Human Sacrifice

How many minutes does it take to cut the heart out of a living man with an obsidian dagger? How long to plunge it into his chest and saw the ribcage free of the breast bone? How high is the geyser of blood as the heart is torn from of its arteries? At what point does death close the eyes of the victim.

The Aztecs knew they could only placate the god of empire with human blood. So they engaged in continual warfare just to take prisoners for the sacrifice.

Nothing has changed. The god is just as greedy; he still demands his victims. But, instead of the blood of individuals, he wants the souls of civilizations.

The Aztecs sacrificed their victims on altars atop pyramids that reached for the heavens. Sacrifices to the contemporary god take place in the shantytowns of the Third World that fan out from their metropolises.

How long does it take to carve out the soul of a civilization?

The Aztecs grounded their bloodlust in the reality of their gods. The contemporary bloodlust is grounded in the papier-mâché realities of academic policymakers. Superstition drives both. An obsidian dagger could kill only one person at a time. A well-formed policy can kill millions.

Every empire is a culture of death; it is a culture that puts military and economic considerations ahead of human life and well-being. The bones of the poor and the suffering feed the furnaces of our prosperity. It is thus that God has blessed America.