Moral Injury

Until now I have avoided using the word karma in writing about current events and concerns. Americans toss the word around carelessly, knowing nothing its roots or meaning. It is similar to how Americans carelessly apply the term Zen to any sense of calm or focus, knowing nothing about what Zen is, historically and in practice. It is all about the frivolous use of language, faking sophistication with cheap clichés.

Karma is a Sanskrit term, a spiritual concept that relates cause to effect, the principle that the existence of all beings functions in a dynamic relationship between action and consequence. It is comparable, but not the same, to the Christian belief that as you sow, so also must you reap. Judaism has the principle of midah k'neged midah, or measure for measure. In more familiar terms, what goes around comes around.

When I was involved with the Siddha Yoga organization I enrolled in a couple of courses they offered in various aspects of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The section on Karma lasted a day or two. The main thing I remember that the teacher emphasized was that Karma is very mysterious. In other words, be wary of making casual statements about what fate is pending for oneself or others.

For me, at least, Karma is a good guide for behavior, free of judgement. Do good, don’t do evil, and trust that my existence will be as unencumbered as possible, maybe reaching a higher level of being. It is safe to say, without any prediction, that I am immensely thankful that I don’t carry the karmic burden of known purveyors of evil on this planet.

Donald Trump, 100% evil being, will be gone soon. He is a deranged criminal sociopath, a man totally without conscience, without self-control, and without discernment or competence. It would be a waste of time and energy to speculate of what fate will befall him. It is enough to be hugely thankful that I am not him. And a warning. He is one of the greatest examples in human history of how not to be, and here right now to give that warning.

The same goes for his many fellow-evilites. Putin, Netanyahu, Epstein and others pictured in my previous post Foulness of Being. They are riding high now, except for Epstein, but what goes up must come down, one way or another. Like Trump, all are more than adequate examples of how not to be.

What we should be concerned about, though, is the fate that is coming our way. It isn’t just the obvious – bullying and invading countries around the world, turning the U.S. government into a criminal operation, brutalizing citizens and immigrants, abandoning climate mitigation efforts, reveling in sexual misconduct, lying about everything all the time, indulging in boorish behavior. Donald Trump represents the entire country to the world. To a great degree, he is us and we are him. We will reap what he has sown. The mythical Jesus, or Yeshua, supposedly died for our sins. Donald Trump is the opposite, a true Antichrist. The world may die for his sins. Or, as Thomas Jefferson put it, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." (Notes on Virginia Query xviii. Manners)

Another way of looking at the situation is from a psychological perspective that was used to explain the prevalence of depression and suicides among returning veterans of the U.S. debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The term Moral Injury was introduced in the 1990s to describe the psychic burden held by former combatants who committed acts that violated their sense of right and wrong. The assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq were wars against the civilian populations of these countries, and inevitably involved heinous acts of destruction, abuse and wanton killing. This concept can also apply to entire populations, whole nations. The United States has been the chief sponsor, in weapons and money, of the genocide in Gaza, and now in Lebanon and Iran. And who’s next? Anyone’s guess. Cuba. Greenland. Canada. Anyone who crosses Donald Trump. The governors of Minnesota, Illinois and California - and their citizens and immigrants. 

There is cause for optimism, though in an obtuse way. I turned on the TV Saturday afternoon, hoping to catch the PBS Weekend NewsHour. I was quickly reminded that the show has been cancelled, due to Trump’s funding cutback. Instead, a new show was on, Compass Points, pundits sitting around waxing knowledgeably about scenarios of the end of the war against Iran. These know-it-alls were doing what economists call comparative statics, pronouncing existing circumstances and offering a variety of likely consequences, depending on if this or that happens. Not one word was said of the morality of gratuitous war, of how a properly functioning civilization should behave. It was all in terms of U.S. "interests," and what can be gained from this decision or that, and completely superficial, reductionist ad nauseam. 

This is what our intelligentsia self-limits in thinking and talking about the realities we face. Amorality. Or really immorality disguised as objectivity. Empty of ethical principles. And as such, evil.

The reason I say this is cause for optimism is that when a civilization becomes comprehensively vapid and immoral, it is doomed. Doom is not a condition that lasts forever. Eventually it ends, one way or another. Israel is basically a state born in terrorism, theft and displacement, and is now a genocide state. We are its sponsor. A genocide state is a self-dooming state, and its sponsor is similarly doomed. In a perverse way Donald Trump, totally evil human being, is speeding up the process. Hard times are ahead, but what is on the way is inevitable. If we can accept the inevitable we will be better able to deal with it. We have abundant examples of how not to be.
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Here's a song. Here's another. Bob Dylan. Dave Mason.