Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [91]

“Bread and circuses,” my father says when there’s space news on the radio. “Politicians and big corporations get the bread, and we get the circuses.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 91

Note

The Roman tag is quoted, then re-divided so the familiar chiasmus inverts its usual assignment of blame — the plebs are handed the distraction, the elite the substance. Two short sentences that repurpose a cliché into an accusation against the speaker’s own class.