Why Love Sucks: Part 3 Sacrifice

(See Comic) “If parents love their children, they will not be nationalistic, they will not identify themselves with any country; for the worship of the State brings on war, which kills or maims their sons.” Jiddu Krishnamurti An essential tenant of false love is the admiration of sacrifice. In reality, there is no love in sacrifice, for sacrifice entails an inequality and thus a debt. Common relationships are full of little rituals of sacrifice that are falsely called love. To demand sacrifice, or to comply with sacrifice, is to deny true love. On a national scale, this dynamic of sacrifice is a facilitator of war. Just because a person happened to be born in one dumb country instead of another dumb country that usually entails a certain amount of allegiance and affection (team love) for the country, which is called patriotism (which comes from the word pater, as in patriarch, meaning father). The pinnacle of patriotism is often touted as giving one’s life in military service fighting for one’s country. But such is the kind of idea that is only admirable if sacrifice is admirable. It is doubtful you’ll ever see a politician with the balls, or even brains, to say this, but realistically, participating in the military is obsequious warmongering, and supporting the military, without directly participating in it, is exploitive cowardice. In other words, most people, in the name of being good patriots, are either obsequious warmongers or exploitive cowards. The role of a military in a sane society is mere preparedness for a theoretical threat of direct aggression. In other words, it is merely defensive, not offensive. But in a society that admires sacrifice, there are people willing to sacrifice life and limb for the whims of exploitive cowards. The admiration of sacrifice and its association with love is reflected in religion. What is called Christianity today is a sacrificial religion--just like the religion it supposedly superseded: Judaism. There is a nonsensical dichotomy in conventional Christianity between what Jesus actually taught and the eventual mis-emphasis on his death. Whereas Judaism was a progression in the sense that it narrowed multiple gods down to one God. Christianity was a progression in the sense that it narrowed sacrifice down from many sacrifices (like animal sacrifices) to the ultimate sacrifice (the son of God). In a society that equates sacrifice with love, such a sacrificial religious view has plenty of appeal, but it has nothing to do with the revolutionary stuff Jesus attempted to teach--which was about forgiving the guilt that demands sacrifice to end guilt and sacrifice. Sacrifice plays hand in hand with guilt. And guilt is the most powerful tool for manipulating people’s behavior. People will do all sorts of things they wouldn’t do otherwise (like risk their lives) if they can be made to feel guilty and then offered freedom from the guilt. The payment to be free of guilt is sacrifice; it is like an attempt to pay down a debt. Prison is a kind of societal institutionalization of guilt demanding sacrifice. And capital punishment is the pinnacle of that institutionalization. A person who is sentenced to capital punishment usually murdered people. The reason that person murdered people was because, to that person, the murdered people were sacrificial victims of some kind used to help alleviate guilt--just as capital punishment is. However, it is all just an insane circle where the guilt is merely recycled. In other words, sacrifice recycles guilt but doesn’t eradicate it. Only true love (true forgiveness) can eradicate guilt. But as long as love entail sacrifice (including in bad religious ideas and patriotism), it is not true love and will devolve into hatefulness. End insanity don’t support sacrifice Coming Next: Part 4 Possessiveness