Schadenfreude

It is no coincidence that questions about integrity and principles are preoccupying the public at all levels in the UK, the USA and many other countries besides as revelations about public figures and public bodies emerge shockingly: virtue signallers are proving to be not so virtuous, and more scandal is to come yet.

In the reaction to the peccadilloes of Donald Trump and the Biden family, and to the fall from grace of banks and bankers and television presenters, for example, there is an element of unattractive schadenfreude in their disgrace.   While often their humiliation has been self-inflicted and their punishment justified, malicious judgment and gossip impacting also people only peripherally involved is not.  There is a line beyond what is reasonable to say and what is unreasonable, particularly when we may not know all the truth.  Miscarriage of justice can apply in many ways.

It is hard not to get caught up in a sensational story and the excitement of a media seeking to exploit it perhaps for political reasons but certainly with a  vested interest somewhere.  The days when news was reported factually and neutrally are long gone, and it is our own responsibility to pick out what is fact and to discard what is speculation or mis-reporting, and to try to see those facts without judgment.

 Every time we gossip we are hurting the subject of our gossip and thereby hurting ourselves.  All humans are fallible and mistakes large or small, spreading tittle-tattle or breaking the law, will be expiated perfectly; the karma of others is nothing to do with us.  

According to the great Universal Laws “The Law of Karma is another name for the Law of Cause and Effect.  Karma is the record of everything you have ever thought or done, from your first incarnation to the moment you are reading these words.  Whatever you do or think has an impact on your life and what happens to you.”  Karma has a long reach, indeed.  

It is interesting to note that, very differently, the world of nature does not create karma in and for itself but can act as an agent of karma, providing retribution and learning to the humans that threaten it, like the whales attacking pleasure boats in their waters, and elephants vandalising the villages that have encroached on their land. When a line has been crossed Gaia’s children act, forcefully and unforgettably, and there is no mistaking the warning – if we are prepared to see.