Sacrifice–

The sacrificial animal
does not share
the spectators ideas about sacrifice,

but one has never let it have its say.

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 3, Section 220 by Friedrich Nietzsche

I am haunted by this line of text, by this thought.  Compared with other mammals life for humans has great added difficulty.  Our species is troubled by sensations of guilt, it is certain that I and you will take  responsibility upon our selves for the mistakes that we make.  That homo sapiens is the guilt-laden mammal, extending even to events which involve us, that we did nothing to cause.  This was Nietzsche’s viewpoint of the human condition, of what is universally true for everyone.

What to do with my burden?  One can conceal only so much self-doubt, so much self recrimination behind an appealing smile, or in the background of humor…

I have noticed how often we transfer our self recrimination to someone else.  Another has to be sacrificed!  As this is standard practice, a victim will often silently “go along” with a perfectly horrific attempt to transfer a felt stain…  Candidates for blame are individuals who always have less power, are regarded as subservient in society:  females, non white-skinned, immigrants, anyone recognized as “other” by comparison to the affluent, the influential.  Climate change and war impose refugee status upon multitudes, — who become a class of sacrificial candidates..

Sacrificial ritual can be a public media excoriation or as personal as abuse in the home.  There’s the victim– and everyone else, who silently looks upon the spectacle.

The victim is never permitted to have a say.

The tune Refugee by Tom Petty (October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017) captures our condition, the imperative of resistance if one is to be free.