“Bread and circus” refers to cheap entertainment used to distract people from problems. It was first mentioned by Roman poet Juvenal, who criticized the Roman Empire’s handouts of grain and lavish entertainment. The term implies people are easily distracted and critical of government mismanagement. It can be used as a yardstick for a healthy government. TV is seen as the modern-day equivalent.
The term “bread and circus” is used to describe cheap entertainments that are used to distract the population from the problems around them. It can be used literally to refer to things like benefits and other subsidies along with government sponsored entertainment, but it is also used more generally to talk about government mismanagement and to describe people who are sidetracked by such offers. As you can imagine, the connotations of this term are usually negative.
Bread and circus were first mentioned by the Roman poet Juvenal, who wrote in the 1st century describing what he perceived as the downfall of Roman society. He felt that the Romans had been softened and weakened by the Roman Empire, no longer living up to their heroic reputation and history. When he sneeringly referred to bread and circuses, he was referring to the handouts of grain and other foods by the Roman aristocracy to lower-class Romans and to lavish government-sponsored entertainment.
The implication of the term is that people are easily distracted by amusements and willing to be depleted by bread and circuses, both literal and figurative. The term is also meant to be critical of the government, suggesting that instead of actually dealing with problems, the government simply hopes to distract people. A related concept is “the opium of the masses,” the drug that keeps people appeased, rather than enabling them to remain alert.
As a general rule, bread and circuses are of low quality, as well as low cost, and are easily accessible to anyone who wants them. Some people have suggested that television is the modern day equivalent of Juvenal’s circus, keeping people at peace and focused on minor issues, rather than forcing them to focus on problems in their societies and with their governments.
Sometimes you can use the concept of bread and circus as a yardstick for how healthy a government is. If officials seem to spend a lot of time promoting minor social programs and talking about trivial issues, it is very likely that they are hoping to distract people from deeper problems. This is especially common during times of civil unrest in response to problems such as war and faltering economies.
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