• kraftykitty (edited 8 years ago)
    +5

    Bread and circuses, my friend. Bread and circuses.

    • spoderman
      +3

      Huh? Did I miss something?

      Have I dropped some popcorn?

      • kraftykitty
        +5

        "Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement.

      • FRIK
        +4

        No, you're good. "Bread and circuses" is a phrase meaning that people want and are satisfied by huge spectacles and free food.

      • stareyedgirl
        +2

        Wikipedia page for Bread and Circuses

        From the article:

        In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,[1] as an offered "palliative." Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.[2][3][4] The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.