Posted by Dr. Bob on October 8, 2013, at 16:52:09
In reply to Re: sacrifice, posted by sigismund on October 7, 2013, at 13:11:47
> > Thinking more about sacrifice, wasn't it sometimes considered an honor to be the one sacrificed? To redeem the community?
>
> Yes, even in [Tenochtitlan] there was something of that, though it is an example at the edges. Is the American military an example?Good question.
1. People being willing to sacrifice themselves, but maybe emerging victorious, seems different.
2. Victory and redemption seem to be very different goals.
> > I guess some people might prefer being killed to interminable arguments. I guess at Babble I've chosen interminable arguments.
>
> You have now. I don't know if it was the re-election of Bush when things went wild here (as I read once here) and you made a change before my time? But from around then people could be blocked for nothing.Only very early on was blocking permanent = like death.
> > What would be the equivalent here of leaving someone alone?
>
> Leaving someone alone is easy, being kind is easy tooEasier said than done, if you ask me.
> Sacrifice is a dangerous concept. ... once it starts going there has to be meaning made of the sacrifice, always at someone else's expense. I suppose you could turn it around and say that the US could have renounced imperial ambition and given its poorest health care and more instead.
That's the difference between redemption and victory.
In this context, imperial ambition = changing the rules, and giving its poorest health care and more = supporting each other?
Bob
a brilliant and reticent Web mastermind -- The New York Times
backpedals well -- PartlyCloudy
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:1047296
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20130903/msgs/1051865.html