Let’s look at sadomasochism outside the context of BDSM with mutual consent. Sadomasochism is a motivation buried deep in the subconscious waiting for an opportunity to manifest itself. We see it in so many aspects of our life that we consider it normal. It became part of the human nature.

• Sadomasochism can make you take a chance to run our of gas.

• Sadomasochism makes you take a chance with your life on the freeway to save a few seconds when you have nothing urgent to do.

• Casinos are based on Sadomasochism. The casinos calculated the probability of winning at many different games. The more you play, the closer you will get to those mathematical probabilities, and they are not in your favor. The gambler would rather focus on feelings. When he loses, he is a failure and should be ashamed. When he wins, he dominates everybody. He is the king, and everybody must pay him. In gambling, the sadomasochism overcomes any rational thinking. If we want to free our soul, we should get our sadomasochism under control

• To satisfy our need for sadomasochism, we even use our judicial system. Sadomasochism starts when we are making laws that are not necessary. We justify our action by saying that “It is for their own good.”  We pretend that others cannot be happy unless they believe in our own god, follow our own religion and our own way of relating to one another. The truth is that there is some sadism in us that is out of control. Even an idea such as “Love your neighbor” mixed with human nature can become a burst of sadomasochism like The Inquisition.

• Think of the thousands of wars that we have had in our history. Wars are an opportunity to suffer and make others suffer. We know that they are not the best way to solve conflicts, but we keep the practice.

• Think of the many ways people in the Middle Ages invented to make others suffer as much as possible: Boiling people in hot water, wrenching their tongue, burning their eyes with hot iron. The most popular divertissement was watching them burning at the stake. What do you think was motivating them? Could it be sadomasochism? We still use torture in the world.

• What we call ‘geopolitics’ is sadomasochism at the government’s level. In a more civilized society, when there is a conflict, all the politicians responsible for the fighting would be accused of war crimes. They would be sent to The Hague. The judge would decide who can go back home and who will go to the battlefield to remove the mines.

Search “Totrture”   and you will be surprised to see the many ways people have invented to make the victim suffer as much as possible for as long as possible. What was the motivation behind it? It was an opportunity to satisfy their need for sadomasochism. Let’s face it. Sadomasochism is part of human nature, and this is not something to be proud of. 

• When grown-ups do not have enough stress in their life, they create some. It gives them the illusion of progressing. They are pushing the envelope! They are fighting destiny… or something like that.

• To satisfy this need, we have used religions, governments, social conventions and anything within our reach. Religious beliefs that cannot be proved or disproved make a perfect excuse.  You satisfy your sadomasochism and say: “God made me do it”.

• We imprison those who don’t follow the way of thinking of the majority. We use (our) morality and pretend that it is for the public good. This is sadism.

Sadomasochism is part of human nature.

It is true that we made some progress. We don’t torture as much as we used to. We don’t burn people at the stake anymore.  We still have the Female Genital Mutilation and tortures in the jails. We still have a long way to go but our need for sadomasochism may not be as intense as it was a few centuries ago. We may have the tormentor genes of our ancestors, but we are getting them under some control.

 

It seems that some countries are more prone to sadomasochism than others. Every detail of every day’s life can become an opportunity to make rules and those who do not follow the rules get chastised.

It can become tragic when sadomasochism makes people join a group and create a church that will take them to a foreign country to commit mass suicide.

It would be interesting to investigate if sadomasochism did not play a role - unconsciously -when millions of people followed blindly a leader all the way to their demise.