Nearly two thousand years ago, the Roman poet  Decimus Junius Juvenal  penned a phrase destined to outlive the Empire that inspired it: “panem et circenses,” “bread and circuses.” In his Satire X, he denounced how a citizenry that had once been active participants in public life had ended up surrendering its political freedom in exchange for food and entertainment. The people no longer demanded virtuous rulers, just institutions, or public accountability; free wheat and circus spectacles were enough for them.

Juvenal  identified one of the most effective mechanisms of power: when citizens stop thinking about the common good and only expect immediate gratification, governing them becomes much easier. There’s no need to persuade;  distraction is enough.

Twenty centuries have passed, but the strategy remains in place. Today, the “circus” no longer necessarily takes place in the  Colosseum . It can be broadcast during prime time, go viral on social media, or become an endless succession of distractions to monopolize public discourse, while the underlying problems remain untouched. Entertainment replaces debate; scandal replaces legitimate civic concern; playful excitement displaces critical reasoning.

Our time has invented a new vocabulary to describe these forms of distraction. “ Sportswashing ” uses major sporting events to improve the international image of regimes criticized for human rights violations. “ Greenwashing ” cloaks institutions in ecological language whose practices, behind the scenes, remain profoundly polluting. “ Pinkwashing ” turns inclusion and diversity into marketing tools, aiming to make consumers more “trendy” than thoughtful about the true nature of human rights. “ Artwashing ” funds cultural activities “of the people and for the people” to gain social prestige while diverting attention from corruption, superficiality, or abuse of power.

All these phenomena follow the same logic: constructing an attractive narrative to prevent society from observing reality. The problem isn’t just lying; it’s ensuring  that no one has time to ask questions.

The philosopher  Byung-Chul Han  has taken this reflection a step further. In “Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Techniques of Power” (Herder 2014) and “Infocracy: Digitalization and the Crisis of Democracy” (Taurus 2022), he argues that contemporary “bread and circuses” no longer needs to be organized exclusively by an autocratic messiah. The novelty is that we now  voluntarily  collaborate with our own distraction. We keep ourselves busy producing content, chasing “likes,” reacting to ephemeral trends, and consuming an endless flow of information that rarely transforms into genuine knowledge.

This new form of constant entertainment is an extraordinary ally of authoritarian neopopulism. A  distracted society  loses its memory, critical thinking skills, and historical perspective. While citizens remain captive to the spectacle, those in power act with impunity, limited only by their own arrogance.