Karmic Chains

There is this interesting trend. It’s a mischievously subtle thing, really. At first glance, too, I would argue in favor of it, only, when you look a bit closer, it’s not really what it sets itself out to be. Well, perhaps it is just that, actually. We’re talking about generality. Abstraction. The Thing is never the Thing, you know. And, well, walking in the opposite direction is of course missing the point entirely. It’s the reason a spectrum seems to bend in time and space the closer we get to the edges. Impossible, you might say. The rest of us simply call it three dimensions. The problem with abstraction, then, is not really that we’re talking in broader terms. Rather, it’s the subtle shift in topology, if you will, that really messes with us. It’s terribly complicated, the world. Luckily our intelligence, too, is terribly, well, intelligent, to deal with the fact. Too good, honestly. Everything becomes an abstract problem to be fixed. The subtle shift from existence to problem-solving is instantaneous and unnoticeable. It is also extremely common. So common, in fact, that we tend to forget the alternatives.

Take a thing like causuality, for instance. It seems like such an obvious fact. A happens, then B happens as a result of A. The law of causuality says that B always happens later in time from A. A caused B. At least in theory. It is always so. “At least in theory”. We apply these rules, mostly unconsciously, in our life, as if they were given to us by God himself. We feel blessed by their presence. So it is that everything in life is murky, hazy, and dark. But at least we can relate these unruly “facts” of life with the rules of Logic, and we find ourselves Graced. Only we forget that the facts were murky in the first place. They were given to us from somewhere, transformed into the abstract, related by a golden rule, then juxtapositioned over reality as the Real. Of course intelligence is never at fault. The golden rule was golden, it was only the murky facts that were rotten. Our aim, then, is to create more golden rules, so that we might acquire more ‘hard facts’. If only we had all of them, with our rules we’d know everything. So we might say, A causes B. But what if B came before A? What if A never happened?

Does a sick mind poison the body, or is the body’s sickness simply reflected in the mind? Are you bold enough to claim the two separate? Can you blame the abuse-victim for becoming a violent criminal? Only if he’s above legal age, you answer. Is the warlord in Sierra Leone who’s gunned down thousands the personification of evil, the result of colonization, or somewhere inbetween? Can a society built on the bloodshed of innocents and the implicit perpetuation of violence really be just? Are you complicit, simply by existing in the same system? What if there are none other, what are you supposed to do? I take no part, you say, as you walk to your middle-class job. I am not racist, I voted for Obama. Whom, you might say, is not really a murderer. He was just trying to make the world a better place, and again, what was he supposed to do? The world is based on a capitalistic system, if you missed the notice. So you reflect, and you try to be a good person, and you don’t support the war, and you donate to charities. Then you happen to buy a chocolate bar from Nestle, and your money supports a system that feeds on child labor. But you didn’t know. It was not your intention. And what does it matter anyway, you pay taxes in the U.S so you can be pretty sure you’ve sponsored a few civilian bombings and a few bullets that’s found themselves in, let’s say, those less fortunate. But it’s not your fault. You can’t be neutral on a moving train, but have you tried running backwards on a plane? See how far that’ll get you. Besides, Communism never worked either. Stalin killed 6 million people, if we’re being generous. So what’s the alternative? What are you supposed to do? It’s not perfect, you say, you rationalize, but look at the statistics. Life Quality is on average a lot better now. Violence is a lot less common. Poverty is way down. Life is, in short, on average, much better, for everyone. So even if you had an alternative, wouldn’t revolution just upsed everything? Lead to more bloodshed? More death? Yet you have this nagging feeling inside of you, constantly. Like there’s something wrong, and you feel complicit. And no matter how much you rationalize it, the feeling won’t go away. You feel like screaming out into the world in a triumph of angst, but it wouldn’t lead to anything anyways. You feel like crying, but emotions were never your strong suit and you can, after a lot of force, muster only a single tear. But the effort required just made the whole thing bleak, gave it a weird plastic feeling. What are we supposed to do. You have come to understand the term ‘Ignorance is Bliss’, but you can’t forget. You can never go back, and you’re not sure you would want to even if you could. It’s a hard fight against cynicism, you catch yourself becoming irrationally angry at people who are happy on the street. You despise them, or maybe it’s envy, you’re honestly not quite sure. You wish evil had a face. If the Devil existed at least the world would make sense again. There’d be an opposition, someone to fight. Instead, there’s just this. You’re bound by the karmic chains, and on bad days, you feel like you’re in Hell. The worst part about it is, you start to suspect that the good days are simply the days were you manage to forget. And, remember, you’re not sure that you want to. What are you supposed to do, living in a time like this?