“These occupations (fraud, cheating) showed a desire for activity which, for the energetic, entertainment failed to provide. Whether sports event or soap opera or rock concert, entertainment in its main 20C forms was seated and passive. The amount supplied was unexampled - Imperial Rome did not match it. In both places it became the people's cheif object in life, because for the millions work had lost its power to satisfy the spirit. yieldng no finished object, taking place only abstractly on paper and in words over a wire, it starved the feeling of accomplishment.”
