Euphemisms abound in the Ministry of Truth. The unborn are “products of conception“; keeping your own money burdens the government with a “tax expenditure“; and highway robbery “stimulates” the economy.
J. H. Huebert writes:
“Trying to make the images of your virtual strip-search sound inoffensive, one TSA creep says, ‘I don’t look at them as people. I look at them as a thing that could have something on it.’ I don’t doubt it.”
I don’t doubt it either, because implanting that attitude is the goal of first lesson on the first day of sniper school — dehumanize the enemy: otherwise, you might flinch before firing — a natural reaction if you realize you re killing a human being. By all means, do not ponder whether he kissed his wife and children goodbye this morning before he left home. (Here, it is actually cheered in the name of capitalism).
8:42 am on February 21, 2009
