There was a post the other day on the Effective Altruists facebook page which read like: > Does abnormal self-sacrifice inspire social change? (A response to

There was a post the other day on the Effective Altruists facebook page which read like: > Does abnormal self-sacrifice inspire social change? (A response to "A Defense of Normality" link below) > The conventional wisdom is that many movements throughout history (christianity, buddhism, Indian independence) were inspired and fueled by the extraordinary sacrifice of leaders/early adopters (or at least myths about such extreme altruism). The conventional wisdom may be wrong, but maybe we need more abnormal sacrifice in our movement, not less. In fact, I think it's plausibly a good idea for us to donate our kidneys, precisely as a symbol of our commitment-- not necessarily in the hopes that others will follow suit-- but in the hopes that it inspires people to take altruism more seriously.