Yeah, Karma. You know what I am talking about.

Those who frequent the message board have probably heard both Girdy and myself speak on the subject of Karma. I am not, in the strictest sense, a believer in Karma, which is the belief that our evil deeds are balanced out against our good deeds and we are rewarded or punished accordingly. For one thing, I think that the good people who selflessly live out their lives in service of others tend to suffer much more in life than those who lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top of the pile. Mother Teresa and Ghandi died poor, and MLK Jr. was killed in cold blood, leaving a grieving family behind him.

And yet, despite all this evidence to the contrary, people have forever clung to this belief that every bad thing that happens is the result of some higher power’s displeasure at their evil deeds. I am merely commenting on this because when a belief is prevalent throughout all societies and all of history, it makes me wonder. While I am certainly not condoning evil deeds in any way, I think a more circumspect look at things is in order.

Let us take any story ever written. There is generally a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist begins the story in a state of relative normalcy. Then the antagonist enters the picture, and things get bad. The protagonist struggles, and suffers, and it looks like all hope is lost. The antagonist, meanwhile, is on top of the pile, riding high, and all is coming together exactly as he has foreseen it. Mu-hahahaha. Then, at the very end, the protagonist pulls through in the clinch and manages to defeat evil bringing back the normalcy and the population rejoices.

I think that those people who live for selfishness alone tend to live a life where they get what they want and find that it does not in any way make them happy. They may have everything all the time, but they generally die feeling that their lives have been purposeless and a waste. They did nothing for anyone but themselves, and now they will cease to be. Rosebud.

Meanwhile, the good guys live to help others. They suffer most of their lives, but they do so happily because they are living for some higher purpose. When they die, they leave a legacy, and many people take up their work and labor on towards the good of others. That’s how I think life is constructed.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2005 at 1:49 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.