“The masses must be politicized before they can become of any use. The elite ply them with bread and circuses to keep them docile. The elite hate the idea of a politically engaged population. They want everyone to be watching TV, doing social media, and playing video games. Keep them distracted, keep them dumb, keep them useless.”
― Mark Romel, Mad World: The Seduction of Insanity
*Forewarning - this will have some strong language which my posts generally don’t contain. Sorry, I guess…
I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time shitting on the NFL. And rightly so! The “Black National Anthem” or whatever it was; the players, coaches, and owners who talk about and push different social agendas; promotion of vaccines and other things that seem to be clearly coercive… I get it! But, you all have functioning brains, I assume, and can choose to watch a football game without allowing that sort of bullshit to effect your personal life. And if you’re hating on it because of the quality of the games, I’m with you again! The play has gotten progressively worse over the last 10 years as everything that looks like contact becomes a penalty and the league moves more and more toward something that resembles flag football as opposed to the gladiator league we all grew up watching. And is it all rigged? I don’t know, but you could damn sure make that argument at some point in almost every game. So I am with you! But that does not make watching football some worthless venture that should be avoided like the plague or something you should judge others for participating in.
I think the real problem I have is that most of the “bread and circus” types who spend so much time degrading anyone who enjoys organized sports is that they don’t just limit it to watching the NFL. They feel the need to shit on anyone who watches or participates in any sort of sport, be in college or professional football, basketball, baseball, literally anything. It’s all just a huge waste of time. Just keeps us stupid and distracted, right? But it’s not enough to just hate all of the things that the more blue-collar, low IQ, salt of the earth types enjoy. They also hate comic books, video games and gamer culture, most movies and television, and a lot of the things that are largely associated with more “nerdy” parts of society.
They spend all of their time telling everyone else how docile and brainwashed they are. While all they do with their time is read theory, watch documentaries, and listen to podcasts about things they didn’t do and never will. They live in a make-believe world all their own. One where politics and philosophy can change the world and overturn the puppet masters pulling the strings of the distracted masses. All the while lacking the physical prowess, the social skills, or simply the balls to actually leave the house and go start building the community that would be necessary to actually see that change taken to fruition.
You see, that’s what all of us knuckle-draggers are actually doing. We’re building community through those “bread and circus” activities that are so pointless. I spent almost every weekend watching football with friends; talking about the games and enjoying them for what they were, but more importantly talking about life and building friendships and relationships. It is impossible to go to a live sporting event and not make some sort of connection with the other people around you joining in the fray. Even if you don’t support the same team, even if you don’t support either team that’s playing, you almost have to actively be avoiding all human contact not to talk to other people and make connections. Two years in a row my friend Mark and I have travelled to watch a college football game, and both years we’ve found ourselves talking to, having fun with, and getting to know other people at the restaurants we’ve eaten at and at the games themselves. Making real human connections. That shit is infinitely more important than any amount of political theory.
It’s the same with video games and comics and all of the other wild, fun, nerdy shit we love to be distracted by. I’m part of gaming groups where we play together and have goals and objectives and get to work as a team and communicate; but also where we just talk about what’s going on with our families and our children and our jobs and we genuinely know and care about each other. I’m part of a comic group where we talk about the horrible abortions that are the movies that have been coming out lately, discuss what comics are still worth checking out and which ones have gone too woke to bother wasting time on; but also just get to know each other and our hobbies and interests outside of just being a bunch of huge nerds.
Flag football and old-man basketball and softball leagues all serve the purpose of connecting us to one another in community, building bonds and teamwork and camaraderie, and being more physically active and fit than we would otherwise. It even pushes some people to get in better shape, take better care of their bodies, and do more with their lives.
So sure, “enjoy the bread and circuses” and all that bullshit that the nihilistic internet philosophers like so say. I will. We all will. And we won’t feel guilty about it. Because one day this whole crazy thing is going to crash, whether we’ve been dumb and distracted by sports and fun shit, or we’ve spent every waking moment studying all of the great political thinkers of human history. Only one of these groups actually has the power to take down that system, and it’s the same one that actually has they physical tools and social skills to survive it. You don’t have to be a historical scholar to understand that eventually the people get fed the fuck up and take their fates in to their own hands. In fact, it’s probably better if you’re not if you want to actually stand a chance of survival. Go make some friends, talk to people, be dumb and distracted by the things that are good and fun in the world. Meet people, interact, live a little! You’ll thank me later.