Of bread and circuses and convictions

The Right v. the Left

We all know the reference to bread and circuses.  It means providing the masses with superficial appeasement to keep them in check.  Of course in our wealthy, leisurely age, the bread and circuses morphed into sex and drugs.  Mere bread and circuses would not do.  Though in some ways, they do still play a part.  Consider movies or athletics for examples. 

Which brings us to now.  I just did something I've not purposefully done since I graduated OSU in 1990.  That is, I passed on purchasing tickets to this year's Ohio State Buckeyes football season.  Every year, since I was young, I've managed to go to a game, or at least purchase tickets.  Until now. 

Why?  Because first: prices.  The prices are quite staggering for what you get, and at a time when the cost of living is still back breaking, despite media narratives to the contrary.  It used to be if you were an alumnus, each year you got tickets the seats were better, and better, and better.  That stopped years ago.  Alumni means nosebleed.  If you want better, you pay extra, and I mean extra.  Given the spate of significant expenses we've had to absorb this year, can we justify such football tickets? 

Yes.  That would have been my answer in years gone by.  It's not like every year of my life saw me wallowing in endless money.  Nonetheless, I always found a way to pay for at least one game a year.  That way I took each of my sons, and sometimes went with my wife, and even took my mom and dad once.   

But this year?   No.  Ted Cruz said something the other day that I found disappointing.  He said boycotts don't generally work.  That's because people might grind their teeth and fuss, but in the end they'll be right back at the ticket counters putting money into the organizations' bank accounts, no matter what.  

Which really isn't true.  It tends to be true for conservatives, not liberals.  Liberals will declare unholy jihad when told, and burn the organization to the ground.  I remember that with the Chick fil-A debacle back in the day.  When the LGBTQ community began going after CFA, some within their ranks would say they still loved the food, but didn't like the establishment's bigotry.  But after a few years, you couldn't find anyone in that movement not wanting to burn CFA to the ground.  And if someone dared cross the battleline and order a chicken sandwich?  Retaliation was sift and merciless.  I'm recalling when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mistakenly ordered a CFA sandwich during June one year.  He quickly repented his grave sin. 

So no, such boycotts and tactics work like a charm - for liberalism.  Just see the morphing of CFA.  That's because liberalism is a revolution, a new religion, a movement.  It has specific dogmas.  It has clear promises.  It has convictions.  It is prepared to do whatever to win.  If you're part of it, you're part of it top to bottom.  And you have the passion, zeal and fanaticism that goes with such revolutionary movements.

Conservatives?  Not so much.  When conservatives do move, it's often by those we normally wouldn't want representing the cause.  That's because the bulk of conservatives see what's happening as not worth giving up the game for, or giving up the movie experience for, or giving up our favorite restaurant for, or giving up that precious Netflix binging for, or whatever.  We're Rocky in Rocky III.  The Left is Clubber Lang.   

So I looked at what OSU has become.  I recall the recent OSU president sending endless messages to the student body, trashing conservatives, Trump and anything right of center.  I think on OSU moving as radical left of Stalin as the left will go.  I think of my son, working hard to achieve the highest honors in his degree, finding out that OSU will not recognize such accomplishments during graduation on the off chance it hurts someone's feelings.  Because we can't get enough of being a loser country filled with losers.  

True, during the Kaepernick kerfuffle, the OSU teams did not take part, and that is a feather in their cap.  But that doesn't offset the fact that OSU is actively against what I value.  When I was in college?  Sure, every professor was left of center.  But the school was still a school.  Those debates were in the class, not presented with official OSU president's letterhead. OSU wasn't in front of the cameras jockeying for the USSR (no matter how many would have liked to).   It was not an indoctrination camp.  Free speech and the free exchange of ideals were still promoted in and out of the classrooms.  In fact, per my sons, the school itself was worse than most of their classes.  

So for the first time in my adult life, I passed.  No tickets this year.  Yes, staggering inflation and cost of living would make it tough.  But in years past I would have pulled strings to make it work.  Not now.  Until conservatives take a stand and stop watching the movies, and frequenting the stores, and following the teams, and given money to those forces that want us and our values erased, we will lose.  If that's what we choose, let's just hope for the sake of our grandchildren that the movies and games and menus were worth it. 

The only way to win