The Roman satirist Juvenal wrote that the masses of his day no longer cared for politics or justice. All they wanted was “panem et circenses”, bread and circuses. As long as the state kept them fed and entertained, they would tolerate corruption, cruelty, and decay.
Fast forward two thousand years, and America is running the same playbook.
The “bread” comes in the form of bare-minimum survival: Social Security under constant attack, wages that don’t keep up with rent, food assistance treated like a privilege. The ruling class never allows enough to thrive, only enough to keep people working, consuming, and afraid to lose what little they have.
The “circuses” are endless. Culture wars dominate the headlines while wages stagnate. Trump performs like a professional wrestler, throwing insults and manufacturing enemies for the crowd to boo. Media corporations serve up nonstop drama — from celebrity meltdowns to political theater — so long as it keeps people glued to their screens and not in the streets. Meanwhile, the real show goes unseen: corporate tax breaks, union-busting, deregulation, mass surveillance, and endless war. The bread gets thinner, the circuses get louder.
But history shows us something important: empires can only distract their people for so long. Rome collapsed under its own contradictions. Capitalism in 2025 is not immune.
The question is whether we stay in the stands, cheering while the empire crumbles, or whether we organize, educate, and fight to build something better.
Sisyphus Shrugged 