PANEM E CIRCENSES

“Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, wrote Juvenal, a farsighted poet of Ancient Rome.  Kings, emperors, political leaders, and autocrats of many hues have used this pork-barrel stratagem to keep peace and stay in power.

Wheat to make bread is no longer distributed in the streets of Rome.  Now, in Italy and in a large number of countries, it has been replaced by more sophisticated welfare handouts like food stamps.  Consequently, these social benefits have become entitlements.  During the Roman Republic, Ludi romana were public games which took place in circuses.  Initially religious offerings quickly morphed into political events paid by rich sponsors intended to share their wealth with the populus or politicians who sought forgiveness from them.  Brutus, Julius Caesar’s assassin, organized annual games to endear himself to the Romans.  He was soon upstaged by the grandiose games sponsored by Octavian/Augustus to celebrate the Imperial cult.

Circus games were seen as a win-win for all concerned: happy sponsors, fame for the participants (gladiators included) and cheerful spectators.  Nowadays, the Olympic Games are the new circus whereby sponsors seek goodwill, prestige and brownie points.  Coincidentally, the 2024 Olympic Games take place in France, a country in a state of political flux.  Emmanuel Macron, the French president is banking on the Paris games to seek some breathing space to get out of the political mess of his own making.  Foolishly, he had called a snap election which left the congress without a majority.  As a result, the Games are taking place in a country which only has a caretaker government.

The Games ‘opening ceremony along the banks of the River Seine was a spectacular pageantry, and certainly a tough act to follow by/for future candidate cities.  

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, another circus is captivating the populus: the raucous US presidential election campaign.   The divisive political mood is rousing the campaign temperature to Hunger Games level, the campaign looks everyday more like a take-no-prisoner gladiator fight.

The Paris Games are the brainchild of Macron.  To organize the event, he had to team up with two women who do not share his political agenda: the socialist mayor of Paris and the conservative president of the Ile de France region.  This rather un-French collaboration produced a ground-breaking and magnificent opening pageantry and so far, a perfectly organized sporting event.  The art-filled opening parade displayed an uneven mix of scenes, some daringly creative, or gently kitsch, other grotesque, gaudy and unnecessarily provocative.  From start to finish, the aim was to showcase the cultural creativity and social diversity of France.  Reflecting the ideological divisions of France, the most talked about scene was a bacchanalian scene wrongly understood as a crude parody of the Last Supper by conservatives worldwide (French bishops included).  The scene displayed a blue-painted cuddly and naked Dionysius in the middle of a group of colorful drag queens.  The tableau was included to reinforce the link between the Olympics and its Ancient Greek origin. 

The Olympics fever has gripped the French public (otherwise notorious grumpy party-poopers); embattled Macron rejoices in their enthusiasm and pride for all the medals collected in the hope of improving his rock-bottom rating and political standing.  This popular enthusiasm may be short-lived, and reality will hit Macron à la rentrée, in September.

In July, president Biden exited the presidential race after suffering a media and sponsors’ KO.  The election campaign circus has now gone into high gear.  Vice Kamala Harris jumped into the ring to replace him and she is trying to catch up with Donald Trump.  The Donald runs his MAGA rallies, his life, trials included for entertainment TV, a circus which makes a mockery of the American institutions.  The US media has long compared Trump to a Roman gladiator.  Knowingly, Matthieu Mills Stevenson released a book titled Donald Trump’s Circus Maximus (2024).  I haven’t read it; however, I always compared the Donald & Joe fight to that famous Ben Hur chariot race, the highlight of the film.

Now, Trump has graduated from gladiator to Emperor.  His MAGA rallies are perfect replicas of the Roman Imperial cult.  Trumpism is steadily mutating into a state religion in which the emperor, and his dynasty are worshiped as demigods or deities.  Nero must be raging with envy!  After surviving an assassination attempt, Trump is being elevated to near divine status and may well use his god given power to become a dictator.  The campaign circus will probably not end on November 5^th as the belligerents may contest the results and start another vicious and bloody circus.

Macron’s nickname is Jupiter but his failed snap election brought him back down to earth.  The Olympics truce will end, and unless the Olympic gods intervene to help Macron form a government, another rowdy circus will take place but in congress and in the streets of Paris to demand panem.