As I was doing the vocabulary assignment, I, of course, came across the words "bread and circuses." These words automatically made me think about Brave New World. That's really all their society is. Instead of allowing people to face problems, they are just given soma. Mustapha Mond talks about it too. He says that "there isn't any need for a civilized man to bear anything that's seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things--Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own" (236). If people thought for themselves, then they could not be controlled. If they were independent and could do things for themselves, the government would lose control. So what does the government do? It gives people distractions such as soma and sex so that the people think that they are happy and do not question the government. With no one questioning what the government does, then no one can object to it and the government can do whatever they want. The government can be as corrupt as it wants. It can do as much damage as it wants. No one will do anything about it because they are happily distracted and ignorant; just like the government wants.
My conclusion: the entire society is run on the idea of bread and circuses.
-Kim Bogdan
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I totally agree with you. When I first learned about the term "bread and circuses" it made me think of Brave New World and other books like it. The "feelies" and soma are definetely like "bread and circuses". They are just distractions so that people don't focus on what is really going on in their world. People think that if they are constantly happy, society must be perfect, but that is obviously not the case. Mustapha Mond even says during Brave New World that if anything should happen to go wrong, there's always soma. It just shows you how distractions are fun and entertaining, but we can't allow them to take over our lives.
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