Cosmic Justice

Over at USS Clueless, the Captain makes an attempt to understand the mindset of those who oppose further military action by the United States, or those whose views on the attacks of September 11th 2001 are that somehow "we had it coming." He thinks he's found the answer:

But I think that a lot of people believe that there is some sort of universal principle, something acting at a higher level, which keeps score anyway.

If you grant that, then proposing that we clean up our own act actually makes sense as a way of preventing future attacks. It may well be that those who attacked us had some specific motives for doing so, and might seem to have motive for doing so again, but that's unimportant. The real reason we were attacked is because we had built up a heavy load of bad karma, and we're going to keep being attacked as long as we've got it. The only real way to make the attacks stop is to do good deeds to relieve that load of bad karma, and once we've done so, then cosmic justice will stop punishing us.

[...]

I'm pretty sure that's what they're thinking.

So the Cosmic Justice Principle, whether you call it God or Karma or something else, will make sure that all bad deeds are punished eventually, and that the immediate cause-and-effect relationship as we know it do not apply. I think he's on to something in that some people probably do think like this. He also says:

It's not that I think the concepts are evil or stupid; it's just that I don't believe that they can be implemented in practice in the world I live in. There's too much possibility of free riding, of spoiling of the commons, of defections (per the Prisoner's Dilemma). There's too much opportunity for abuse, for those systems to be subverted and used to fulfill some particular group's agenda.

I think he's being too kind, because the concepts do have a hefty dollop of muddle-headed thinking. The key implicit assumption in all of this is that someone can actually determine what you have to do to get good karma, and what kinds of actions result in bad karma. And those propounding this view arrogate to themselves the right to determine what is good or bad. In their view, "bad" is anything that America does, and "good" whatever our enemies do. But even if they do not take this extreme view, the problem remains that it is impossible to determine what is "good" or "bad," because doing so means second-guessing Cosmic Justice, an abstract concept which does not manifest itself directly. Within the Cosmic Justice Paradigm, the attacks of 9/11 could well be payback for our past sins; not because we waged war, but because we waged war too late and did not stop Hitler before he killed 6 million Jews. That would be an awful lot of bad karma there. And as for doing good, liberating Afghanistan should certainly count as good karma. It would be bad karma NOT to liberate Iraq as well. And overthrow the house of Saud.

The point I am trying to make is that even within the Cosmic Justice Paradigm the currently prevailing strand of thought ("Blame America!") is not the only possible or valid one. Adhering to an interpretation of the Cosmic Justice Paradigm is a religious choice, meaning there is no empirical basis for either believing it, or determining how to act. Everybody will have to decide for himself what will increase or decrease the cosmic karma balance. And since it's religious and not susceptible to empirical verfication, there's no way of determining what the "right" thing to do is. Cold, hard reality is the ultimate arbiter of what works and what does not. The Cosmic Justice Paradigm lacks this vital feedback loop and is therefore doomed to languish in fuzzy thinking and counting angels dancing on pinheads.

But let's take it a step further. In the worldview of the CJP-followers, the nation-state is an abomination that needs to be abolished, individuals are unimportant and the true organizing principle consists of Groups. Now, let's look at the Group of Silly Left-Wing Intellectuals, who're now complaining that they're not being taken seriously. It's all a case a karma folks. You guys built up a lot of bad karma over the last half century by supporting evil, totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and communist China, and even cheerleading for the genocidal Khmer Rouge during their reign of terror in Cambodia. Your Cosmic Karma Balance is way, way in the red. I know you're asking yourself why everybody hates you, so you'll be happy to understand of why we do so. Modify your behavior to change your karma. Do something good for a change. Support the country that has upheld the principles that have given you the chance to be overpaid silly left-wing intellectuals.