Keeping Americans Distracted

I have a conversation with one friend or another on this subject about once per month.  The question: how terrible do things have to become before “bread and circuses” no longer maintain the order of capitalism over some other system of social order?

As the planet continues to bake, how many degrees above pre-industrial temperatures, and how much human misery needs to be sustained, before the appeal of beer and the National Football League in the U.S. start to lose their hold?  Obviously, most Americans are emotionally removed from the lives of other people.  Why else would “American First!” have any meaning?

Here’s a politically incorrect statement from the same Roman poet Juvenal: “There is nothing more repulsive than a wealthy woman.” I remember coming across this as a young man and laughing my ass off.