Are Americans Addicted to Conflict & Drama?

The constant strife and hurly-burly in the public forum and on social media suggests we are suffering from a collective Histrionic Personality Disorder.

Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.

—Decimus Junius Juvenalis, know in English as Juvenal

As readers of my recent columns know, I’ve lately been thinking about the fall of the Roman Republic and its replacement by dynastic emperors invested with direct command over the army. One thing that both Republican consuls and emperors all understood was the enormous power of gladiatorial games to distract and preoccupy the people. “Curse tablets” (sheets of lead inscribed by a stylus) have survived that record the passionate desire to see certain charioteers in the Circus Maximus vanquished. Some notable ones read:

I adjure you, demon whoever you are, and I demand of you from this hour, from this day, from this moment, that you torture and kill the horses of the Greens and Whites and that you kill in a crash their drivers...and leave not a breath in their bodies.

I conjure you up, holy beings and holy names, join in aiding this spell, and bind, enchant, thwart, strike, overturn, conspire against, destroy, kill, break Eucherius, the charioteer, and all his horses tomorrow in the circus at Rome. May he not leave the barriers well; may he not be quick in contest; may he not outstrip anyone; may he not make the turns well; may he not win any prizes...

Bind every limb, every sinew, the shoulders, the ankles and the elbows of...the charioteers of the Reds. Torment their minds, their intelligence and their senses so that they may not know what they are doing, and knock out their eyes so that they may not see where they are going—neither they nor the horses they are going to drive.

Alexander von Wagner’s 1882 imaginative painting of the Circus Maximus

Are human beings addicted to conflict, as well as violent and dramatic spectacles? Reviewing the history of American cinema strongly suggests that we are. However, in recent years, millions of Americans have quit going to the cinema and now spend hours watching competing political factions duke it out on the internet.

I just asked AI with the question, Do some people seek drama and conflict for no particular end?

I found the response illuminating.

Yes, some people actively seek drama and conflict, not for a specific goal, but because the chaos itself provides stimulation, feels familiar from past experiences, fulfills a need for attention (especially with conditions like Histrionic Personality Disorder), helps regulate intense emotions, or offers a sense of importance, even if negative. This behavior often stems from deeper psychological patterns, an inability to cope with peace, or a subconscious draw to intense emotional states.