When in Rome

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Luke 12:19-20

All in all, it was a pretty good Super Bowl this year. The game was good. The team that has recently won a lot of these things played well but ultimately the victory went to the more likable Packers. This is not, btw, a slight on Pittsburgh. I was a big Terry B fan back in the day but the Steelers of late have enjoyed a lot of success and with all the Brett Farve drama, it just seemed fair that Aaron Rodgers and the Pack should win this one.

The Super Bowl is, of course, the great American event now. The game is not so unlike the finals in some ancient Roman gladiator series, except that the number of people who now watch this thing is staggering by comparison. The Coliseum in Rome was a marvel, and very much a symbol. It was a symbol of Rome's glory as well as the ultimate symbol of its downfall. Legend has it that people would gather there to watch the great contests even as the city itself was burning.

Comparing modern America to ancient Rome has become something of cliche'. I won't spend a lot of time here because I honestly don't mind the the once-a-year extravaganza that we get in January (oops I guess it's February now).

On the other hand, while the Super Bowl might be just good ole fashion carnival, the whole "Life as Spectacle" thing seems telling. Could there be anything more Romanesque than our fascination with watching one another? Real-life TV is just plain odd and our dedication to it seems to reveal a vacuous moment in human history. I have no idea what the final days of the empire will ultimately look like but it seems that a hundred million people staring at human dolls for hours on end might make for a reasonable guess.