Michael Phillip Wright
Norman, Oklahoma
Copyright 2002
All Rights Reserved
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As early as the first century BC, Rome was beginning to show the same signs of cultural decline, along with growing economic inequality, as we have recently been experiencing in the USA. The streets of Rome were filled with homeless men suffering from the consequences of militarism and imperialism. Many were discharged soldiers and peasants who had lost their small farms while they had been serving in the military.

Many of today's workers in the USA have suffered from having been displaced by automation and the export of jobs to cheap labor in the Third World. We have also lived through a recent period in which corporate agriculture has been dramatically increasing its share of farm production at the expense of family farms.

Similarly, the Roman peasants could not compete with wealthy farmers taking advantage of slave labor. Ironicallly, the slave population was composed of the very prisoners captured by the peasants who had been serving the empire as soldiers.

Violent Entertainment for the Roman Underclass

James L. Steffensen writes that these economic conditions in the rural areas resulted in a migration of peasants to the cities:

The peasants left the country and came into the city. They could find no work there, either. But they discovered that in a Republic ruled by votes there was still power in numbers. The poor of the city became an unruly mob, shouting for attention, living on hand-outs from the government or from rich politicians, selling their votes in the assembly to the men who gave them the most. Without jobs, they had nothing to do with their time except wander the streets and make trouble. So the politicians began to give them free shows as well as free food.

The people flocked to the stadiums and to the racecourse called the Circus, and they liked their shows big. Their favorite sports were the cruelest ones -- huge mock battles in which the deaths were real, and combats of gladiators, men who were sent into the arenas to kill.

Source: Universal History of the World, Volume 3 (NY: Western Publishing, 1966)

Disturbing Trends in the USA

While American society has not yet degenerated to the point where gladiators are killing one another in arenas, there are some disturbing trends under way:

-- the mass marketing of verbally violent trash noise, such as gangsta rap;

-- the mass marketing of boom car equipment, explicitly promoted for purposes of audio aggression;

-- the emergence and television broadcasting of "ultimate fighting," where men are allowed to bash each other in spectator arenas with virtually no rules;

-- the emergence of youthful criminal behavior not even imaginable at mid-twentieth century, as shown by the series of random shootings of classmates by high school students during the '90s.

The Madness of Nero

One of the low points in the history of the Roman Empire was the reign of the madman Nero, who assured his ascension to the throne by having his brother Britannicus murdered in 55 AD. Four years later he had his mother murdered as well. Of Nero, Chris Scarre, author of Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, writes:

Nero divorced his first wife, Octavia, and then had her killed. He married Poppaea, but in a fit of rage while she was pregnant, he kicked her to death. He married a third wife, but then he left her for a boy who resembled Poppaea. While it is believed that Nero did not start the great fire that destroyed much of Rome, it did clear the land he needed on which to build his Golden House, a palace of such size, richness, and majesty as had never been seen before. The excesses he showered upon himself, his brutality, and his outrageous behavior finally drove away his last supporters.

Other accounts hold that Nero had been rumored to be the arsonist, and that he initiated extreme cruelties against the early Christians after blaming them for the fire. The Roman historian Tacitus writes:

...in order to abolish that rumor, Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishments those people called Christians...And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps...people began to pity these sufferers, because they were consumed not for the public good but on account of the fierceness of one man.

Source: Washington University

ASDD in Nero's Rome

One could say that, in Nero's time, a syndrome similar to what I have proposed to call Audio Stimulus Dependency Disorder (ASDD) was emerging among the crowds of Romans in attendance at entertainment events. As in today's world, their attentions spans were limited and they displayed a distaste for dramas with complex dialogue. Instead, the Romans preferred shallow, "shock-jock" forms of stimulation. Shortly after Nero's reign ended by his suicide, construction of the Coliseum began. This would create more enthusiasm for the brutality of gladiatorial combat, including the killing of animals for sport.

Blood, violence, and death were big forms of entertainment in those days. By comparison, today we are living in times in which the violent, vulgar trash noise of gangsta rap is popular and imposes its presence on us everywhere by means of boom cars.

During Nero's reign, audiences began to boo when old Greek tragedies were presented. Nero responded to their needs by bringing back wild animals and gladiators. The scandals of his court also brought new excitement to the mobs.

To spice up the dramas where a character had to die, Nero had prisoners dressed up in costume, pushed on stage, and actually killed. Another comment by Steffensen calls to mind similarities to what is happening in today's world of popular entertainment:

In early Rome, when the city was still struggling to hold its own against Carthage, the actors had played good Roman comedies. . .But, over the years, more scenery, animals and crowds, and fantasic costumes were added to the plays, until the audience grew more interested in what they could see than in what they could hear. Often they could not hear even if they wanted to. In Augustus' time, Horace said that the noise of beasts and machines on stage was so loud that the actors could barely shout above it.

This sounds very much like my observation in the early 80s, described in my ASDD commentary: college bars with TVs turned on, without sound, while loud thump-boom entertainment noise was blasting from stereos to provide shallow stimulus.

The inability of Romans to appreciate the older Greek tragedies parellels another trend we see in the USA today: the decline in appreciation for classical music. While reporting that National Public Radio was ending its classical music show, The New York Times (4/17/02) additionally reminded its readers that privately-owned classical music stations across the country have been disappearing for many years, to be replaced by "more profitable programming."

Noise pollution, shortened attention spans, and the popularity of shock and violence in entertainment are all signs of an empire in decline. Are Americans wise enough to recognize these trends in motion and reverse them?

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