I definitely like malt vinegar on fish and chips!
Itchy, I really liked your poem. I especially liked the lines, "...their rhetoric cannot reflect, life’s true reality" and "And turn away from genocide because it spoils my mood." Thank you for sharing it.
If I may, I would like to refine one of the terms in your first quote.
"The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas -- uncertainty, progress, change -- into crimes."
If I were the one making that quote, I would replace the word "sacred" with "righteous."
"Sacred" is something genuinely holy, pure, beautiful, and transcendent. It takes your breath away in its utter excellence and makes you want to get down on one knee and bow your head before it.
When we behold the sacred, we are brought to the humility that befits us as mere mortals. We experience the complete absence of arrogance and self-righteousness.
When religious humans do evil things, it is definitely not because of the sacred. Where there is evil, the sacred is nowhere to be found.