Bread and Circuses

Audio of Barry Goldwater's famous 1964 speech is excerpted below.

Everyone is familiar with his statement that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Leading up to that big line, he says that "rather than moral leadership [the American people] have been given bread and circuses."

I knew that the "bread and circuses" line was a reference to something, but I did not know what.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I do now:

This phrase originates in Satire X of the Roman poet Juvenal of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. In context, the Latin phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) is given as the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which has given up its birthright of political freedom:

... 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

It appears to me Goldwater misuses the line. In its original context, the author is not demeaning the rulers, he is demeaning the people.

Goldwater was disparaging his contemporary American leadership.

Juvenal's original use applied in 1964 and it absolutely applies to America in 2008.

It is not the the government's fault that we, as citizens, have given up our birthright of freedom. It is our fault for no longer caring.

We get what we want. What we want is mediocrity. Pandering. Empty promises. And someone else to pay for it.

What we get is Barack Obama and John McCain - two empty suits with the principles of weather vanes.

What can we do about it? How can we restore freedom? How can we get people to care?

We must be practical.

Nothing is going to change tomorrow. Or next month. Or next year. But it can change.

It will change one person at a time. Everyone of us that believes in freedom needs to spread the Gospel of Liberty by word, actions and example. Every convert adds to the momentum of our cause.

A short term goal must be to undermine the two party duopoly. Encourage ballot access for all third parties, no matter the ideology. Freedom lovers will win the battle when competing with socialists, communists, greens, fascists, theocrats or any other group that believes the State is the answer to society's problems.

We should welcome that battle. We can fight that one with vigor and we will win.

The problem is we, and others against the systemic mediocrity of the two-party duopoly, are not allowed on the battle field.

I can feel a widespread disenchantment with the current system. Freedom lovers can tap into that disenchantment. It matters not what the disenchanted currently believe: if we can get them into the fight against the status quo, and defeat it, Liberty and Freedom will be victorious.

The immediate goal is to gain converts against the current political machines that control ballot access and the debates. We do this one peson at a time.

The long term obective is freedom and liberty in the United States.

The short term strategy is bringing down the big-government Republican-Democratic duopoly.

We can do this by promising more than bread and circuses. We can promise freedom.