[lit-ideas] Re: Sacrifice
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:22:17 -0500
In fact that's a serious objection to the notion of "individual
sacrifice." Individuals only exist by consent of the group and vice
versa. To speak of irrational self-sacrifice is to view that sacrifice
only from the perspective of the individual. Yet individuals do not
exist by themselves, but only in the context of groups.
_____
To expand on this point. In what sense is the world comprised of
individuals? In what sense is the world comprised of groups?
To see the full horror of trench warfare is to view millions of
individuals going to their deaths because of a group allegiance. With
each death, a center of the universe is destroyed, a human consciousness
is quenched, a history comes to an end.
Yet each of these individuals only existed in the context of a group.
A thought experiment. Trench warfare at Somme. Everyone walks away. They
gave a war and nobody stayed for it. So what do these individuals do? Do
they return to "their countries"? And what is that? What is "their
country"? These are pure individuals now; they have no group
identification. What do they do? Make up their own individual language
and customs and claim a twenty-foot square parcel of earth as their own
individual country?
That's the fallacy we are projecting here--that of isolated rational
individuals who somehow can exist without a group. It's as if people's
hands only had palms but no back of the hand. Doesn't exist. People are
individuals-in-a-group, not pure individuals.
Eric
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