My karma ran over your dogma.

[Brian37]

Every so often I run across people who post stories of the bad guy getting what they deserve and call that "karma". 

Nope sorry, that is simply another superstition. It is merely a watered down version of the revenge of the "eye for an eye" motif in the religions of Abraham.

In reality, "karma" or even "an eye for an eye", are really nothing more than our species emotional reaction to seeing a antagonist/transgressor/violent person, whatever, suddenly not being able to continue what they had done to harm others. It is really our emotional sense of relief that the harm cant happen anymore.

But the truth in evolution, is unfortunately that sometimes the bully wins, sometimes they go their entire lives never having to face the harm they do to others.

Don't get me wrong, even I am happy when say, a dictator falls, or when a child abuser gets arrested. But on a planet of 7 billion, we don't always get the bad guy.

Stalin would be a prime example of a tyrant having success all the way to his death. 

Point is, it is normal to have emotional reactions to those who harm others. But there is no magic to it, it isn't a divine thing, or mysterious thing. 

"Don't be a dick"...... Ok, sure, that is a normal reaction to dicks. But again, there is no magic to our psychological reactions to harm to others or or ourselves. There is no cosmic Roy Rogers whom always saves the day.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The bumpersticker just says "I have a better argument than you."

[Brian37]

I love the original Die Hard movie. And I also loved the TV show "The A Team"..... But long after the fact, looking back, look at the general motif of that movie and most of the episodes of The A Team. 

You have the bad guy robbing a business, and the moral is greed and crime do not pay.

Yea well ok, but these motifs are an oversimplification. 

The original post was inspired by reading a tweet about a lion hunter who died while trying to hunt lions.  

Point is nothing in life is an either/or proposition. 

In the case of the lion hunter, yes, he is a dick, because lions are an endangered species. But no, I am not going to stop eating beef or chicken. And while I would not go out of my way, to kill an alligator living in the wild, if I had a kid, just like a lion, and that dangerous animal suddenly became a threat, it is a natural reaction to want to avoid that threat and stop it. 

In the case of Die Hard, the hostages were innocent, but in the scope of reality globally it is nonsense to claim that 62 uber billionaires whom have the combined wealth 3 billion humans, are going to end up eating cat food. When you look at what causes revolutions, that go to more open societies, or revolutions that end up in more authoritarian closed states, it is still a reaction to that society not having it's needs met, all logic and ideology aside.

The point in all these examples, is that reality is messy, and is not a product of Hollywood nor is black and white. Sometimes the bad guy wins.

So again, "Karma" is not a real thing. And that and "An eye for an eye" are really nothing more than our emotional reactions to threats and our sense of relief when the threat is no longer there.

Having been bullied as a kid, when I got my nose broken by an ambush, hell yea, I felt a sense of justice when the ring leader was arrested and charged. But it could have easily been if they didn't rat each other out, it could have become a case of "he said he said" and very easily nothing would have happened. And even with murder cases, any detective can tell you, that if you don't get good clues/witnesses within days, the longer the investigation goes on, the harder it becomes to find a perp and charge them. 

And again, Stalin, would be a perfect example of an evil person having success his entire life.

Karma is not a thing.

[onlinebiker]

Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself of the obvious.

[LastPoet]

Every so often I run across people who post stories of the bad guy getting what they deserve and call that "karma". 

Nope sorry, that is simply another superstition. It is merely a watered down version of the revenge of the "eye for an eye" motif in the religions of Abraham.

In reality, "karma" or even "an eye for an eye", are really nothing more than our species emotional reaction to seeing a antagonist/transgressor/violent person, whatever, suddenly not being able to continue what they had done to harm others. It is really our emotional sense of relief that the harm cant happen anymore.

But the truth in evolution, is unfortunately that sometimes the bully wins, sometimes they go their entire lives never having to face the harm they do to others.

Don't get me wrong, even I am happy when say, a dictator falls, or when a child abuser gets arrested. But on a planet of 7 billion, we don't always get the bad guy.

Stalin would be a prime example of a tyrant having success all the way to his death. 

Point is, it is normal to have emotional reactions to those who harm others. But there is no magic to it, it isn't a divine thing, or mysterious thing. 

"Don't be a dick"...... Ok, sure, that is a normal reaction to dicks. But again, there is no magic to our psychological reactions to harm to others or or ourselves. There is no cosmic Roy Rogers whom always saves the day.

Little Rik, is that you?

[Brian37]

Every so often I run across people who post stories of the bad guy getting what they deserve and call that "karma". 

Nope sorry, that is simply another superstition. It is merely a watered down version of the revenge of the "eye for an eye" motif in the religions of Abraham.

In reality, "karma" or even "an eye for an eye", are really nothing more than our species emotional reaction to seeing a antagonist/transgressor/violent person, whatever, suddenly not being able to continue what they had done to harm others. It is really our emotional sense of relief that the harm cant happen anymore.

But the truth in evolution, is unfortunately that sometimes the bully wins, sometimes they go their entire lives never having to face the harm they do to others.

Don't get me wrong, even I am happy when say, a dictator falls, or when a child abuser gets arrested. But on a planet of 7 billion, we don't always get the bad guy.

Stalin would be a prime example of a tyrant having success all the way to his death. 

Point is, it is normal to have emotional reactions to those who harm others. But there is no magic to it, it isn't a divine thing, or mysterious thing. 

"Don't be a dick"...... Ok, sure, that is a normal reaction to dicks. But again, there is no magic to our psychological reactions to harm to others or or ourselves. There is no cosmic Roy Rogers whom always saves the day.

Little Rik, is that you?

Huh? 

I don't understand the objection.

Karma is not a real thing. It is merely our emotional reaction to the feeling of relief when someone can no longer threaten or harm you. It is simply a watered down version of "an eye for an eye".

Sometimes unfortunately a bad person can go their entire lives being successful never having to face the harm they do to others.

"Getting even" is an emotional reaction. But there is no magic or superstition needed to explain our species reactions to what affects us.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Karma isn't always fatal.

[Alan V]

No good deed goes unpunished too.

[Brian37]

Karma isn't always fatal.

If people want to say, "What is the big deal of using the word, it is no different than saying "bless you"....  Nope, it is still a hollow word, and even if one might accept it as an expression of emotion, on a planet of 7 billion, there are tons of superstitious individuals who buy such as being real. 

"Bless you" is seen now as a form of being polite. But go back a few hundred years, there were far more humans who literally believed that if you sneezed that literally was your soul trying to escape your body. 

Karma, might be seen in the west as more of a superfluous expression. But there are far more people in Asia and India that see it as a real thing. 

Karma in antiquity, for many Hindus and Buddhists, was the idea, that if you did well in this life, you'd do better in your next life, being good Karma. But if you did bad in this life, you'd come back as a lower life form in the next, being bad Karma.

Karma to many even today, in Asia and India is as real to them as our conservative Christians attitude of the biblical "eye for an eye".

I don't think anyone should get upset for pointing out  the origins of our species social norms, and the real reasons we use these words.

[arewethereyet]

Karma is real. She’s a Black and Tan Cavalier who is seven years old today. I have pictures.