Bread and Circus

I was but a teen when I read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I've retained a powerful memory of the shock of societal downfall indicators... especially now witnessing it with our wholly-dishonest Socialist President, Mr. Obama, at the helm. Even someone who should know better, like Senator Harry Reid, states every bald-faced lie as if the truth.

Two thousand years ago Rome's citizens were not concerned as long as they had 'bread and circus' (food and entertainment). That's precisely our lot now. We're not quite at Bob Marley's lament over revolutions falling to the party who 'keeps their bellies full,' because we have sufficient to eat. Gas prices are rising, but it's a frog-boiling... we're not furious because at a nickel and dime more each week, we're not really shocked. And with five hours per day our Internet Hulu and cable TV keeps us docile. We're at bread and circus. We're at the door to ruin.

Not debating politics in the usual sense (twaddle for pseudo-intellectuals), my gut simply aches over the turn from truth... a simple matter with no complexity. Speaking of pain, I recall all too well the pain I experienced at the hand of an apparently-sincere girlfriend who one afternoon made a very impassioned case about the goodness of marrying her. I kept feeling "wrong" as she detailed how she'd be a great mother and a wonderfully-committed wife... and then later admitted she was pregnant with some other guy's baby. When I pointed out that glaring moral inconsistency (not to mention her attempt to trick me), she merely shrugged and went on her way as if no big deal; the carefree implication, well, just get over it.

With similar pain I watch as people merely shrug when it comes to truth. People no longer live based on facts, truth, evidence, law, logic, reason, or the merit of personal promises. I lament the loss of honesty and "what is right." Increasingly associates numb this concept with 'whatever.' Even 90-year blue-hairs who, by now, have lived a century with Victorian concepts of honesty, still trick with alacrity. I'm frequently lied to, with the accompanying sneer and implication "...so what can you do about it? Nothing. Ha! Sucker..."

Fools mock but they shall mourn. (Ether 12:26)

Some pick at the Book of Mormon as irrelevant or fictional history, but even if it were wholly-fabricated, it tells a solid moral story. So too President Ronald Regan represents truth and Mr. Obama represents deceit. Many other harbingers of societal decay as Gibbons' 1776 treatise on Rome's last days bespeak the truth that we degrade and disintegrate unless we remember that a lie is a lie; a crime is a crime, and wholesale ingratitude is tantamount to crimes against humanity. But first learn the lessons of the garden-- the Lord is judge over all.

If for no other reason, in your own shoes stand tall and prove honest.