The continuing economic depression prompted the reflection of how bread and circuses were used by the Roman elite to keep control over the mob (non elite) with inexpensive food and lots of popular diversions lest the many realize their sacrifices and oppression for the benefit of a few, whether the senators of 2000 years ago or of today, socialist leaders, fascist leaders, generals, captains of industry, or pick from our any brand of wealthy lawyer or industrialist willing to 'sacrifice to help us'.Then as now, a rich elite (still above the law with near every matter from murder to fraud settled with a fine or community service unless a scapegoat is needed) and impoverished lower classes, many of whom do not even outright own their own homes (as their parents did, a mortgage is not ownership), let alone having money for education, retirement or healthcare (even in socialized Europe the gap is there) but food is cheap at 'everyday low prices' and entertainment is piped right into the home, with ads on near every channel and web page.
Interestingly, the US Department of Labor defines 45% of Americans as Working Class yet most consider themselves Middle Class and especially not "Workers", rather "Associates", or some other euphemism that hides their role of limited upside in good-times but maximum downside in any kind of downturn. FW Woolworth bluntly put it, there are no "cheap goods" without "cheap help". Then as now, the poorest of the poor become foot soldiers for income, education and citizenship. Longshanks in Braveheart observes "Arrows cost money. Use up the Irish. The dead cost nothing."
The gap between rich and poor is today similar to what it was in the 1920s with jet-setting billionaires and their hobby sports franchises paid for by millions of poor working two or three jobs and/or many hours since real buying power has eroded from salaries that used to cover buying essentials outright to long-drawn out credit card and loan payments.
In the US South, a model for the Western World, people step from air conditioned McMansions into air conditioned, giant SUVs to go to air conditioned, unhealthy glass skyscrapers and back choking 10 lane superhighways with pollution, eating fast food there and back driving factory farming, with children brought up by Internet, video games and TV, and all tempted by the easy gratification of alcohol, cigarettes, prescription/illegal drugs and a fling with the neighbors, as glorified on daytime television.
Wal-Mart offers discount prices on foods and all manner of consumerist non-essentials and there's always the latest political-religious-entertainment scandal, Cowboys or Manchester United game (and we still have chariot races, turning left into oblivion) to distract in the media while jonesing between ever-longer work sessions, now extending into evenings, weekends and vacations thanks to the 'benefits' of mobile technology.
On a practical note, other than keeping perspective on media hype, how can we step further away from the rat race (without living tax free on donations in some 'do as I say, not as I do' church, or crony welfare from political lobbying)? Tempted to violence and revolution? Just look back to the 30s where similar problems were 'solved' in these ways and learn that lesson. Just think how the 60s hippies got free everything back in the day and have become the exploitative establishment today. Reading the right books, following the 'right' worldy leaders and mouthing slogans or taking up arms is not enough. Why not look to improve and reform yourself?
The world's first barcode appeared on a pack of gum in 1974 and if you aren't careful, you too will have your price and sell-by date in today's society unless you make moves to improve today. In the giant shell game of modern society, if you don't know who the chump at the table is then it's you and the other players have armies of lawyers, accountants and marketeers to keep you in the dark.
Yogananda was very clear in the need to be thrifty and the inevitable correction that would come to America (and by extension the West) if selfish attitudes and wasteful practices continued (end of the world talk in 1940, actually about Dwapara Yuga and not a literal end of the world).
He and Sri Yukteswar were careful within their purses, a contrast to today where the author well remembers an ex SRF minister even a generation ago whose family ate from paper plates at every meal, throwing them away, just to avoid doing dishes! To be fair, this is not a teaching of SRF rather a sign of Southern California's Great Wealth then as now.
To take the example of the home, the most extreme with zero utility bills is the Earthship incorporating systems for:
- Water capture
- Greywater recycling
- Blackwater recycling
- Solar water heating
- Solar heating / Thermal mass
- Solar and Wind energy
- Facilitation of growing food internally and externally
Many of the basic elements can be used in a standard home by reducing loads
- Efficient lightbulbs and cutting off unused loads at the powerstrip
- Low flow WCs
- Cutting back on sprinkling systems
- Lowering AC and Furnace settings
Today, Earthships are expensive for their sizes, from 2 to 400K for just a few 100 square feet, with costs coming not from the near free construction materials, or relatively modest systems package (filters, inverters, batteries etc.) but the large amounts of manual labor. Perhaps the example of Levittown could be applied to mass produce such homes, or their key systems alone. After all, the obnoxious malls that litter that landscape multiplied from zero in the 1950s to thousands today in answer to consumerisms.
Canals, railways, cars and now planes changed the places where people could live from simply being on the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. Today that transformation is coming with the Internet. Older, uninformed employers have not yet recognized that there is little reason to ferry everyone in and out of the office and we are poised for a reversal of the transhumance from country to town, as more and more people recognize the huge cost and low quality of life tied to these absurd and wasteful practices.
In short, remember that Yogananda asked that we look for the good in everyone and everything and apply it personally, not just in political, social club and church (in so much as they differ) affiliation and try not to be caught in the Kali Yuga distractions of bread and circuses. A wish to live ever in the present and to know nothing of the past, including what Yogananda actually said is a peculiar narcissism, potentially a trap for many lifetimes.
"Worldly people do not like the candor which shatters their delusions. Saints are not only rare but disconcerting. Even in scripture, they are often found embarrassing!"
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