Posts
November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. It (and the Sunday preceding) has become a
day of holy worship for many. Churches as
well as today’s temples of worship – the sports arena – will bear witness to
this glorious event. The throngs will
cheer uncontrollably.
They cheer for their heroes, those who have died so they
could live free – free to pay a 50% portion to the state, free to have every
form of communication monitored, free to be forced into all sorts of activities
and prohibited from many others, free to turn their children over for
brainwashing, free to be seen naked before flying.
Free.
For the maintenance of such freedoms, the heroes are
worshipped. For their sacrifice.
Sacrifice is the offering of
food, objects or the lives of animals to a higher purpose, in particular divine
beings, as an act of propitiation or worship.
Human sacrifice is the act of
killing one or more human beings, usually as an offering to a deity, as part of
a religious ritual (ritual killing). Its typology closely parallels the various
practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general.
Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history.
Victims were typically ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please
or appease gods, spirits or the deceased, for example as a propitiatory
offering…
The heroes, worshipped in the church and sports halls, offer
their blood on the altar – the sacrificial blood. The religion requires such sacrifice.
They sacrificed in 1812 for the sake of bringing the
Canadians into the fold; they sacrificed in 1861 to ensure the people of the
south could remain free under a state they no longer wanted; they sacrificed at
the turn of the last century to free the Philippines from Spanish rule; they
sacrificed in 1917 so the Germans could remain free under Hitler; they
sacrificed in 1941 so a totalitarian like Stalin could take over half of Europe
and so the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (along with countless civilians
in dozens of cities throughout Europe and Japan) could achieve freedom from
life; they sacrificed in 1951 in Korea so the communists wouldn’t take over Asia;
they sacrificed in Vietnam to prevent the communists from taking over the
world; they sacrificed in 1991 so the Kuwaiti’s could save their babies in
incubators; they sacrificed in Iraq so 500,000 children could starve and
countless others could suffer death and destruction; they sacrificed in
Afghanistan to capture and kill a man who likely died a decade earlier.
They sacrificed for making the world safe for democracy.
It is their blood, offered as sacrifice to the god of the
state – all in the name of the national
religion.
I pledge Allegiance to the flag of
the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one
nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
The religion requires blood.
The heroes offer theirs.
The congregants offer praise to those who have been and will
be sacrificed. They sing their
hosannas:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where
the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning
of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of
a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the
evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by
the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
Glory, glory Hallelujah.
Just ask them.
The sacrifice brings on a religious frenzy.
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn't evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate
pride
Of the citizens along for the
ride
This drunken and passionate pride will be on full display
on this celebration day of sacrifice.
A blood sacrifice.
Human blood.
Be sure to thank the troops. For their sacrifice.
You betcha. The Mosquito stands alone with his truth. Well, nearly alone.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget Dresden, a burnt offering if ever there was one.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago I sat on a hillside overlooking the city, imagining the horror. The Russians herding refugees to the city and the Americans and British burning them from a safe altitude.
Delete