In the story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson the village accepts a cruel human sacrifice for intentions to raise a good crop for the harvest season. Its difficult to that the villagers still accpet the stoning of innocent villager. I believe that the villagers are under a brain wash by Old man Warner, they do as he says. At many points he seems to have a very possesive nature about the villagers, and the lottery itself. In the cruel act of this stoning Old man Warner seems to be the only calm one. At the end of the drawing Old man Warner says "Come on, come on, everyone."(449) this represent his power over the people. As the story ends simply "They were upon her."(449) This simply says that the villagers took upon her like beasts under control.
Its hard to compare to anything like this is our modern day life. The one thing that i can think of in a inhuman situation is the Manson murders. Charles Manson is a man who controled people. He had them under a power, a brain wash where nobody could fight back becasue they accepted it. He ordered them murder Shannon Tate and her family, for the sake of human good to show everyone how piggish and animalistic the rich are. I believe that Old man Warner and Charles Manson are a lot a like. They both have the ability to make people believe in a wrong thing, but to make them think its completley normal, and its for the good of the world.
People that believe in sacrifice to the gods, or to the people for there own good is insane to me. Its just looks to the psychological problems that they might have.
