Identifying Bread & Circuses

An archaic term that a lot of those individuals in the know use is, ‘bread and circus’ and it’s essentially when something distracts you so that you are unable to see what is happening in the world around you. There are times when these things are just a short fascination, and you are able to move on from the event or subject matter and recenter yourself on the tasks built for your hands. Then there are the other concerning times when something so takes root within the depths of your soul that you become almost addicted to it. And I use a term like addicted because it can almost become like a drug due to those happy chemicals that are released from our brain when something exciting happens.

One of the hardest things that you will ever do is rewire your brain to no longer seek out those B&C moments but to recognize familiar patterns and stop it ahead of it. Unfortunately, the undertaking of reprograming yourself can cause a significant shift in the relationships that you choose to participate in and may find yourself no longer taking joy in activities you were once hyper focused on. While it may not seem like B&C has anything to do with homesteading or preparedness, it in fact can directly impact it.

If you are starting a journey towards self-sustainability, freedom and independence then it would stand to reason that anything that distracts you from working hard unto your tasks will actually reduce your free time. If you have free time, don’t allow yourself to have idle hands but be about the important work. Now this is not at all to say that it’s wrong to have those quiet self-reflective moments where you sit with a cup of hot tea and read a farming book or chose to spend some of your free time in prayer. You need those moments to provide yourself with stability.

• Sports Ball: You might assume that I hate sports, but I do not. I admit freely that as someone who chose to leave an old world behind, I do not kindly look upon the excessive consumption of alcohol nor the gluttonous noshing that can go on at events. What I’m most concerned about is that people start investing their finances in buying jerseys and other accessories with their “favorite” teams logo embroidered on them. It’s not the piece of clothing necessarily, it’s the wasteful spending of income that could be put to better use. Maybe it’s the insanely expensive yearly tickets or the cost of flying from city to city to follow around the team. Or perhaps it’s the gambling that takes place, especially when you realize it’s not your “mad money” that you are playing with but rather it’s the income that you could have used to pay down your debt.
• Music Concerts: Maybe you haven’t noticed in a while, but most musicians today not only don’t live the life of a middle nor low class American but are one of the elites that like of expensive lavish lifestyle that you will never have. These so called “artists” crank out tunes that sound eerily similar to all the pop tart singers of yester year that you were convinced were amazing as well. In addition to that, many of these individuals’ political viewpoints that they blast out within social media forums tend to be very far removed from the concerns of most Americans. Many of these foolish individuals are worried about climate change, yet they fly across the world numerous times a month to tell other people how horrible they are for simply existing. And while the cost of concerts are readily climbing, it’s unnerving that the Satanic influences are even more woven within their imagery and yet parents willingly expose their young adults to it.
• Politics: There is nothing more that the government (no matter the country) enjoys than segregating humanity so they can pit one another against each other. Whether it’s skin color, nationality, gender or religion they will happily put everyone in groups and then start issues between them. If you allow yourself to become segregated, then you will look at others outside of your group as your “enemy” and start treating them as so while completely ignoring the real enemy. But the democrats are really bad!? If you are foolish enough to believe that your side is 100% innocent, you’re already lost because they’ve successfully pulled the wool over your eyes.
• Mainstream & Social Media: This forum can be used to further distract you by showing you something that they want you to believe is important, while in reality it’s nothing more than a distraction to get you to focus away from some atrocity that is taking place. The best use for any social media that I’ve found is to establish a user name and advertise your company through various groups and marketplaces. If in fact the crap hits the fan, your little “friends” on social media likely aren’t going to come save you or let an absolute stranger camp on their bug out property. You need in person connections more than you need online ones and the psychological studies have proven that.
• Technology & Gaming: When you consider that the United States spent almost 2 billion dollars on technology and 47.5 billion dollars on gaming software in recent years, you can tell that we Americans have a serious addiction problem that allows us to transcend outside of our “boring” life into something more exciting. Meanwhile, we are completely ignoring the reality that that type of money could have been better spent helping people around the world. If anything, it could have paid off more of our debt and get us in a more stable economic environment. But muh games!
• Entertainment: I’ve already specifically tackled gaming, concerts and mainstream media but I’m now talking about streaming services and other forms of entertainment. The average household in America spends approximately $300 per month or more on just entertainment and that number continues to climb more each year. We used to call it tv programming and I can assure, it’s very good at programming the people watching it to believe a certain way.
• Medications: The sheer number of medications that are designed to modify your mind and body are incredible. There are obviously situations where medications are called for, but we have such a huge amount that do nothing more than alter our reality. Talk firmly to your doctor and see if a change of diet or addition of supplements would be more feasible.

Remember friends, it’s important for us to get our home in order and remove the various bread and circus distractions that we can from our lives. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll try to get back to you within 24 hours or so. Keep moving forward and don’t stop!