Roman Empire vs American Republic

OvenMaster · #1 07-29-2009, 06:13 PM

The Roman rulers gave the peasants bread and circuses to keep them occupied and less aware of the problems the Empire was suffering... and they fell for it.

Today, our rulers give the peasants beer and televised sports (I'm looking at you, NASCAR and pro football) to keep them occupied and less aware of the problems the Republic is suffering... and most are falling for it.

Discuss.

Sandy G · #2 07-29-2009, 06:24 PM

My gran said the same thing about the space missions...Especially the moon shots...

chuckworkb · #3 07-29-2009, 06:53 PM

Well we don't have government owned TV, Movies, and Radio, and entertainment................... yet, but we as a country sure do know more about who won American Idol, or what some truck driver did driving on the Ice Road, then we do about what our government is doing - that is for sure.

Bring up pros and cons of the current state of the union and watch people either get blank stares or walk away.

Bring up how much of a fight Jon and Kate had last night and you need a cop for crowd control.

Charles · #4 07-29-2009, 07:11 PM

Well, the government may not own the media, but they regulate it.

And the education industry isn't about educating people, it's about creating worker bees.

It's a rigged game.

Chas

Twodogs · #5 07-29-2009, 07:16 PM

I think about how Rome fell quite often lately. I wonder if Obama plays the violin. Hmmm??

JJIII · #6 07-29-2009, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles

Well, the government may not own the media, but they regulate it.

And the education industry isn't about educating people, it's about creating worker bees.

It's a rigged game.

Chas

QFT!

merrylander · #7 07-30-2009, 08:36 AM

Well as far as regulating the media it was the last iidiot at the Funny Cookie Company that allowed it all to be sold to massive conglomerates. Now none of them have the slightest interest in educating the electorate, just the exact opposite.

Turn on the news, especially local stations, traffic reports, weather reports (mostly inaccurate), no national news and heaven forbid they tell us what is happening outside our borders.

The big three networks are not a lot better with their broadcast news (I don't count FOX because I already know how Murdoch thinks).

Very similar to the musroom theory of management - keep everyone in the dark and feed them horse manure.