Poem: Bread and circuses

Give bread to the people I guess we can afford it. Well, we must admit we live in some sort of decent luxury. Of course, we deserve it, thanks to the superiority of our enterprising mind and our special standing in the order of things. But let our magnanimity also recognise the people's cooperation and hard work. And, since they can't live on bread alone, and seeing that they tend to grow somewhat restless, let them also have some extra privileges for their distraction. Things like TV shows dressed in glitter and dreams. These privileges should be enjoyable and not over-stimulating to the mind. They should fit in with what people feel familiar and comfortable with. In other words, they should be the things we've been already teaching them. That would be a nice and easy distraction after a hard day's work. It would be like a promise of fun and glitter and riches and all kinds of dreams to come. As we've been informed by our consultants these are the things we've successfully taught people to crave. The promise of these should keep them content and eager to keep going. And since they also appreciate freedom, we should impart to them that they are free. Free to control their lives, to pursue our dreams, to get the glitter and the riches, even to criticise us if they feel so inclined. That should keep them happy, so to speak. And we wouldn't want anything less for the people, especially since experience has shown us that that's the way they keep quiet and don't cause any unnecessary trouble. That's also the way they get energised and they can work even harder to buy their bread and circuses. And since that's clearly to our benefit, we will all be happy. ... Afrodity Giannakis

From GLW issue 220