Panem et Circenses Habitus
Fiction: The mid-2030s has seen the New Roman Empire arise from the ashes of the west, but the masses, habitually engrossed in their phones, hardly even noticed. Thumbs up? Or thumbs down?
“Thumbs up? Or Thumbs Down?” boomed the rich, sickly overproduced baritone voice.
The image on my phone, and indeed, on everyone’s phones, displayed two beaten and bloody men in the middle of a street. One man, the loser, sprawled, akimbo on the ground, his leg broken, as he bled from multiple wounds. His eyes were swollen nearly shut.
The other man, who didn’t look much better, straddled the first man, holding a knife over his head while looking up, weakly, at the camera.
I looked around the sports bar. Everyone was staring down at their phones or up at the TV screens on the wall broadcasting the fight.
I looked back down into the warrior's scarred face and saw his look of resignation. A look that seemed to hope he’d be put out of his misery. I knew he was looking into the camera mounted on a drone, hovering in front of his face, providing the entire world with a personal perspective.
The drone, a soulless automaton, and the two gladiators awaited the decision of millions of citizens. Thumbs up? Or Thumbs down? He looked so close to death that he might not make it even if the result was a thumbs up. Maybe thumbs down would be a mercy.
I felt sick to my stomach.
How had we come to this?
Society had been becoming more soulless and more violent for decades, but the beginning of the end had started when General Tiberius Rex had been elected President of the old United States in the 2032 elections, just after the collapse of the dollar as the world reserve currency. Voting for General Rex in 2032 was something most of us had come to regret.
The world had been at war since the mid-2020’s as economic hardship, inflation, and a fading of morality had washed over the globe in the wake of the excess, cronyism, and mass manipulation of ideals that had occurred over the previous half century.
The violence had started as an increase in crime, terrorism and then, of course, regional flare ups of isolated, local hot wars in europe, the middle east, and, not long after, China invaded Taiwan. Then an emboldened North Korea restarted attacks on South Korea.
Each time a hot zone ignited, it became clear that the major powers were supporting one side or the other, fighting proxy wars with one another. Eventually, propaganda and funding proxies were not enough for the psychopaths and war profiteers. War became a reality all across the globe.
The people in charge had finally gotten the world they had always pushed society toward...only it turned out to be a dystopia for the vast majority of people, though many, engrossed in their phones, didn’t realize it. Reality turned out to be a twisted combination of A Brave New World and 1984.
Like populists before him, Tiberius had campaigned on “Making things Great Again,” a message that resonated strongly after the collapse of the dollar and the old world order that had been built on top of the greenback.
As a former military hero, Tiberius had the full support of the armed forces, most of the right, and enough of the left. During his campaign, he was far more popular than any recent candidate had been. He was young, strong, smart and a natural born leader and, at first, that appealed to everyone. And, more important than the troops, he had full support of the military industrial complex and, thus, had mainstream media support. Defense contractors, media companies and a thousand smaller suppliers all supported his campaign with millions of dollars in donations. He was good for war and war was good for them.
Only a tiny coalition of liberal academia and elite left wing politicians opposed him - but they had little chance of overcoming the enormous populist tide that swept General Tiberius into office. People were tired, poor, hungry and desperate and General Tiberous Rex appeared as a savior.
It turned out though, that the wily old general planned to save more than the United States.
A few months after he was elected, he issued executive order 21,2112 which abolished the US House of Representatives and Senate. Stroke of the pen, law of the land. It was technically illegal, but nobody had paid attention to the constitution for decades anyway.
With the military backing him, what could congress do? He allowed the Supreme court to stay in place but seriously curtailed their power.
He then signed an agreement with our former Nato Allies disbanding all individual Nato countries and replacing them with a unified empire.
The English were particularly unhappy about being subsumed by their former colony.
The New Roman Empire he called it. He renamed Washington, DC to “New Rome.” There is nothing new under the sun.
People protested of course. But, with the support of the armed forces, there wasn’t much people could actually do. And by this time, most people’s idea of “doing something” was posting their displeasure on social media.
Tiberous kept the old American tenet of “freedom of speech.” People were, mostly, free to say whatever they wanted, as long as it wasn’t backed by action. In fact, the former war hero actually encouraged freedom of speech online in the new state-run social media app. He knew if people felt free to talk about things, they wouldn’t actually do anything. And he was right.
The truth is, most people didn’t pay much attention to politics and didn’t think about it much, as long as they didn’t have to give up the soma-like habits of scrolling on their smartphones, of bitching on social media, of watching banal television, or of overeating fried foods in greasy sports bars.
In other words, most people’s reality had already shrunken to habitual bread and circuses anyway, and so, absorbed in their smartphones, they hardly noticed anything had changed.
Once the general had consolidated his power and had replaced the dollar with the new Denari - a digital state-controlled currency - he introduced the new “everything app” called “Bread and Circuses.”
He had taken state control of Elon Musk's old “X” app, and had state programmers reconfigure the app into four sections: The Forum - for social networking (this is where “free speech” was allowed), The Mensa for banking, The Agora for commerce and, the section most people were using at the moment, The Colosseum for entertainment - primarily “gladiator” fights.
All citizens were now issued free phones (a hugely popular campaign promise fulfilled), and received a monthly stipend of new denaris directly from The Capital (another popular campaign promise fulfilled). In return, citizens were expected to use the B&C app for nearly everything.
As wars blossomed around the world, opposing sides were often encouraged to choose champions to fight one another in the virtual arena to “prevent loss of life” in a larger battle.
The USA, now a province of New Rome, had managed to avoid civil war only by encouraging the far left and the far right to send ever more deadly champions to fight each other in the global arena.
Watching testosterone filled liberals and steroid injected conservatives kill each other over streaming video had replaced boxing, football, and MMA fights as the most popular live sporting events.
People on each side seemed to feel their side had actually “won” something when a gladiator for the despised other side got the thumbs down.
Thumbs up? Or Thumbs down?
The electorate was finally allowed to show the true extent of their tribal brainwashing and bloodlust.
Instead of champions, sometimes, when a firefight broke out, the New Roman Arena Class drones flocked to the area to track and film combatants, in real time, as they engaged. We are all gladiators now.
“Kill the bastard!” shouted a large man next to me as he jabbed his phone over and over with his greasy, pudgy finger. Evidently one “thumbs down” wasn’t enough for some people.
Emperor T. Rex’s face appeared on the screen, his expression gleeful with bloodlust. Yes, he was actually publicly known as “T Rex.” He liked it that way. Psychopath.
“What will it be, Citizens?” he roared, “Thumbs up! Or Thumbs down! I say thumbs down! But, as free citizens, you are in control of this warrior's ultimate fate!”
I heard cheering behind him from his cabinet and his cronies, especially those from the war machine makers.
What has become of us?
“Doin’ okay here? More bread? More wine? Any appetizers? Maybe some buffalo wings? Sir?” a waiter asked.
“We’re fine,” I answered automatically.
“Good match? Eh?” he gestured at the screen on the wall above the bar; The warrior still held the knife poised over the loser, waiting for the decision.
“Um, I guess, yeah,” I replied
I looked at my family, but they were all engrossed in their phones. I don’t know if they were watching the brutal fight. I hoped not.
The waiter shuffled off, mumbling something.
I timidly, almost secretively, tapped the “thumbs up” icon. It looked just like the old Facebook “Like” icon. I always chose thumbs up. It rarely mattered, but it was a tiny way I felt I could keep my humanity, to show just that tiny act of mercy. To remember that those were real people, with real hopes and dreams, and their lives on the line on the other end of the screen.
“Times up, Citizens!” T Rex shouted, “What’s the final decision?”
A huge red thumbs down icon appeared on billions of screens, including the one on the front of the drone.
The loser's face fell, as did the knife.
Billions of people roared in bloodlust ecstasy.
I felt bile rise in my throat and forced it down; I forced myself to remain calm.
I stared at the icon on my phone: Bread & Circuses.
Ah yes, bread and circuses, the age-old method that an empire's leaders utilize to distract the people from the fact that their once great society is now burning to the ground.
I guess old habits die hard.
Apparently all roads really do lead to Rome, in the end.
Panem et Circenses, indeed.
This short story was written for the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) Symposium. The STSC is a small, exclusive online speakeasy where a dauntless band of raconteurs, writers, artists, philosophers, flaneurs, musicians, idlers, and bohemians share ideas and companionship. Occasionally, STSC members create something around a set theme. This time the theme was “habit.” If you are a writer, I encourage you to consider joining us, I’ve included details at the bottom of this post. Lastly, you can find all my past symposium pieces by clicking here.
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