Empirical egoism

Normal human life is not lived for others.

With others, yes, of course.

We are social animals, we humans - an inheritance, along with so much else, from our simian ancestry.

Few among us prefer to live apart, and the costs are high.

But in any case we do not live for others.

To use one for the sake of others, or to insist that one sacrifice for others, is taking advantage, sometimes very cruelly and often selfishly, as when you and others push someone else into some sort of sacrifice for you all.

"Greater love hath no man," eh? "Dulce et decorum est."

Often, in fact, we use others unto death.

Nothing the least unusual about it.

In nearly all cases, those chosen by us or by circumstance to be sacrificed do resist.

But not always.

We bully people into such things, or excuse our use of raw coercion, with talk of morals and the gods.

Sometimes people volunteer, too.

One thinks of the pig that wants to be eaten, that was bred to want to be eaten, a creation of Douglas Adams.

The political and religious relevance of these remarks is obvious.