The Blood of the Lamb Still Flows

Dear George,

Many are the lies we tell to convince ourselves that we are civilized and that we have risen above the barbarity of our ancestors. Religion makes of us all deluded fools desperately trying to coat our savagery with layers of piety.

We do differ from our forefathers, but the difference is superficial. Where they practiced the brutal barbarity of the savage, we practice the serene barbarity of the civilized.

Of the many lies we tell, perhaps none is more insidious that our belief that human sacrifice is a thing of the past. It still thrives. And I am not talking about war, though it certainly does its part to cull the herd. No, George, the truth is that economic growth is impossible without blood sacrifice. In the past, blood was offered up to appease the gods; now it is offered up to make straight the way for prosperity.

Regardless of the existence of the autonomous nation-state, their borders have always been ignored by international criminal organizations, be they drug cartels or multinationals. In terms of misery and slaughter perpetuated in their names, drug cartels are Boy Scout troops compared to the blood offerings demanded by our multinationals.

The blood- drenched maw of the multinational is never sated. Wherever there is a profit to be made or a resource to be exploited, it builds an altar upon which it offers its victims to the gods of growth. Wars are but one of the knives with which it guts its victims. Disease and starvation are the others. Each day, thirty-six thousand children do their part for prosperity by dying of starvation or other poverty-related diseases.

Like the priests of old, the high priests of the multinationals feel not a stab of remorse, for they understand that fresh blood is the nutrient without which the economy would stagnate.

Instead of condemning human sacrifice, let us celebrate it as the religious rite that it is. When Christians celebrate the Eucharist they sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Blessed, indeed, is the man who comes in the name of economic expansion. He is so blessed that his every act, no matter how vile, is equally blessed as it rises above the archaic distinction between good and evil. All growth is a form of death and we must steel ourselves to accept this as a healthy sign of increased productivity.

Our growth as civilized beings began when the first caveman experienced the joy of economic expansion by killing his neighbor and taking his stuff. It has only become more sophisticated since. Who knows where growth will take us next.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones