Grind The Universe Down to the Finest Powder
Do you believe in karma?
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You only have to look at the world to know that karma does not exist. Good people very rarely succeed and bad people are in positions of power everywhere you look. The planet is being destroyed by malign people in business, politics and the media, but none of those people see anything bad happening to them at any point. I don’t believe in any type of cosmic goodness that sets things to rights. The easiest and quickest way to get on in life is to not care about other people or the effect you have on them, and if you do that you will be congratulated and honoured.
Terry Pratchett had it right in his most brilliantly angry exchange between Susan Sto Helit and Death in The Hogfather. If you could encapsulate my attitude to karma it’s here.
“All right,” said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—
” YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—
” MY POINT EXACTLY.” —
Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
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I loved reading that and tge Pratchett part is also really quite persuasive on one level. I feel I want to counter it, however. There is always the argument that the observable universe relates to the physical rather than the metaphysical – so this is a category error. Justice may well go beyond empirical sense data, which seems to be the common wisdom of numerous religions. Plus, for the non believers, a similar morality and standard of justice are often believed as a yardstick by which to judge these kinds of observable phenomena.
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We can observe all we like, but while the world is in thrall to Trump, Putin et al and the amoral or arguably wholly evil tech bros, the metaphysical is of no consequence. Justice in the form of karma does not exist, you only have to look at the managers we’ve had over the years!
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I have to agree with the Karma of this life. I suppose a solace for me is this is just what is observed, and so there may be something unobserved outside of the physical observable world. Pratchett claim seemed to conflate the two for me. Of course, I may be kidding myself as this could just be a way of kidding myself: a kind of “get out of jail free card” t
to make me feel better about the exact amorality and immorality you both describe. Indeed, reading your piece again, the suggestion seems to be that we simply have to believe in these stories for a set of moral principles to exist in our own minds.
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I think that’s the essence of it. I used to believe in karma ages ago and I was definitely more content when I did. Oh well!!
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