Survival discourse has saturated modern culture so every issue becomes a life-or-death matter.

Evidence

Survival has become the ultimate order of the day. ‘It has entered so deeply into popular culture and political debate that every issue, however fleeting or unimportant, presents itself as a matter of life or death.’ — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1215

Categorization

• DEFINE: Cites Lasch’s culture of survivalism thesis: survival as the pervasive organizing frame of modern life.
• XREF: Connects to Lasch’s ‘minimal self’ and to survivalism debates in cultural criticism; echoes the reader’s interest in how political struggles frame themselves as existential.
• SEED: Angle: how ‘survival’ framing colonizes every policy debate, turning proportionate responses into life-or-death crises.