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SyndicateRevisiting the Karma Question
By Robert Ringer - Friday, December 12, 2008
I thought long and hard before chiming in on the latest O.J. saga. Since everyone is now pretty much in agreement on the character of this psychopathic primate, I’m not interested in getting in a few “me too” jabs.
Nevertheless, as I watched O.J. near tears in court, the word karma came quickly to mind — as it probably did with you. Not only because of the way his life has turned out, but also considering the lives of so many of the other actors in the fourteen-year run of this modern-day Greek tragedy.
About a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote a two-part article titled “Karma and Compound Interest,” in which I pondered the possibility that the late Johnny Cochran, who died of a brain tumor in 2005, might have been a victim of his own karma.
I took a lot of heat for that, but I wasn’t passing judgment on him. I was merely thinking out loud. When I asked, “Was Cochran’s gruesome death compounded interest that came due on his karma debt?” I just wanted to give readers some food for thought.
As we can all vividly recall, Cochran brilliantly transformed the O.J. Simpson trial into the trial of Mark Fuhrman. And for years, in television interviews, Cochran insisted that he believed O.J. was innocent. I never bought it. Cochran was smart, and he had to know that he was responsible for setting a vicious double-murderer free.
As they led O.J. out of the courtroom this time around, I also thought about Robert Kardashian, Simpson’s former friend who is best known as the guy seen carrying a garment bag from Simpson’s home the day after the murders. He then signed on to the Simpson legal team, apparently just to be able to claim attorney-client privilege regarding the matter. Kardashian died in 2003 of cancer of the esophagus at age fifty-nine. Karma? Who knows?
And how about “good karma?” Think of the many people who became famous and built careers as a result of the O.J. case. Mark Fuhrman has long been a respected contributor to Fox News. Marcia Clark is the legal correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, and she made big bucks on her book Without a Doubt. Most amazing of all, Greta became a superstar! (Hmm … after sticking up for O.J. on CNN every night throughout the trial. Go figure.)
Then there’s Kato Kaelin who is … well, he’s still just Kato Kaelin, still searching for his sixteenth minute of fame. And if he doesn’t find it, I guess he’ll have to be satisfied with going down in history as the world’s most famous house guest. Some karma.
As I said in my previous two-part article on this subject, “Everything that goes around comes around” is a nice, tight, philosophical view of life that is very comforting — until we come up against two scenarios that don’t fit:
- When bad things happen to good people, and …
- When good things happen to bad people.
Since I’ve already written about the above two possibilities, I won’t go into them again here. But I will add another one that the most current O.J. trial brought to mind: What about people who get away with dishonest or criminal behaviour and don’t get caught? I’m talking about a sort of lesser version of “When good things happen to bad people.”
In this vein, think about Joran Van Der Sloot, Barney Frank, Charles Rangel, and, of course, the Clintons, to name but a handful of scoundrels who have been in the news lately. Why do they seem to be able to escape the consequences of their actions? I think this question not only baffles most people, it frustrates them.
But I don’t let it bother me, and I’ll tell you why. When you believe someone has gotten away with something, you are assuming that you know how things will turn out for them in the long term. But you don’t. After years of seeming to get away with murder (some figuratively, some literally), universal law finally caught up with such moral giants as Drew Peterson, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich – and let’s not forget O.J.
And even if O.J.’s conviction were to get overturned on appeal, you still don’t know what the future holds for him. Plus, no one knows what his life has really been like all these years behind those TV shots of him yukking it up on the golf course. The fact is that the life of the world’s most insatiable social animal has been reduced to that of a leper for the past fourteen years.
One last thing that crossed my mind as I watched the latest act in the O.J. drama play out on TV: What do all of these people have in common? Answer: Arrogance. No, incredible arrogance.
John Edwards ran for president while his wife was terminally ill and he was fathering a child with another woman. Governor Blagojevich openly invited bribes for Obama’s Illinois senate seat, even though he knew he was under criminal investigation. Eliot Spitzer enjoyed numerous encounters with prostitutes after spending years criminally prosecuting others for the same activity. And Charles Rangel, the man who serves as chairman of the committee that writes the tax code, “forgot” to pay taxes on his Dominican Republic property for twenty years!
I know, I know … it’s tempting to say, “When’s the karma going to kick in for Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, the Clintons, and all of the other guys who seem to be able to escape the consequences of their actions?” To that I would answer, be patient and watch as their lives unfold in the coming years. Remember, it hasn’t been that long ago that we were asking the same question about O.J.
As I suggested in my previous articles on this subject, the best thing you can do is forget about everyone else’s karma and focus on yours. And the best way to do that is to live every moment as though the whole world were watching.
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Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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9 Responses to “Revisiting the Karma Question”
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Dear Robert -
O.J. Simpson is despicable on so many levels, it’s hard to keep track of them all. In any case, I was
surprised that in one really detailed analysis of his book: “If I Did It”, a key point was repeatedly ignored. This occurred on the Dr. Phil show, with the Goldmans present. Throughout the hour, the primary discussion concerned itself with whether or not this was actually a ‘confession’. O.J. said no, that he simply wrote the book to raise money for his children’s college education. So, let’s say this is true. Let’s give him that gargantuan benefit of the doubt and say he is actually innocent. Still, he wrote a book, for the benefit of his children, on how he would kill their mother. Are we really supposed to believe that this is something he did FOR them? Exactly how does this work? I don’t get it. I see those kids in and out of psychotherapy for the rest of their lives, thanks to their wonderful, caring father.
Fritzi
Reply to Robert Ringer
Robert, a very interesting article. I would have to write a response as long as your article to cover all of your points of interest. So I’ll just offer the following comments.
1. Many adherents of Buddhism and New Age thought believe that karma is an on-going process. Any deserved rewards or punishments are often postponed for a future lifetime. Injustice seems prevalent because karma doesn’t necessarily manifest in this lifetime. Now whether this is truth or illusion is open to dispute–maybe never to be resolved.
2. I think you are too hard on Johnny Cochran. If you were accused of a crime and facing years of prison I believe you would hire the best lawyer available. Cochran did what he was supposed to do–defend his client to the best of his ability. I believe the blame for the not guilty verdict rests on the shoulders of the jury–obviously consisting of 12 individuals who never learned to use logical reasoning. Also they allowed their emotions to gain primacy over any reason they may have possessed.
I totally agree with this. It’s so sad, though, that in this age of political correctness, you may get alot of flack about calling O.J. (who happens to be a negro)a “primate”.
Normal people like you and I will realize you weren’t being racist at all.
Patrick
Robert,
I agree with you on all points on principle, which is common, but I can’t tell if you really subscribe the hazy impersonal morality of eastern cosmologies or if, like many westerners who prefer not to acknowledge their moral heritage, you are merely practicing the abc rule of social acceptability (anything but Christianity). I wonder if there are disaffected Hindus commenting on OJ and the like and quoting Paul the apostle saying, “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Naaah!! I’d say it’s the universal reflex of proud men to escape accountability to a knowing, personal, law-giving Father God. Pride was certainly my worst hang-up. Now I finally understand Francis Thomson’s poem, The Hound of Heaven, which ends with these words:
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee who dravest Me.”
Robert, we’ll never recover our free republic until we recover it’s moral foundations. We’re dying because we have nothing strong culturally to elevate us morally. Self-interest is the inevitable victor in the battle for the mind that ensues in the vacuum of a culture that loses it’s soul. We think we are pursuing freedom when we run from God and we collide with slavery to powerful and arrogant men and calamity. But men with a voice like you can lead us back if you only will.
I’m proud that we think alike, Robert. Before reading one word of this offering, I said to myself…”arrogance”.
Humility is not only a precursor of better things….it’s also a lot safer!
Happy, happy Holidays, and for me, Merry Christmas!
As a Christian, I believe that even if villains get away with murder their entire earthly life, they will pay in eternity. And that penalty is not only worse than any suffering they would experience on earth, but also it lasts forever. However, if they truly repent, they can escape the punishment they deserve by the grace of a loving God.
Reply to Dan DePriest
1. Do you have any proof that eastern cosmologies rest on an impersonal, hazy morality? They do mention reaching a state of impersonality–but only for the purpose of helping a person shed his self-importance–exactly the same self-importance that makes people think they can live at the expense of another and also that they can sacrifice the future for immediate gratification.
2.You mention we must recover our free republic’s moral foundations. If you’re speaking about the moral foundations of individualism, self-reliance and unhampered capitalism I agree with you. If you are talking about an individual’s right to his life, liberty and property–then I’m 100% behind you.
However it seems that you are basing you moral foundations on Christian theology. Most of the founding fathers no doubt believed in God. However their foundation was the belief in an individual’s right to life, liberty and and the pursuit of happiness.
Also, what is wrong with self-interest. All individuals act in what they believe to be their own best interest–even saints.I would advise distinguishing the difference between rational self-interest and irrational self-interest.
I think I will continue to see it as “under surveillance”.
Dwight Kothmann
I believe the Christ’s teachings in the New Testament offers insights as to why bad things happen to good people. In Matthew 7:24-27 (KJV) we read Therefore, whosoever hearth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mind, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Fierce storms come into the lives of all who live in this imperfect world.The difference is that when they come, those who have heeded the words of God will not be destroyed by those storms, in most cases they will be strengthened by them. Some of the greatest men and women of all time have suffered greatly in this life. Christ suffered more than any of us, on behalf of all of us.
As to the question of whether the suffering Mr. Cochran and others while in this life is punishment for their evil deeds, I believe that it is. However, I think it is possible that their extended suffering may be an opportunity from a merciful God to reflect upon their lives, and right the wrongs they have done, before they go on to the final judgement.
As to the question of why good things happen to bad people, I would say that consequences do not always immediately follow actions, but they do come eventually. Although we are not immediately rewarded for every good deed, we are ultimately rewarded for a life well lived. Peace of conscience is the constant reward of everyone who seeks to live a good life. The Book of Mormon refers to those who do the works of the devil saying “….verily I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return”. (3Nephi 27:11)The Book of Mormon also states that “…wickedness never was happiness”. (Alma 41:10)
One final scripture from the Book of Mormon sums up my belief on this concept. From Mosiah 2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
My experiences in life have confirmed the truth of these principles. Another reader referred to the law of the harvest (you reap what you sow). This is an absolute truth. Unlike an actual harvest, it is impossible to say when you will reap the harvest of your choices, but you can be sure that eventually you will.