The cause of this is exclusively that they are afraid of losing the good opinion of their acquaintances. They are afraid that they will have to endure a disparaging view of their behaviour if they set Christ, and not Barabbas, free by refusing animal food in favour of vegetarian food. And Nicodemus, otherwise so interested and worthy, here turns into a Pilate.
      But it is not only with regard to vegetarian food that one sets Barabbas free and executes the Christ-temperament in oneself. Who among these people dare admit to their friends that they believe in reincarnation and the changes in perception of life and behaviour this belief entails? Does one not here too run the risk of being stamped as foolish, as fanatical or as eccentric, which here means someone who is a little odd, if one openly makes such an acknowledgment?
      So one is afraid of being held in contempt; one is afraid of losing one's friends; one is afraid of the opinion of the flock or so-called "public opinion". And on the basis of this fear of going against the opinion of the flock or the masses, which, in a manner of speaking, always manifests itself as the cry "Set Barabbas free", one allows oneself to be lured into mutilating or executing the Christ-temperament in oneself while one releases Barabbas, which means the thief or the murderer in our own being. And the good we would in many situations like to do, we do not do; while the evil we likewise do not want to do, we do. One eats meat, one accepts armed defence, one votes for military action, one becomes a freedom-fighter and in given situations a saboteur, a member of the underground movement and an assassin, one goes along with voting for the introduction of the death-penalty and other fatal and destructive measures, although one has been baptised and thereby solemnly initiated into living a life in the name of him who said, "Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."