The westernized boiled down concept of karma annoys the hell out of me because of it's "do good and good comes to you," premise. I can't imagine what great evil a three year old could've done to be abused or slowly starved to death.
On the other hand the somewhat traditional idea of all karma being unhelpful because if I see a starving kid then consequences of feeding that child are not as important to me as avoiding being a callous thing that wouldn't act. Let's talk about karma if this topic interests you.
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I think it would good to live as if karma existed - at least for those who need some incentive to do the right thing, but I don't think it's anything more than another mythological attempt to explain evil.
Personally, I find the notion of karma to be pretty much a fancy euphemism for "blame the victim," as if that three-year-old or Jews in Germany had it coming. You have to include the idea of reincarnation for karma to resolve such issues, which makes it typical of other concepts that need theological gymnastics in order to function.
Karma is just a dressed-up version of the Just-World Fallacy. Basically, everything that happens to you, you deserve it.
Not only that, but it seems like a platitude to help people who feel like victims and/or helpless feel as if, with time, their perpetrator will receive their due punishment. It's kind of despicable in a way. It's not only cowardly, it's venomous. You could say that people who do good things will have good things happen to them. So, it all balances out, but it seems to me that people only invoke good ol' karma when they want someone to get their "just desserts".
What about the many that say karma is cause and effect to a more spiritual degree?
I think karma is cause and effect on a grander scale, but I wouldn't call any of that spiritual. It's just about our actions creating the general atmosphere and environment that we will be forced to live in. It's nothing esoteric in my opinion, though it's more than I really want filling in my head while I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner.
I don't think karma is worth anything at all to any of us. Things are going to happen to us ans whether they are good or bad, does not decide a thing. If karma existed, many people who are hurting right now wouldn't be and others who should be hurting would be.
I think that people have really overestimated the personal nature of karma. It's not directly tied to one person's actions or life, meaning that they will get what they "deserve". It's simply like begats like - because good and bad are highly subjective, there's no distinction between them when it comes to the results of your actions.
Whether there is karma or not, I think if everyone lived as if karma was a part of our every day life and treat others better than we do now.