Bread and Circus

Way back when the Romans ruled a majority of the European continent, the Roman government worried about rebellion every waking moment as they were in office.  Their weights upon the people of Rome were sometimes extremely unfair and civil unrest was constant throughout the Empire.  Yet one day, someone came up with the most ingenious idea of all time, a concept that many governments still use today due to the fact that it keeps the masses in place.  That is the Roman "Bread an Circus", by far the most simple yet effective way of keeping stability in a community.  The concept is actually really simple, keep the people fed and entertained, and you can do whatever you want with them, no fuss about it, just dinner with a show an you've gained temporary loyalty of the community.  Even to this day, our governments still use such tactics in order to keep us at bay.  Don't believe me?  Try taking some of your favorite hobbies into consideration, sports, gaming, television, all of the good stuff.  Now think, how many of these subjects require some type of government involvement?  in the 1984 novel, the Ingsoc government tries to make the party members to go to required meets and hikes, even having entire weeks to celebrate Big Brother and its feats.  Even the proles are kept busy as well, for instance, the lottery that they're given.  The two men in the pub were completely immersed in the small chance of winning a prize from the Ingsoc government.  Instead of using that mindset of bettering themselves, they use it for such trivial means, that of which will almost certainly never bear fruit.  Modern day governments make sure that all of these activities are there in order to make us forget about the consequences of their choices and rather us focus on someone's win/loss ratio or who's dating (or cheating on) who.  As a wise person once said, " Ignorance is bliss".