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To: warchild9
Actually, the last bit that will hold together the 1%’ers house ‘o’ cards is massive quantities of peasants’ anesthetic:: sports Sports SPORTS!!!!! /It’s been going on for thousands of years:

..a new translation of a Mesopotamian clay tablet...a king assured that the citizens wouldn’t notice cuts in their food supply if they got lots of horse racing to keep their minds off their problems... This happened in 700 BC.


Here's another example:

Nero was emperor and for two weeks the mob had been rioting uncontrolled in the streets of Rome. The economy of the greatest empire the world had ever seen was coming apart like an unraveling sweater.

The cost of maintaining Rome's gigantic armed forces, equipped with the latest catapults, ballistae, and fast war galleys, was bleeding the nation white and in addition there were the heavy subsidies that had to be paid to the satellite nations dependent on Rome for support. The impoverished government had neither the funds nor the power to stop the riots.

In this crisis, the Captain of the Shipping hurried by chariot to consult with the first tribune.

"The merchant fleet is in Egypt awaiting loading," he announced. "The ships can be loaded either with corn for the starving people or with the special sand used on the track for chariot races. Which shall it be?"

"Are you mad?" screamed the tribune. "The situation here has got out of control. The emperor's a lunatic, the army's on the edge of mutiny, and the people are dying of hunger. For the gods' sake, get the sand! We have to get their minds off their troubles!"

Soon special announcement was made by heralds that the finest chariot races on record would be held at the Circus Maximus. Three hundred pairs of gladiators would fight to the death and twelve hundred condemned criminals would be eaten by lions. Fights between elephants and rhinos, buffalo and tigers, and leopards and wild boars would be staged. As a special feature, twenty beautiful young girls would be raped by jackasses. Admission to the rear seats, free. Small charge for the first 36 tiers of seats.

Everything else was promptly forgotten. The gigantic stadium, seating 385,000 people, was jammed to capacity. For two weeks the games went on while the crowd cheered, made bets, and got drunk. Once again the government had a breathing space to try to find some way out of its difficulties.

--Daniel P. Mannix, THOSE ABOUT TO DIE: The Full Truth About The Sadistic Roman "Games," 1958
70 posted on 01/22/2014 6:38:44 PM PST by Colinsky
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To: Colinsky

A quibble:

all the seating was free. One did have to pay for snacks, and the use of the bathrooms.

One obtained the best seats according to social rank, with women getting the nosebleed seats.

I’ve been to several Roman sports stadia, and I can tell you—those seat really sucked.


71 posted on 01/22/2014 6:44:36 PM PST by warchild9
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To: Colinsky
The gigantic stadium, seating 385,000 people, was jammed to capacity.

I don't think so. Seating capacity at the Roman coliseum was between 50-80k. Still an amazing fact, but certainly not 385k!

81 posted on 01/22/2014 7:50:38 PM PST by SamAdams76
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