There is a very known saying – that goes back to the Ancient times – that states that the people only need, in order to be happy, to have “bread and circus”.
Do you think this still applies today?
Bread and circus
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“Interrogam-te a respeito da bebida inebriante e do jogo de azar. Dize: ‘Em ambos há benefícios e malefícios para o homem; porém, os seus malefícios são maiores do que os seus benefícios’.” (Corão 2:219)
Uma hora as pessoas se cansam de comer apenas pão.
E as piadas do circo começam a ficar chatas .
É quando isso acontece que procuramos outros meios para encontrar a felicidade .
No me lo había pensado pero creo que estoy necesitando de circo en mi vida…
una frase antigua pero que todavìa se practica, muchos gobiernos para mantenersen tratan de hacer lo mismo un poco de pan y bastante circo es la forma de mantener ocupados a la gente mientras ellos hacen y deshacen con todo en el universo.
Bread stops Hunger, so yes, I think it still applies today. But what will stop thirst? Mmmh…
Circus gives Joy, so absolutely yes but not when/if the animals are suffering.
I love the scene in the movie of Walt Disneys’ Peter Pan, where Peter, “The Lost Boys” and the “Darlings” imagine the table in their Treehouse home full of energie, everything for the heart of a child, full of colour and giving hunger just by looking at it. I always wanted to spring in the TV and enjoy the diner with them!
Alegria! Le Cirque du Soleil is on its way.
The circus is a means to get the bread – we just dont fully understand the circus yet.
Bread, to share and keep us alive…
Circus, the planet earth/tent, with everything and everyone weird and wonderful to enjoy… ♥
Bread to provide sustenance, and a circus to represent the maximum opportunities to live out your dreams. I want to be a human cannonball when I grow up. I just re-discovered this dream!
Bread and Circus was an alternative- politics found to distract people from decay/harsh economic reality.
Bread= instant physical satiation of hunger.
Circus= mental distraction.
This phrase represents the ancient politic acts on the ancient rome. Almost the fall of rome empire, the manitenance the emperors’ power depended on this politics. althought, this acts showed very expensive for the roman empire. This was one of the causes of falling of Roman Empire.
One of the good work about the fall of the roman empire was written by Edward Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I recommend.
correct please:
ancient politics acts. Almost the fall of roman empire.
The maintenance the emperors’ power depends on these politics.
People are always looking for sensations. Somehow it seems to me that they have pleasure in being cruel to others, but they don’t admit to it. There’s a lot of hypocrysm going on nowadays. It seems that history does repeat itself. But the Golden Ruler of the Universe will take care that this won’t happen anymore. All capitalists who arranged bread and circus will go down hill. If ugliness sees itself it destroys itself. So all capitalists will destroy themselves.
Let us hope that the anicent circus is not intened here.
But sure if you want a people to follow you this is a must for the masses.
I hope I am not sounding arrogant when I say I whish to avoid the masses and what they need.
They will settle for the ancinet roman circus and it’s meaning and never look for more if they are given no other choice insted of looking for a higher thing and use the bread and circus to distract them from the discontent they feel. Not that I have lived like that in ancnient times that I know of however, today is the same in some ways.
bread and circus are the only things that makes man happy… not taking in literally, food will make us happy because then we have something to eat in order to keep us alive, while circus in my own understanding entails fun, laughter and happiness… may it be from sources like people, or events that generated it… the circus, brings smiles to our faces and brightens our souls… a light weight, warm, happy and securing feeling that feels the heart. a secret and main ingredient that is L O V E . . . ;)
C’est dommage que le plus grand cirque du monde n’a pas assez de pain pour faire manger tout le monde.
It is such a shame that the biggest circus in the world does not have enough bread to feed everybody.
History repeats itself with all its decadency.
Just look at ancient Rome and how it fell.
when the food is enough ,we need the circus .when the food isn’t enough ,we fight with the bread first.but when we get used to the food and circus ,we begin to fed up with it and want another things .
very true
the whole quest of human life is to elevate to the position where they will be satisfied by bread alone. The happiest man does not require anything else. he rejoices in simplicity and in the bread in his life that is the expression of life here, now, simply
Hi, guys! The right term is “Bread and Circuses”, in the plural! Thanx.
noooooooooooooo!!! though food is the basic needs of living… food and fun is not the only thing to be happy!!! what is happiness without love? without companion? ….take the example of those celebrities who have everything but nothing…those gossips pages blah blah blah!!!! even though people who live for food and fun, i bet they sure feels something more is missing and they are longing for it……
This metaphor is still very modern – a lot of us go on in life without understanding – or wanting to understand – that big changes are always done while the people are being entertained by a juicy scandal. By being happy with bread and circus we are helping the rulers to reign they way they want to.
The mankind hasn’t changed that much in just a few thousand years.
The word circus come from the Greek kírkos meaning ring or circle. I believe that the quote still applies today that we need food (that which feeds our bodies and our souls) and ring or circle (that which to belong). When we believe that we belong and feel well fed physically and spiritually we are all pretty satisfied.
(In my humble opinion)
Dear my beloved writer,
Bread and circus could make people being happy
But it depends on how that people eat bread and watch circus.
If he knows how to eat and watch things peacefully
Then he would be happy, and that will be enough.
regards, ^_^
Good morning all !
Be happy and let others be happy !
Cheers !
Sandy
Yes! i think that a shoe could be ugly, even grotesque as long as it continued to be a shoe, serving as its purpose to protect the feet. But people dont want shoes that only accomplish this purpose. They want beautiful shoes, with models and different colors. Bread & Circus! Eat & Dream. Science & Art. Food to the body & Food to the soul. Man was done to all of that and more.
” Circus now and again never hurt anyone” If you refer to circus specifically as we know it, i disagree! Let’s all condemn the cruel mistreatment of animals in circus! Do you really feel happy when you watch animals in captivity suffer and being forced to do thing against their will and their nature as well?
Dear Paul from Austria, good evening!
..And a lot of music of course…
Love,
Thelma
Bread and circus.
I was going to say that it’s not enough. But now that I come to think of it…
I think that we need bread and circus now more than ever – contentment, simplicity, inner peace, that tiny place in our soul that is safe and sound that we always revisit. Years ago some things in life were important, but now everything seems to be, and so the really important things have lost their true value. Life has become more complicated only because people have, but why is it that the wisest of men are actually the simplest, the ones that know what life is really about?
People that live by the bread and circus are not necessarily thoughtless oblivious people. They are the ones whose happiness is easily achieved and who see beauty in the simple things around them.
I remember once that my teacher told my class to ‘ marry someone who can make you laugh, because in life you’ll need it.’ And I agree, there is pain in life as it is.
And then there is this certain someone I look up to, who wrote in the preface of one of his books about a monk who was ‘the humblest in the whole monastery, who had never studied the learned books of the time.His parents were simple people, who worked in an old travelling circus (unintended pun), and all they had taught him was to throw balls into the air and juggle with them.’
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