Dying for the Cause is a Myth
Human beings have always placed value on self-sactifice. Many of our most celebrated heroes, our cultural and moral role models, have achieved their importance through selfless acts performed on behalf of others. Most of our instructive myths, and most of our religious precepts center on this idea. The concept colors every thread of our social fabric. We believe - because it is largely true - that consciously overcoming our own self interest for the benefit of others is the ultimate expression of that which makes us human - the purest height of holiness or nobility.
Patrick Henry regretted that he had but one life to give for his country. Jesus sacrificed his life to atone for the sins of mankind. Lincoln immortalized those who gave the last full measure of their devotion at Gettysburg... The list goes on.
We define important aspects of personal and organizational goodness in terms of self-sacrifice. For instance, responsibility. The word we use today has roots that mean "answerable" (to others) and implies "obligation". We teach our children to be responsible; we value friends, family, co-workers, employers, leaders and organizations that are responsible. Spend five minutes on social media, and you will see dozens of posts about parental, familial, spousal, convivial and social responsibility - most of which imply and extol some form of sacrifice. This is not a new phenomena. Every culture throughout history has shared the same basic idea. It is one of the things that makes organized society work. It is one of the things that has allowed human beings to become the dominant organism on the planet.
We also tend to place the highest value on those who have the most to lose in their sacrifice. Thus, we venerate St. Francis of Assisi - a child of wealth who chose poverty and asceticism in the service of God - over the millions of poor, nameless monks who chose his Way. We value the general who puts himself in harm's way over the soliders who die with him. We value the millionaire who commits his wealth to charity over the working man who sends a $19 check every month to Feed the Children... If you're not sure this is true, tell me the last time you saw an article entitled: "Woman gives up $8/hr job to care for children at home." Because you have seen the same article entitled: "Woman steps down from $8million CEO position to spend more time with kids."
The point is: sacrifice is not perceived as or understood as an absolute. Sacrifice is relative to other factors - and relative to how we value other things. The sacrifice of faceless millions is recognized and vaguely appreciated, but valued less than the sacrifice of a privileged or an elevated One.
This is because we remain, despite hundreds of thousands of years of social evolution, a society structured on heirarchal foundations. We continue to seek and gravitate towards exceptional individuals - and to value the exceptional individual over the common crowd. We remain fundamentally familial and tribal, and fundamentally organized around this heirarchy. Proof of this - even in modern, humanistic democratic societies - is that we ultimately elect individual human beings to offices of great power - not ideas, not causes, not plans or projects or ideals. Proof of this is that - even in totalitarian and despotic societies built around a social concept - some person is in charge, and is the one for whom all others sacrifice.
Humans require that their ideas and ideals, the things they value, be personified somehow, because - in the end - humans sacrifice themselves for other humans. Charitable marketers know this, which is why they show pictures of individual starving children, not just statistics on the millions of starving children; which is why they show and anthropomorphize specific abused animals, attributing human qualities to them, not just statistics on the millions of abused animals; which is why God and his holiest representatives are depicted and described as Persons, not just moral and social ideals.
Firefighters do not give their lives to save your property - they give their lives for their neighbors. Policemen do not give their lives to secure your wealth - they give their lives for fellow citizens. Soldiers do not die in battle to capture territory or to accomplish the mission - they die for their leaders and for one another. Saints do not martyr themselves to the fifth or the second commandment - they give their lives to the God with whom they have a personal relationship. Civil rights activits do not give their lives for a constitutional amendment - they die for their mothers, brothers and children. The Japanese did not fight to the death for their island - they died for the Emperor who embodied their history and culture. The Russians did not fight for Communism or Holy Mother Russia - they died for the Great Father Stalin and their sisters and daughters.
Why is this important? Because until and unless we understand this, we cannot hope to understand and overcome the current crop of self-sacrificing individuals who are blowing themselves up "for their cause." They are not dying for their cause. They are not dying for Islam. They are not dying for their homeland or their freedom or their relgious and social ideals. They are dying for the same reasons that our soldiers are dying - for some ONE, not some THING. They are not incomprehensible, sick, twisted, inhuman or psychologically aberrant. They are merely exemplifying a particular human trait that has been valued in every culture since we came down from the trees. Understand for WHOM they are killing themselves (and innocent bystanders) and you will understand how to stop them.
