in the non-working or leisure activities—the preoccupations and not just the occupations—of much of the population. For many Americans today, especially those in what was once the working class, there is indeed a kind of mass activity, but it is not mass political or social activism. Rather, it involves spectator entertainment, especially sports. For them, there is no participation in anything involving real interaction with other human beings, be it political parties, labor unions, community associations, fraternal societies, or, if they have become adults, even in participatory team sports themselves. It is the poorer classes, in contrast to the richer ones, that spend most of their free time with spectator entertainment.

Remind anyone of anything in the past....

The American Conservative -- The Rich Get Richer

[CAVA1990]

What's a total joke is how the big business Republicans have conned the teabaggers into supporting their "don't tax the rich" policies by giving them false hopes they'll someday join their ranks. A little more class warfare here would be healthier.

[noetsi]

Hey after the Irish thread I figured you were a solid republican cav

Conervatives have created a series of myths to convince workers the existing system benefits them. But that would take us far from a history thread so I won't go there. My point here was simply how little has changed in 1800 years.

[majoun]

Leftists in mid 20th century Portugal often claimed that the Salazar dictatorship was able to stay in power because the Portuguese working class were only interested in "futebol, fado, e Fatima" (i.e. soccer, popular music, and religion) and the regime encouraged all those things. (In fact, internationally famous fado singer, Amalia Rodrigues, the Edith Piaf of Portugal, almost married Salazar.)

[Fat Freddy]

Americans love circuses.

That’s why they always elect clowns to lead the country.

[Rhett_Butler]

Yup, I wrote a nice thesis in college on the role the Roman Circus played in the downfall of the Roman Empire....

That was a good 16-17 years ago, so no, I dont' have a copy of it....

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by noetsi

Hey after the Irish thread I figured you were a solid republican cav.

Is there some link between Republicanism and anti-Irish sentiments (not that I have those really) that I'm not aware of? How about my follow-ups on the kids going to bed hungry? I was raised a Republican and will leave it at that.

[noetsi]

No there is a link between republicans in my experience and claiming people are poor because they are dumb or lazy. That is when poverty is raised, conservative response is to tie it nearly entirely to failures of those in poverty.

[John Walmsley]

I would suggest that a level of socialism is as fixed in American tradition as baseball and apple pie. However, "socialism" has become a dirty word in America because many people conflate it with communism. The truth is we have been less than honest in our acceptance of it. Unlike the Scandinavian countries, we abhor and deny the word. We like our socialism sugar-coated as in "bailouts" or "subsidies." Check out the hundreds of billions of dollars given to farmers over the past decades, some of whom don't even farm, and you get the idea. Or read about the carrot-on-the-stick given to many foreign auto companies to move their companies into our southern states. A link follows:

Foreign Auto Makers Won Billions in Government Subsidies « The Washington Independent

Many of our politicians, who would distance themselves from any idea other than rugged individualism, self-reliance and pull-yourself-up-by your-bootstraps, are often first to cue up for taxpayer largess for their states. So the word "socialism" is applied differently, depending on whether a "welfare queen" or a mega-corporation is the recipient.

[noetsi]

Socialism was in fact quite influential in the US in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. It was strongly opposed by those who identified with elites and business. During the Cold War, an era that coincided with general prosperity, these groups did their best to poison the term socialist as essentially traitors to the US and identical with communism. They were quite successful, a fasinating example of how (particularly in the absense of historical knowledge) use of the media can make a concept once seen positive, become negative and influence future behavior.