Sacrifice

At some point or another, sacrifice was incorporated into the human canon.
Perhaps it was in naivety that this occurred, but regardless, it has followed the modern human, likely from its inception, all the way up until today.

It all stems from the same thing: Fear.

In the beginning, sacrifice was noble; necessary to the survival of the human race. Imagine that your woman and baby were hungry, but you had only caught a single rabbit that day -- the climate had recently been thrown out of whack and most of the other animals had died off or been eaten already. Catching the rabbit with your bare hands and skinning it with your makeshift tools was an ordeal and a half, and there was no telling when you would find another, but babies need to eat, lest they be too malnourished to grow properly, and the woman needed to be on her guard to make sure it wasn't carried off by something bigger. You, having been conditioned for the hunt, recall that the patch of edible mushrooms you had found the other day would probably be ripe in flush again tomorrow anyway.

Ethos: 5/5
Pathos: 4/5
Logos: 3/5

Later on, a primitive understanding of weather caused humans to believe that they must sacrifice various symbolic things to the Gods, lest they be unhappy and cause global disasters that would cripple the supply of fresh food or water. In the meantime, more intelligent specimens discovered methods of preserving food for long-term storage (i.e. fermentation) and stockpiling water in the case of either occurrence.

Ethos: 5/5
Pathos: 1/5
Logos: 4/5

Eventually, enough evil humans got together and devised a plan to enslave the masses. Whether or not their intentions were initially good is up for debate. They were successfully able to convince enough humans that an almighty being would deliver eternal damnation to those who did not offer sacrifice to their religious establishment to create a false dogma that is still in place today (but finally receding significantly).

Ethos: 1/5
Pathos: 4/5
Logos: 2/5

Though we are close to another paradise in human society, sacrifice is still ingrained in the human psyche as something that simply must be done, which might be a positive truth, except that the benefactor of this sacrifice is now less often the greater good and more often the material self. As one surrenders to the wants of their ego, or material body, the instantaneous comfort that they feel tends to condition them to continue doing this and thus ignore their higher bodies (intellectual, spiritual).

Ethos: 2/5
Pathos: 4/5
Logos: 3/5

At the inward extreme, learned ignorance causes one to selfishly cling to what is 'theirs', often in disregard of what is fair or right. Drunk with entitlement, the higher bodies suffocate. At the outward extreme, one sacrifices more than they had to begin with and the higher bodies starve.

***

I don't really know how to find the perfect balance yet, aside from just being mindful and letting the pendulum swing: Yeah, sure, easier said than done. At its core, it's still pretty much Pavlov conditioning. If you associate good feelings with good behavior and vise versa, you're about half way there...

Good luck finishing the race from that point.

I'm going to sleep on that. 'Til next time.