December 10, 2019
Sacrifice comes in many forms:
Donating to charities
Giving time for service to others
Denying personal desires
Etc.
It’s easy to understand how sacrifice helps people by building their character. When you deny yourself, you learn to be content and to better appreciate what you allow yourself to have. You also develop self-control to resist destructive behaviors that may appeal to your human nature (such as addictive cravings).
It’s also easy to see how some individual sacrifices benefit society such as when people donate money for charitable causes that serve others, or when people pitch in to help others with practical needs. There are more dramatic examples such as when an angry person resists the urge to hurt someone they are angry with, or when a pedophile resists cravings that will harm children. But sometimes self-denial can help in ways that aren’t quickly apparent.
People indulge in many forms of personal pleasures that seem harmless because there’s no immediate apparent victim: over-eating, pornography, recreational drug use, open marriages, etc. People who spend a lot of time playing video games are often surprised at how much they enjoy other things when they cut back on video games, and they have more time to interact with other people improving their quality of life. Private sexual activity, alone or with consenting adults, is similar. It consumes time and mental energy that robs people of more satisfying activities that benefit themselves and others.
I believe permissive societies that give people freedom to over-indulge themselves are weaker and less fulfilling in general. Societies that apply reasonable pressure to make personal sacrifices are stronger. People are better connected socially and more self-controlled individually. These, and other social strengths make them more productive, resilient, better able to defend themselves against violent aggression, better at problem solving, etc. Most members of such societies enjoy life more because they benefit from the character society pressures them to grow into. The difficulty is finding the optimal balance between beneficial pressure and oppression. Oppression can be destructive to individuals and to the fabric of society.
Overly permissive societies have problems, but too much pressure from society to conform has its own list of problems. There’s a wide range of functionality between extremes. Whatever society you find yourself in, you can gain for yourself and make the world better for others with a little self-control and sacrifice.