@Arouet,
I'd concur with Aroud's statement concerning the importance of differenciating between the 'sacred' and the 'valuable' (although for the purpose of the orignal thread, I think it sufficient).
My take on it is this: Humanity tends to valuate/deem sacred those things which are not so profuse - plain and simple. Pave all our streets with diamonds, see the hills and mountains strewn with them, and the diamond would hold much less value - be pursued and extolled that much the less.
Bodies everywhere, flesh, hair and the smell of perspiration... packed lines, hovels and villages crammed like sardines... apartment buildings like compressed honey combs.... traffic lines.... miles-long streams of starving refugees... images of blood-strewn concrete on our televisions 24-hours a day. It'd seem one couldn't swing a dead cat and not hit a human being. So profuse are we, so ensconed in our own mental fortresses of religion, politics and race we've become jaded/blind to the value of the individual.
So yea, there is a contradiction there. I believe it has to do with our sheer numbers and the bigotries within.