Adrian the cabbie has an interesting post on karma. When someone does you wrong, you often wish that either that the consequences of their actions will come back to bite them on the bottom, or that something equivalent happens to them as a result of their bad actions. It’s a tantalising concept, and a tempting principle to invoke.
One of the Islamic versions of the afterlife is that everything you did to other people is returned one thousand fold when you die. Thus, if you were nice, obviously the afterlife is particularly nice for you…but if you were nasty… When it comes to suicide bombers, I entertain the thought that rather than encountering the specified number of virgins, they’ll encounter this particular Islamic afterlife…whoopsies for them… (bwah ha ha ha ha!)
Anyway, after reading Adrian’s post, I remembered a scary example of karma in my past. It just proves that one should be careful what one wishes for…
Thanks to my premature birth, I could only walk on my toes because the tendons in my legs were too tight, and I also had terrible balance. When I was 13, doctors proposed operating to fix the tendons. Of course, kids being kids, I’d been badly teased at school, so I was very keen to undertake the operation, despite the fact that it hadn’t been done before often to someone who was fully compos mentis. Usually people who had this operation had other severe cognitive disabilities, which meant that they couldn’t communicate how well the operation worked. It just proves how damn lucky and blessed I am – I thank my lucky stars every day of my life that the only problem I had was with my legs – it could have been so much worse.
All went well with the operation, but when they removed the plaster from my legs, I realised a stunning truth – I had no idea how to walk normally. Indeed, I was unable to take a single step. I fainted. (I think I’d envisaged running out of the surgery). Slowly, I taught myself how to walk normally, with lots of support from my family and friends. My dear little sister used to massage my legs for me to relieve the pain which unfortunately still plagues me sometimes. My best friend’s mother helped me with Feldenkrais to give me a better understanding of how to move my body.
Still, it took a few years before I was totally nimble on my feet. When I was 14 or so, there was a girl in my class who was particularly nasty to me, and she picked on my sore point: the way I walked. She was a truly unpleasant piece of work. As I explained in my comment on Adrian’s site, every time that girl was nasty to me, I thought, “I wish something really bad would happen to her, and she would know what it’s like to be unable to walk.”
I left that school soon after (no wonder), and we moved to the UK. Some years later, I was totally freaked out to hear later that the nasty girl had been involved in a very bad car accident when she was about 16, and had acquired brain injury as a result. When I returned to Australia, I saw her in a local supermarket. She was on crutches. Obviously, the injuries she had sustained had affected her capacity to walk properly. Then I felt really guilty – like I’d wished it on her. I realised that all I had wanted was for her to know for a few days what it was like to be me, not for her to be permanently injured. I do hope that she recovered to the maximum extent possible, and has learned to walk as well as I am now able to walk.
Nevertheless, I do sometimes wonder if she ever regrets teasing me now that she knows what it’s like to learn to walk from scratch? So, the moral of the story is: karma can be spooky. Ever since then, I’m wary of invoking karma.
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I don’t believe in karma per se but sometimes there’s an accidental symmetry to the way things turn out. Rest easy, it would be difficult to establish a causal link between what you hoped for and your tormentor’s accident, but the fact that you’re capable of feeling undeservedly guilty for your thoughts says volumes about you. Like you, I hope things turned out okay for her, and I hope she became a good enough person to feel ashamed of how she treated you.
Creepy, natch. I’m always known that things like this don’t happen any more often than chance… but there’s still something to be said for ‘be careful what you wish for’
Ask Sharon Stone about karma.
Sharon Stone?? I know she divorced her husband some time back, but that’s the last I’ve heard of her for a bit…obviously none of the magazines in the doctor’s surgery featured her latest activities (which is where I get most of my celebrity goss from).
She just attributed the earthquake in China to ‘karma’ arising from the country’s human rights abuses. It’s a funny line, but I suspect she meant it sincerely.
No doubt there are bonfires of Basic Instinct DVDs in downtown Beijing as we speak.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Not much that can be said to that. Innocent people don’t deserve to die because their government is oppressive and abuses human rights.
What is more – can it really be said that earthquakes are an act of God for human rights abuses? In which case, why didn’t God launch an earthquake on Hitler at the outbreak of war…
What a stupid comment.
Further on Sharon Stone – check out this post. HA HA HA.
Eagles, could one of you please do a post on the TSSH / Lulz Starts Here imbroglio? I’m interested to know things like – could their impersonation of other people on the internet be actionable? what about their behaviour towards An Onomous Lefty, and their publication of a Google Earth photo of somebody’s house to “out” them and their location (which the Lulz site has repeated.)? What about the legal status of the present “anti TSSH” action of The Lulz Starts Here? It looks like a can of very juicy legal worms to me!
One of us would need to do some research. LE, are you up for this? I can assist as needed but my Finals start in less than a month and I’m handling a few small matters over here. Any evidentiary/discovery issues, do swing those by me though – all part of life’s rich revision.
Have you got links for all of it, Helen? I understand their old site is at Pandora (NLA), but there must be more online records of what went on. I didn’t have much knowledge of the SSH back story, although I did choose one of Skeletor’s pieces for BBP06 (I think).
Have to confess that I had no knowledge of TSSH/The Lulz Starts here debacle until this very moment, when a brief google search disclosed the whole saga. I also confess that I started out life as a very innocent blogger, entirely unaware of flamewars or anything like that.
But it is an interesting example of karma – the biters bit! If it is wrong conduct in the first place, is it justified to do the same to TSSH as they did to others?
The thing that interests me is the legal disclaimer on TSSH’s former site (as saved on Pandora). It reads:
Query how much of a legal right to freedom of speech we have in Australia to begin with – thus I’m wondering what they mean by “freedom of speech legislation”!
Cases like Theophanous v Herald & Weekly Times Ltd and Stephens v West Australian Newspapers Ltd did puport to imply a right of freedom of political free speech into the Constitution, but I understand the scope of this was reconsidered in Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That being said, public law is not my strong point – I’m really a private lawyer…what I don’t know about freedom of speech laws could fill a very large book.
I’ll see how I go. I have to write a conference paper over the next three weeks, and mark exams! In fact, I’m supposed to be writing the conference paper right now – better get back to it – procrastinating as usual…
If it is wrong conduct in the first place, is it justified to do the same to TSSH as they did to others?
I’d assume that in law, no! Is that right?
SL, the story is fairly clear if you read Lefty’s recent Blogging Farewell post and the Lulz Starts Here site – I’ll post links when the boys aren’t breathing down my neck for the computer session I promised
Yes, I think in law that it doesn’t matter whether someone else “did it to you first” – it’s still wrong. Of course, in criminal law, there are defences like self-defence and provocation which recognise the natural human tendency to retaliate when attacked or provoked. But I don’t they’d apply to something like this.
Just followed your tips, Helen – although I’m sure there’s a fair bit more out there, too. No-one emerges with very much credit. It seems even Andrew Bolt got dragged in at one stage.
Much of it seems to have its origins in a certain style of anonymous posting, which certainly led to troubles over at Catallaxy until – once again – Tim Blair outed the relevant party.
The SSH crowd seemed to share the common Australian hatred of people who were nerdy and geeky – I saw the attack job they did on one teenage blogger (Sam?), purely because of his ‘enthusiasms’.
Grods and Ms Fits, by contrast, go after people they consider uneducated, and mock them in a fairly standard ‘culture wars’ sense – ie ‘you shouldn’t comment, you wouldn’t know’.
Very unpleasant all round.
LE & I have discussed doing the ‘mother of all blogging legals’ posts at various times, but we haven’t got round to it as yet. Maybe now’s a good time. Anyway, off the library for me
Just wondering if anyone can provide an update on this outing saga. I was cheering the lulz on grateful that the comeuppance was in progress. Then … it’s all gone way too quiet. Have gags been affixed to otherwise quite vocal websites? I can’t imagine why the media — particularly the current affairs shows or even Media Watch — has not been reporting on the goings on. If so, it’s too depressing for words.
I’m still intending to do something further on this, but have spent most of the time since exams putting my life back in order (including selling a house, which is remarkably difficult to do long distance).
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