| THE LAW OF SACRIFICE: Proof of the Pudding |
| Richard A. Koenigsberg |
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- The desire for political death (in war, genocide, revolution and terrorism) grows out of attachment to an ideology conceived as absolute.
- Dying and killing are undertaken in order to validate the ideology (“proof of the pudding”).
- Dead and mangled bodies testify to the “truth” of some entity or idea: that which is the cause of the dying and killing. People cannot conceive that dying and killing have occurred in the name of no thing.
- The nature of the entity or idea for which people die and kill is fungible. People have died and killed for France, for Germany, for the British Empire, for the Communist revolution, for Allah, for the Emperor, for a Tamil homeland, to preserve the Union, and for “freedom and democracy.” Each culture has its own preferred absolute.
- The method of verifying the sacred ideal remains the same, regardless of the content of the ideal.
- Sacred ideals (e. g., nations) come into being to the extent that human beings kill and die for them.
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