Rants De Goa 02 : The One with all the Spectacle

No.2 No.2

Rants De Goa

The One One with with The All the the Spectacle Spectacle All THE GOA COLLECTIVE

Wow. Goa is not alone.

Maybe we could share notes, become sister-towns and hold hands with Not0, a fishing town in Japan on how we manage to share such skewed priorities.

Here’s the historic Reis Magos Fort with its restored original disco lighting.

Does anyone else think we’re going to be fed with Architectural Spectacle as a way to forget the horrors of the Pandemic ?

All Modern states across the world from Japan to India trace their modern political system back to ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and the post-renaissance states of Western Europe.

What makes each of them different is Local Nuance.

Satire, Parody, and the pushback against the excesses of political power isn’t an American invention.

Its invention was attributed to the Roman intellectual Quintilian, who spoke Truth to Power in a way we still mimic today.

One of the giants of Roman satire was Juvenal ( 55 - 127 AD ), a student of Quintilian.

His voluminous poems “The Satires” contain thousands of literary put-downs to keep the political establishment in check.

His most famous quotes survive to this day.

“… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.”

Give them them Bread Bread and and Circuses, Circuses, Give And they they will will never never Revolt.

Revolt.

And “To generate public approval not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace”

Eventually, when the Bread ran low the Empire ramped up the Circuses. The Architecture of the State acquired a certain perverse Monumentality.

The Roman Empire was also the most successful and influential empire in History.

What Can a State do ?

Maybe you think ( or hope ) that the State is going to respond to the Covid crisis with a financial stimulus package for your business.

Maybe they will write off your Medical debt, look out for the many Covid orphans.

Maybe they will rehabilitate Covid stricken families and announce pensions and long-term relief packages to the grief-stricken families of the deceased.

You might as well get a nice Squid statue delivered to a park near you.

“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Elie Wiesel