Friday, May 19, 2006

Karma

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Karma
By VerityINK

Karma is an interesting concept. It is formally defined as, "the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence". Since the '60's--and increasingly so--people have defined it as getting what's coming to you, receiving deserved revenge, or getting the comeuppance they think you have earned.

The people espousing the word most frequently are often quite determined that others should 'get theirs'. At DU in particular, I see these same posters eventually post the hate posts, the 'get-sick-and-dies', the death wishes and fervent desires for suffering. Recently, they've hoped the President's helicopter would have more wrong with it than it did, they've wanted a 'Fuck You Condoleeza Rice! thread'--and they are sure the 'fires of hell' await Rush. They are so consumed with anger that, a poster two days ago, said DU exists to vent the rage d'Rats feel against the current administration and all they stand for. I suppose it's a given that a collective mindset such as this would likewise be consumed with revenge...

However--besides being a poisonous way to structure their minds--the ideas d'Rats, Leftists, and most people have about karma is simply wrong. I will leave it to the Hindus and Buddhists to explain the theological constructs behind it; common sense tells me what it is not. It is NOT a theater wherein one can play out fantasies and devout wishes of revenge. You cannot take a point in history in which you feel wronged and say the harm began then and only then! Suppose whatever happened to you was your karma for wrongs you've done? Well, according to your own thinking about it, you'd deserve it, wouldn't you?

However, wouldn't your immediate yelp be 'but I didn't do anything wrong!' Of course it would; nobody thinks they ever do anything wrong (and if they did, they're not about to tell it to someone with revenge on their mind). Even the wrongs we admit to our secret heart we quickly reframe, rationalize, justify them into... not much. I loved the lines in the Talented Mr. Ripley where Tom says, "Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head. You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person". How thoroughly true.

DU, home to those that easily, purposefully, willfully--and with such relish--do so much wrong, cause so much harm, slander, insult, degrade, and poison need to give up their tightly woven and vouchsafed fantasies of revenge. Not only do the d'Rats degrade and poison themselves first with them, but they falsely attribute them to a religious concept--karma--in which they play no true part.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Adampzen said...

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8:05 PM  

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