Diversion is the name of the game.

JtS and I watched the movie "Gladiator" yesterday evening. JtS said that where, in the Roman Empire, the diversion was "bread and circuses", now it's SUVs and TV.

"The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses."

--Juvenal (Roman satirist)