Karma

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. - Voltaire

I often ask myself the question if I do good actions will that result in something positive for me? When i think of karma i often see it as when someone does a bad act onto someone else and a minute or two later something bad happens to them and after that you can say that's karma for you. A bit like some of the people in this video;

Voltaire through the naïve character Candide looks strongly on the theme of optimism particularly through the character of Pangloss which Candide believes to be a wise philosopher who despite all the horrors that have beholden onto them including treachery and violence still maintains great positivity and optimism, about the future. Candide follows Pangloss’s preaching and despite receiving numerous beatings he continues to believe that nothing bad will happen him as long as he am doing what he believe to be good and positive. What further strengthens this belief, is the acts of kindness given by a king who let him go after receiving a stabbing or the anti-baptist showing kindness towards him. These small miracles, which happen amongst terrible circumstances, helps him to continue to believe in this optimism. I must say I have sometimes mistakenly followed the same belief. Despite bad circumstances happening to me now if I continue to be good I will eventually have circumstance happen to me. By believing in karma does that mean we are falling under the same naiveté as Candide?

But the true idea of karma stems from ancient Buddhism as a way to understand human interactions through moral acts, how they can play a role in helping to shape our lives and our relationships. The story of “The Good Samaritan” illustrates why some people choose to help others and some don't.  There are different types of pro social behaviour the first one is altruism; this is where a kind act is given to another person with purely unselfish ulterior motives. However many of these acts can be motivated by the reciprocity norm which basically argues if you give me something then I will give you something in return. Another form is internal gratification for helping someone. Although the person may have not received gratification externally one can say they have received some internal gratification. I believe that Voltaire would argue that karma doesn’t exist and that despite people being good all the time that doesn’t mean that evil things wont happen to them. This becomes clear as the story progresses and Candide eventually rejects the notion that everything happens for a reason, If karma is real? Why do bad things happen to good people: People today continue to ask this question. According to this story evil greatly outweighs the amount of good and that evil will triumph. If evil will triumph and good and bad circumstances are irrational that will happen at random, how can karma exist?