Social Media:The New Colosseum
There’s an ancient Latin phrase that I believe is very relevant to the times we are now living in, “panem et circenses” “bread and circuses.”
There’s an ancient Latin phrase that I believe is very relevant to the times we are now living in, “panem et circenses” “bread and circuses.” It was coined by the Roman poet Juvenal to describe how the Roman people had lost their way, trading their dignity and responsibility for food handouts and entertainment. The Roman elite, knowing they couldn’t win the people with wisdom or vision, instead gave them distractions: gladiator games, free grain, chariot races, and public executions. Keep them fed. Keep them entertained. Keep them from thinking.
That was ancient Rome, but one could argue that it’s also us right now.
Today’s Colosseum isn’t made of stone. It’s digital. It’s 24/7. It’s social media feeds, scandal-driven headlines, and sensationalized news stories, such as but not limited to, who slept with whom. All this while families fall apart, the economy trembles, and our young people lose their sense of identity and purpose.
We gasp at stories about a CEO caught in an affair. We obsess over celebrity divorces. But I'm curious, where’s the outrage over the millions of unborn children aborted each year? Where’s the headline about the erosion of family, the breakdown of values, the confusion about gender, marriage, and morality?
Here in Cayman we’ve seen what catches fire in the media, not the vote to legalize gambling in a Christian country, not the slow normalization of marijuana use, not even the importation of foreign ideologies that attack our culture. No, what grabs the attention is whether someone in a leadership role a thousand miles away had a consensual relationship. That, apparently, is newsworthy.
But what does that say about us?
We can’t just blame the media, can we? We can’t just blame politicians either. The media gives the people what they think the people want, and often, they’re right. Politicians bend to public pressure, not because they’re always weak, but because they want to win elections. They’ll follow wherever the mob is pointing.
So who’s driving the mob?
We are. We feed the system. We click the headlines. We share the drama. We ignore the silence behind the screams. The institutions that fail us are mirrors of us. And that is perhaps the most sobering truth.
We have become the crowd in the Roman Colosseum, thirsty for blood, entertained by downfall, indifferent to the consequences.
When Entertainment Replaces Ethics
Rome fell, not from outside invaders alone, but from within. It collapsed under the weight of its own decadence. It became a civilization of comfort, and not one of conviction. Its people wanted pleasure and not principle. They abandoned their God-given order for what felt good in the moment. Sound familiar?
The Bible says, “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), but confusion is exactly what we’re living in. We’re told that everything is relative, that values are outdated, that truth is offensive. Meanwhile, leaders are mocked, morality is politicized, and society fractures at every level.
Yet we cheer, as long as the show goes on.
This isn’t a call to return to some romanticized past. It’s a call to recognize that we are on a dangerous path. That just like Rome, we are entertaining ourselves to death, distracting ourselves while the walls fall down around us.
Panem et circenses was never a compliment. It was a warning. When a people give up the pursuit of truth for the comfort of entertainment, they invite destruction.
It’s time we stop feeding the machine that is feeding off us. It’s time we take a hard look in the mirror, not at the media, not at the politicians, but at ourselves. Because the Colosseum may look different today, but the crowd is still roaring. The question is: Are you part of it?
Lets strive to be better, lets engage in actions and words that better ourselves, our families and our communities.
