Readers of Joe Haldeman's 1975 novel The Forever War, which described military life and manners in an imagined future, will recall that enlisted soldiers were expected to respond to the commands of their drill instructors with a loud and clear "F*** YOU, SIR!".

Readers of Joe Haldeman's 1975 novel The Forever War, which described military life and manners in an imagined future, will recall that enlisted soldiers were expected to respond to the commands of their drill instructors with a loud and clear "F*** YOU, SIR!" Apparently inspired by Haldeman's utopia, a secondary school in Northamptonshire, England, is permitting students aged 15 and 16 to use that same taboo word in class, though on a strictly rationed basis. "Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score," says the letter sent to parents to announce this policy. Asked to justify the policy, the school's headmaster responded with: "The reality is that the f-word is part of these young adults' everyday language." Odd, isn't it, how the words "The reality is . . ." invariably seem to preface some small surrender to barbarism? Our own disgust at this further advance toward civilizational suicide is too deep to express in words, four-letter or otherwise--is, in fact, ineffable . . .