Panem Et Circenses

This morning, watching the news while I was having breakfast, it ocurred to me that we (as in humanity) cannot avoid but falling in endless patterns.

In order to explain myself I must first explain the title to this post. For those who don´t know the expression "Panem Et Circenses" literally means "bread and circuses" it goes back to the Roman Empire and it is used nowadays as a peyorative phrase to describe Governments that in order to keep population calm or to hide controversial facts, provide the mass with low quality entertainment (if you want more information on the history background I encourage you to google it).

So, as I was saying, I was watching the morning news and while I was sipping my orange juice there was this newsreader talking about the latest developments in our Soccer League (because half of the news talk about sports). It was then that I started flipping channels and in every one of them they were talking soccer, what a misfortune!

In times like these, times of great global depression, times of war, times of famine in third world countries how can we be so naive as to fall in those petty manipulations.

What's even more disgraceful is the use that politicians make about topics, that shouldn't be taken as frivolous, as the Global Meltdown, or the swine flu or Ahmadineyad stash of nuclear weapons. It kind of reminds me when Bush was trying to find weapons of mass destruction in Irak, and all the while they we're planning how to rob them of their oil. And all of this for the sake of Democratizing the country (Just like Columbus trying to convert the pagans to christianism).

But we are to happy to know how much Cristiano Ronaldo cost to a soccer club, and to read the latest column of gossip about Paris Hilton: Some will say that this things make the life more bearable, but in my humble opinion the truth is that they weaken us. How can we hope to make a better world if we don't involve ourselves in the world that surrounds us.

I'm finishing with the lyrics of one of my favorites bands; "I fell I have been abandoned. I alone seem to see disgrace as I watch these mad dogmatics govern our entire race." (Sacrilege. AFI, Crash Love).