Berger Peter L. Pyramids of Sacrifice. Political Ethics and Social Change

Anchor, 1974. — 266 p.Pyramids of Sacrifice is an essay on the human dimensions of development. It views development not from the perspective of world history or of ideological combat, but through its impact on the individuals whose lives are transformed by social, economic, and political change. This perspective makes Berger sensitive to human problems which are too frequently ignored in the calculations of philosophers of history, revolutionaries, and reformist social engineers. Viewing history from below, Berger reflects on the moral imperatives of policy-making for the Third World. Foremost among such imperatives, for him, are that those affected by a policy have the opportunity to participate in the making of decisions; that policymakers carefully calculate the likely human costs of alternative policies in order to avoid those that come too dear; and that no development strategy be adopted which would require the sacrifice of a generation to the achievement of long-range goals.