When I was a small child, there were four specific markers by which I knew the culture I was born into was lethally insane.

The first was that the random punishment or extermination of small beings, living places, or creatures was considered de rigueur.

The second was that the food called ‘meat’ was the flesh of murdered animals. There were daily stacks of this like fresh news at the grocery store.

The third was that there was always war.

The fourth, and most shocking, was when they told me that the basic particles of language, letters, had no meaning. And worse, that words with similar sounds… were indicative not of meaning, but of accident.