Redefining Sacrifice

Sacrifice. I can think of no word that is more misused and more often evokes the wrong response than the word "sacrifice". Currently, when people speak of sacrifice, they are apparently trying to point out that something has been given up, forsaken or rejected in a way detrimental to themselves but beneficial to someone else. The word is used as if something good has been given up for something not so good. The greater forsaken for the lesser. The word is used as if a sacrifice has been made and the sacrificer should therefore be admired. This is wrong.

First of all, anyone who would trade the greater for the lesser should certainly not be admired; they should be ridiculed as a fool. If at any time, someone is actively seeking to "sacrifice" their time or their money with nothing in return, that person is an idiot and a destructive force in the universe. They are untrustworthy, inconsistent, and most of all, a liar. Sacrifice is not giving something for nothing, it never is. True sacrifice is forsaking the lesser in favor of the greater.

To sacrifice time, talents, or money is to use these things in such a way as to maximize happiness. People dont sacrifice their money or time for nothing, they do it if to eliminate guilt, feed ego, assuage conscience, demonstrate "goodness", or if they are consistent trustworthy people they do it simply to increase their own happiness. If we must persist in the use of the word sacrifice, then let us change it to an honorable meaning. Let sacrifice be when a person is logical and consistent enough to make a trade in which they give something up in order to be a happier and more complete being. That is how sacrifice should be viewed and only in that sense could a sacrificer be praised. I will not praise a chosen failure, an inconsistent trade, or an idiotic lie. Let us praise sacrifice for what it is, the wisdom to give up the lesser in order to obtain the greater. This is eternalism.