Elections are no different from gladitorial games, designed to entertain and distract the masses, while providing an outlet for the undirected energy of the masses. Did Consulship of Imperial, and even Republican, Rome matter at all in the overarching policies of that proto-state? In a more elegant time, men understood their station and place in the social hierarchy. In our turbulent era, the mob must be appeased, flattered, and distracted, even as their unlettered opinions remain as irrelevant as during the past 10,000 years of written history.