Bread and Games

Yesterday, I came across a post on Threads, featuring a video that compared the Roman Colosseum, with the famous “bread and games,” to the world today, which hasn’t changed. The bread and games have been replaced, of course, but the essence remains.

I, for one, was nurtured in my childhood by the cartoons from Club Dorothée, and it’s largely the reason why I’m writing these words from Japan. Had I been born in Réunion, for example, my parents’ birthplace, I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t be writing from the same place.

We can obviously forge our future, but we are completely dependent on where we are born! It seems obvious, but no one chooses to be born. And to be frank, never being born is the simplest solution to avoid falling into a deep despair about the world we live in. A quote says, “The best destiny is not to be born; the second-best is to die young.”

Since we don’t choose our birth, we don’t choose our bread or our games. For some, like me, we have the chance to live in a modest environment but have never lacked anything, and instead, we have benefited from many things and resources that were not “owed” to us.

The freedom we have in “democratic” countries becomes a way to escape responsibility for most people. “It’s not my problem, it’s my freedom. ‘Do things first for yourself and your family, and then you’ll see.’”

The freedom we have makes us selfish and self-centered. It’s us first, others second.

On the scale of an average individual without “power,” being selfish only affects those closest to them, namely their family, friends, and colleagues.

For an individual with power, the situation is quite different. Especially since social media has amplified this power of influence.

Being selfish then becomes indoctrinating people who are under our influence.

So, returning to the “bread and games,” elites have understood for millennia the difference between them and the “normals”: the awareness of the world we live in. They instinctively understood the effects of bread and games on the human brain.

When we don’t have time to think but have what we need for survival, we are “satisfied,” regardless of what happens before our eyes.

My favorite movie is probably The Matrix, but I realize that I wasn’t fully “awake” as I thought. Awakening is stepping out of one’s own selfishness to make things happen and awaken others.

We each have our differences and potential, and everyone will have their own way of doing things. For some, in difficult positions, just taking care of oneself is already showing awakening.

However, just as many recently indulge in obesity and in their freedoms, the behavior tends to be about turning a blind eye.

Because the system encourages us to turn a blind eye.

Only a few more minutes of writing today.

There are people who are aware and who act for awakening. There are people who are aware and who act against awakening. There are people who are aware and do nothing by choice. There are people who are aware and do nothing because they don’t have time, and they need to prioritize. There are people who aren’t aware and do nothing instinctively for awakening. There are people who aren’t aware and do nothing. There are people who aren’t aware and act against awakening.

I’ll let you guess which type you are, which type you think you are, and which type the various figures—CEOs, politicians, athletes, actors—who “illuminate” your lives belong to.

I was in the category of those who do nothing by choice.