Excited football fans expressed their joy at the recent Philadelphia Eagles 2018 Superbowl victory by taking to the streets in a show of drunken rioting. Smashed bottles, burned cars, fighting, and general mayhem erupted as people climbed statues, jumped from hotel awnings, and screamed as they looted gas stations and momentarily turned what decent parts are left of Philadelphia into a chaotic war zone:
As was expected, the city of Philadelphia reacted to their well-earned Super Bowl win with brotherly grace and aplomb.
LOL, you see it’s a funny joke because frankly it’s a miracle that place is still standing.
It’s no surprise the Philly police scanner was a wild ride late Sunday night as Super Bowl-parched fans flooded the streets by the thousands. Here are a few choice excerpts, as transcribed by CNN:
“10,000 college students on Walnut Street.”
“You have at least 19,000 people headed to Center City.”
“You see that guy traveling on the pole on Walnut. Can you try to get down there?”
“Got a Christmas tree fire. Tell ’em get the fire extinguisher out of my truck to put it out.”
“They are climbing the statues outside of Art Museum.”
“There is to be no one on top of the trash truck, guys.”
“They just flipped a car over here.”
“A man jumped off the light pole and landed on his head.”
“We need some people out here.”
Now, Philly fans are notoriously rowdy and there was certainly a lot of documented foolery — like a bunch of people standing on an awning outside of a Ritz hotel until it collapsed. But a few of the stories circulating on social media were just that — stories.
Reports of ostrich riding? False. The Philadelphia Zoo confirmed they have no ostriches and all other birds, ride-able or otherwise, were safe.
Likewise, reports of fatalities were, as of Monday morning, also erroneous.
Ajennah Amir with the Philadelphia Mayor’s office told CNN early Monday morning that there were no fatalities, but definitely several acts of vandalism.
She also said there were reports of looting at a gas station and some injuries reported around light poles that had been pulled down.
As the police scanner said, “It’s endless Chief… Endless.”
William Carlos Williams would be proud. (source)
Look at the videos.:
Here you have have thousands of people who are rioting and destroying their city over a Superbowl game.
The NFL is a circus, and the superbowl is the circus’ final performance until the next season.
It’s no different than when in the past, people have rioted after EBT cards, known popularly as food stamps, have either been reduced, suspended, delayed, or modified to give excessive amounts. Such was the case in 2013 after a glitch in the EBT cards for the state of Louisiana resulted in holders being given unlimited balances so that shoppers could buy groceries for free. Riots over “free food” erupted at Wal-Marts across the state, and police had to be called in to manage the situation:
The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting Walmart stores in Louisiana.
Walmart and local police in Springhill and Mansfield confirmed to CBS affiliate KSLA that officers were called into the stores to help maintain order Saturday as shoppers swept through the aisles at two stores and bought as much as they could carry.
Xerox, which hosts some of the infrastructure used by the EBT card system, told KSLA that a power outage during a routine maintenance test caused the temporary glitch.
Walmart workers phoned their corporate headquarters to ask how they should handle all the shoppers with unlimited, government-funded spending limits, and were told to keep the registers ringing.
“We did make the decision to continue to accept EBT cards during the outage so that they could get food for their families,” Walmart representative Kayla Whaling told KSLA. She added that Walmart was, “fully engaged and monitoring the situation and transactions during the outage.”
Amateur video taken on shoppers’ cell phones shows dozens of shopping carts, piled high with merchandise, abandoned in the aisles of one Walmart after the announcement was made that EBT cards were once again showing accurate spending limits.
Police spokesmen in both locations told KSLA that no arrests were made during the spending sprees.
Shoppers gave mixed reactions to the incident, with one man in the Springhill store told KSLA it was simply “human reaction” to stock-up when given the opportunity. Shopper Stan Garcia was more critical of the unscrupulous shoppers, however, saying that taking advantage of the brief glitch in the benefits system amounted to “plain theft. That’s stealing, that’s all I got to say about it.” (source)
The ancient Roman writer Decius Juninus Juvenalis, known as Juvenal and who lived in the late first and early second century AD, wrote a series of Satires in which he gave scathing criticisms to the debauched and disordered ways of the Roman pagans. In his tenth satire, he uses the phrase “bread and circuses” from which the English saying is derived:
They shed their sense of responsibility long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob that used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything, curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only, bread and circuses.
‘I hear that many will perish.’ ‘No doubt, The furnace is huge.’ (source)
Throughout history, “bread and circuses” has been the historical tool of control used against the masses by the powerful. As long as people’s bellies are filled and secure in their next meal coupled with distractions they enjoy, most people will passively accept the situation of the times in which they live and will not attempt to make changes that could interrupt their creature comforts. It is an extension of original sin because it is the adaptation of a man to his environments based on his personal sentiments and not the reality of his situation.
Such people are sometimes said to be”fat and happy.”
However, is it good to be “fat and happy?”
Fat is almost never good because fat means a person is overweight because he is eating too much, eating poor quality foods, not exercising, or a combination of the three. Being fat usually means atrophied muscles, poor heart health, poor overall physical health, an unattractive physical appearance, and a mentality that chooses comfort and laziness over self-improvement and discipline. As all things in the world are inclined towards disorder, being fat is often a sign that a person would rather choose to embrace his own entropy than to make the often times difficult choices necessary for health and self-betterment.
It is good to try to be happy, because happiness is not intrinsically bad and it feels nice and makes other people feel nice. However, happiness is not a requirement. Happiness also does not necessarily mean that the source from which one derives his happiness can be good, or that the reason why one is happy is healthy.
Some people feel happy after doing the will of God.
Some people feel happy after listening to music.
Some people feel happy after drinking themselves into a drunken stupor.
Some people feel happy after harassing other people secretly and then blaming them for the harassment, such as gaslighting.
Some people feel happy after torturing animals for no reason, such as the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer.
Some people feel happy after watching pornography.
Some people feel happy after masturbating to videos of people or animals being tortured to death (google “masturbate to execution”- it is more common than one would think).
Happiness is a feeling that comes after doing or participating in some activity that gives one pleasure. It is not absolutely, but often times is a fruit of entertainment. Whether it is watching football games, listening to music, or torturing the neighbor’s cat, what constitutes entertainment varies by person and culture but is done for the purpose of obtaining happiness either for the self or for another. Happiness can be good, but it does not have to be- there were many people who were sad and good, and there were many people who were evil but happy.
Happiness is subject to the will, and unless the human will is first rectified, then only can true happiness be achieved.
“Fat and happy” is a deceptive saying, because these same people are often just “fat and miserable”- they look happy from their expressions and seem content in their way of life, but internally are dying. Many times when pressed, these same people will admit their misery, but so few will actually make the necessary changes to help themselves. Some of this is truly because of acquired ignorance or mental defects. However, most of this is because of choice- they would rather be miserable and have a semblance of comfort they are already accustomed to than actually struggle through their self-inflicted pain.
The purpose of “bread and circuses” is to make people “fat and happy”- fed enough to become slothful and lazy, entertained enough to focus on insignificant or even destructive things as opposed to real ones, and overall to be satisfied with one’s state enough not to question the status quo outside of that which the status quo wants questioned. This “range of questioning” that is permitted by the status quo in any society is what allowed for disagreement between people, especially in large numbers, so that it arouses peoples’ attention and in so doing becomes a focus of entertainment- a circus- for the masses that may address some serious issues but will not address others.
Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about this in his famous book, The Prince:
Some princes, so as to hold securely the state, have disarmed their subjects; others have kept their subject towns distracted by factions; others have fostered enmities against themselves; others have laid themselves out to gain over those whom they distrusted in the beginning of their governments; some have built fortresses; some have overthrown and destroyed them. And although one cannot give a final judgment on all of these things unless one possesses the particulars of those states in which a decision has to be made, nevertheless I will speak as comprehensively as the matter of itself will admit.
There never was a new prince who has disarmed his subjects; rather when he has found them disarmed he has always armed them, because, by arming them, those arms become yours, those men who were distrusted become faithful, and those who were faithful are kept so, and your subjects become your adherents. (source)
What he is describing for the 15th century is what is called today “controlled opposition.” In today’s society it often takes the form of two (or more, but usually two) “warring” groups that appear to oppose each other and do so aggressively in public. However, when one begins to examine the people in the groups and their philosophies, often times either the “enemies” are shown to be friends or close associates, or that it does not matter who takes power for the moment over whatever issue, for the results that each side gives in spite of alleged differences lead to the same conclusions in principle.
Politics is the obvious and easy example. The Republicans and the Democrats in the USA are the same party, because regardless of the claims they make and small differences they will espouse, both parties have maintained the post-World War II expansion of government, loss of civil liberties, economic manipulation, and outright socialist policies no matter who is in power. The only fundamental changes are, as anybody can learn from speaking with an elderly person, that Americans pay more taxes, have less freedoms, and less time with their families, more debt, and have become more miserable with each generation.
But the concept of controlled opposition is not limited to politics. Just look at the recent scandal with the NFL and former San Francisco 49er player Colin Kaepernick.
Colin Kaepernick
To make a long story short, Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance because he said that the anthem represents a country that “oppresses black people“, and during the discussion he made comments in support of the group Black Lives Matter. The issue, which started in August 2016, continued to be one of the largest and most discussed controversies in sports for an entire year, with President Trump in September 2017 still talking about it to his political advantage.
What was really the issue with Colin Kaepernick? Who cares if a football player- a circus actor- wanted to stand or kneel during the national anthem? Why does it matter, and why so much discussion and frustration about such a trivial issue?
It is because of controlled opposition- a form of entertainment to distract the people from real issues.
Most of what is presented in society or what “becomes news” – be it politics, sports, “controversies,” and others- when examined closely, are just distractions with no meaning, especially in the USA. There is no point to what is being produced other than to serve as a focal point for the zombie-like viewers as they consume food.
Contrast these forms of news with the scandal that started in 2015 with Planned Parenthood as the Center for Medical Progress exposed a massive human baby-body parts trafficking ring. Their videos proved a connection between the abortion industry and big business, who supports murder for profit with the help of the government.
What you are witnessing here is an expose of a real incident of human organ trafficking taking place that nobody cares about, and when mentioned, people will become angry about it being exposed.
David Daleiden, who was the main journalist involved in exposing the scandal, has for now three years been the subject of legal and personal harassment from Planned Parenthood and their supporters among the masses as well as in business. He has gone to jail, been sued, been slandered, been libeled, and he is still fighting a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation to have more videos that he made unsealed:
The Thomas More Society, one of several groups that has defended Dalieden and his co-worker in the undercover videos, Sandra Merritt, noted this week “the clock is ticking down to January 26, 2018, which is the extended deadline for the National Abortion Federation to file a response to the petition filed by the legal team representing undercover journalist David Daleiden with the United States Supreme Court.”
The report explains Daleiden has petitioned the high court to review and reverse a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming Judge William Orrick’s gag order that prohibits Daleiden from releasing videos he took at National Abortion Federation conferences.
More than a dozen other videos already have been released, and the NAF video was online for a brief moment before a Planned Parenthood-linked federal judge, who refused to take himself off the case, issued an order suppressing it. (source)
The Daleiden case is a MASSIVE scandal that should have won him a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Planned Parenthood should have been investigated and shut down, people should have gone to jail, and companies should have been shut down and their officers prosecuted. The evidence was BLATANT. It was all organized. Nothing needed to be hidden.
And yet nobody cared.
But people will riot over a football game victory.
But forget about football- just look at the video shares for the Center for Medical Progress video I posted above- it only has 1.2 million views in three years.
Compare that with the new rapper “Lil’ Windex”- a Canadian rapper who got his name after “sippin’ on Windex” and whose music (if it can even be called rap or any form of music) is absolute meaningless trash:
This video is complete degeneracy, yet the “rapper” has made millions per year since his first album at 15.
The total views in 6 months for the above video? 6.4 million
This is what “bread and circuses” does. It is just a distraction for people to focus on, that those in power use to generate attention away from major issues and onto insignificant ones. So long as this is done and the people are fed, there is not going to be any changes made in the nation because the people will not stand up against what would disrupt their creature comforts.
From the movie Idiocracy, but it makes a good point
So what is the point of trying to make society better if there is so much wanton disorder, laziness, and a general lack of care by so many?
The answer is because it is what is right.
A drawing of the allegory of the cave
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates and Glaucon have a famous dialogue about coming to a realization of the truth known as the allegory of the cave. The entire text is here, but in the story, they discuss a case of men who have lived their entire lives in a cave, knowing only that which is around them, being entertained by shadows on the wall and their physical needs satisfied. They speak of one of the men who begins to question his surroundings, and eventually discovers that the pictures on the wall are just shadows made by another, and there is an entire world outside of the cave. However, upon discovering the outside world, he has to return to the cave to tell those still in it what he has seen and to call them out, even if may cost him his life because men would rather kill him than know the truth:
SOCRATES: Do you think the one who had gotten out of the cave would still envy those within the cave and would want to compete with them who are esteemed and who have power? Or would not he or she much rather wish for the condition that Homer speaks of, namely “to live on the land [above ground] as the paid menial of another destitute peasant”? Wouldn’t he or she prefer to put up with absolutely anything else rather than associate with those opinions that hold in the cave and be that kind of human being?
GLAUCON: I think that he would prefer to endure everything rather than be that kind of human being.
SOCRATES: And now, I responded, consider this: If this person who had gotten out of the cave were to go back down again and sit in the same place as before, would he not find in that case, coming suddenly out of the sunlight, that his eyes ere filled with darkness?”
GLAUCON: Yes, very much so.
SOCRATES: Now if once again, along with those who had remained shackled there, the freed person had to engage in the business of asserting and maintaining opinions about the shadows — while his eyes are still weak and before they have readjusted, an adjustment that would require quite a bit of time — would he not then be exposed to ridicule down there? And would they not let him know that he had gone up but only in order to come back down into the cave with his eyes ruined — and thus it certainly does not pay to go up.
SOCRATES: And if they can get hold of this person who takes it in hand to free them from their chains and to lead them up, and if they could kill him, will they not actually kill him?
GLAUCON: They certainly will. (source)
God desires that all men seek truth for the sake of truth because all truth comes from Him. To seek truth is to step towards seeking God. It is good to be well-fed, and it is good to be happy, but man does not live for delights or pleasure. He lives for truth and it is by truth that He is fed because God is truth. Without truth, life becomes a series of distractions, as some men want it to be for the sake of their gain at another man’s expense. It is the difference between heaven and hell.
Margaret Thatcher famously said that “socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.” As with socialism, there needs to be a constant supply of “bread and circuses” for the deceptions that define modern life and throughout history to continue. Just like a drug, when people get used to them, they become addicted and as expected, complaisant. Yet what happens if the bread or circuses stop?
The Bible warns that Wisdom cries out in the streets, seeking for those who desire her, to turn them from their ways toward truth and righteousness. Those who refuse will be saved by her, and those who do not will be likewise condemned.
All parties come to an end, all deceptions pass away, and the truth is eventually revealed.
Don’t be found ignorant, or in Philadelphia’s case, rioting on top of somebody’s car.
