in preparation for G.O.D.

The bitingly ironic Kotsko, on banning the words "sacrifice" and "sacred" from politico-speak entirely:

Human life is "sacred." Not that humans have rights and obligations -- no, that's not what we say. That would imply a social order arising out of the collaboration of rational adults. That would imply that we might actually get to pick what "cause," if any, we want to embrace -- and if we just want to have Weimar forever, or the "happy 90s" forever, then that's an acceptable option. We might get to talk about a project, about creating something -- rather than jumping straight to this idea of "sacrifice," almost like we want a "sacrifice" for its own sake, or for the sake of appeasing the hungry gods. If we "sacrifice," then the great god America will bless us. Or look at those who are constantly hoping that this latest catastrophe will be a "wake-up call" -- to what? And who's calling?

This obsession with the negative, with destruction, with giving something up -- it's a poison. It's of a piece with the philosophy of governance that our entire political class has embraced -- cut spending, cut taxes, cut, cut, cut. Then the native goodness of the American people will have a chance to flourish! Then no one will have a moral free pass -- no, change will happen from the bottom up, when people spontaneously, individually move their precious, sacred, personally responsible bodies into the right places. They'll just know, intuitively, what to do -- if only we get rid of this dreadful bureaucracy, this dreadful educational indoctrination, this dreadful civilization.