Why We Tell Stories About Sacrifice

It's Memorial Day here in the US, and that means that it is a special time to commemorate soldiers who have fallen in battle. It's a powerful moment, and a powerful time, a time to set aside politics and questions for future days and focus on the memory of the brave souls of the past. It is on this day that we honor the most important human quality: the ability and willingness to sacrifice of oneself. Without this building block, we would be nothing.

The fundamental reason why we have to sacrifice is inherent in our biology: we can't survive, at least not with the quality of life and size of modern populations, without making concessions for the future. The world is such that we must deal with forces outside of our control in one way or another.

And one of the ways we learned to do this was a primitive form of self-serving sacrifice: to prepare beyond our immediate means. Anyone who's put money into a savings account, started a business, or had children has seen this in a very personal sense.

The problem is that self-serving sacrifice is not going to fix the problems of the world. A retirement fund does nothing if the world slides into chaos and disorder. Businesses only function when they are free of the threat of robbery or confiscation. Children need protection while they grow and develop, often past the point that any small family can provide.

The form of sacrifice that matters is when someone gives up something dear for the sake of others. We think of the generosity of industrialists who gave millions of dollars to causes, but we do not commemorate them. Their generosity is a function of their position. Even someone heralded for their great selflessness, like Tolstoy, still pales in comparison to one class of people: those who are willing to give up their lives for others.

Sacrifice for others is the foundation upon which all other virtues rests, and soldiers display one of the highest forms of it. While it is possible (and indeed, probably sensible) to oppose war on solid moral grounds, those who sacrifice should and must be honored.

This is why we tell stories about sacrifice, because it is pivotal. When we see sacrifice in stories, it is clear to us that it always has one purpose: to defeat evil, whether in a deliberate and malicious form or in the shape of entropic chaos coming from nature.

We do this because it is important for us to remember. We cannot look at those who have given all for us and ignore the prices they paid if we want to keep living in a world that rises above cruelty.

It is for this reason that we commemorate heroes who give everything, tell tales of war with all its horror intact, and it is right that we do so.

The moment we forget their sacrifices, we lose the ability to appreciate their necessity–and the necessity of the values they embody.

Image of the Battle of Iwo Jima, courtesy of the United States government.