On Sacrifice

Since Anzac Day last month, the remembrance of the war dead of Australia and New Zealand, I’ve been thinking about the notion of sacrifice.

In the context of war, sacrifice is seen as a laudable goal. Men, and now some women, risk their lives to “protect” their country from an external foe. The sacrifice is linked to high ideals like freedom and democracy. The welfare of the community is set upon the actions and service of those who go to war, and to die in that service is “the ultimate sacrifice”.

There is something about that idea of sacrifice that, in the 21^st century, seems lifeless and worn out. For instance, each war has underlying issues that are usually missing in public consciousness. World War I was essentially a clash of empires over territory and resources. World War II, despite the high note of stopping fascism, was about self-interest and control – as seen in the vast American and Soviet post-war spheres of influence. In recent years the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fought largely to maintain Western geopolitical and economic domination.    

The idea of sacrifice has been a tool of propaganda to obscure the real causes of war and to fudge the complexity and complicity of all sides in conflict. We project our inner demons onto an external enemy, seeing ourselves as blameless, selfless heroes while the other is cast as menacing and evil. It must be said that some enemies, like the Nazis and al-Qaeda, were and are evil. But what of the millions killed by “our” side in the various wars? The firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo; the nuclear horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the obliterated villages of Vietnam; the thousands dead from the US invasion of Iraq, the drone strikes on Pakistani and Afghan civilians. At the heart of warfare is the desire for power and an inability to see yourself in a fellow human being.

Sacrifice, in its best sense, is not a tool for someone else’s gain or for our own in any literal, material way. It is about giving something up so that the bigger, fuller Life can be advanced; to support the creative work of soul in the world. When parents sacrifice their time and interests for their children, helping them to grow and learn, it is not just the individual child who benefits but the evolving Life essence they embody. Humanity and Life more broadly are furthered. Sacrifice is about letting go of the narrow, restrictive bounds of ego to fulfil greater purpose, in the knowledge that we are more than disconnected, isolated selves.

In David Tacey’s book Edge of the Sacred: Jung, Psyche, Earth the author mounts a powerful argument for sacrifice as a tool of advancement in the specific Australian context. The attachment to rationality and masculinity that have been the bedrock of Australia’s history and culture have to be let go, he says, so that we can develop a genuine relationship with the land. Listening and dialogue with nature requires an opening to our own depths, to archetypal forces resonant in us and in the land. Aboriginal people relate to these forces through subtle appreciation and Dreaming myths.

Sacrifice, it needs to be said, is not about destroying the ego. It is not about selfless action where the personality is repressed. There is a balance that is struck between gain and loss that only the individual can truly judge. For instance, “If I take this challenging job, will the overall benefit to my life and the lives of others be worth it?” The test is whether soul or greater purpose is advanced. As an example, looking back on my own life, I think of my six years as a part-time journalist at The Age newspaper in Melbourne. Though for a long time I struggled with the work and the work environment, the stability of a job and good pay provided a platform to focus on inner development. I can also say that I gave up a career as a journalist to pursue my life’s calling as a writer; the sacrifice being the loss of a lucrative, socially sanctioned path for a precarious but spiritually meaningful one.

It seems the idea of sacrifice will continue to be misunderstood and misapplied until there is sufficient social development, enough soul penetration of the mass psyche, for a turn away from ego and towards true meaning. Then there will be an understanding that sacrifice entails no loss at all, its fruits infinite and joyful.