a gift, an act of renouncement. It always presupposes that the worshipper give some of his substance or his goods to the gods. The reason the worshipper does this is to survive by insuring the god's survival. "If he is to live, the universal life must continue and consequently the gods must not die."

Since the gods are the personifications or the symbolic representations of society, it is through them and their worshippers that the society's dependence on its members is expressed.

Richard Koenigsberg: In war, the substance given to the god is the body of the soldier. The god itself is the nation-state. The perpetuation of society is born out of the sacrifices of those individuals who constitute society. Society itself is the god which is worshipped and for which sacrifices are made. One must pose the question: why has "society" has assumed such power over the minds of the individuals who constitute society.

In Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), Freud conceptualized an opposition between the happiness of individuals and the perpetuation of civilization. In the idea of "dying for one's country," we see the most radical example of the dichotomy between what is "good" for society and what is good for the individual.