Reading Joseph Bottum’s essay, you find a long string of euphemisms for state intervention. We are in the end talking about groups supporting the only thing that the state does: namely roughing people up through violence and threats of violence. That’s what every line of every regulation comes down to. That’s the meaning of every tax. That the whole upshot of every tariff, expenditure, prohibition, and bomb. It all amounts to increased use of violence in society. Strip away the banners, songs, uniforms, and speeches: that’s all that the state really is.
The reason people don’t want to say that, however, is that it sounds rather unseemly and ugly to admit that one wants to expand the sphere of coercion and aggression in society. No one wants to be known as an advocate of using violence. And so a major art of statecraft is to come up with other words for state action besides the ones that actually describe what the state does. Mr. Bottum seems to be a specialist at this. [FULL ARTICLE on LRC]
Conservative Euphemisms for Aggression
