Perhaps, our offender,(for what else can we call someone who would value a slip of cotton over a person?), does not actually see the victim, (for what else can we call someone who's worth to another is less than a slip of paper?), and therefore does not realize that they are an actual flesh and blood person, someone's mother, father or child. However, that does not hold water, for the offender knows of the reality in which they live, and knows as well that the actions of one can have horrible effect on others. Perhaps the victim has, in some way, wronged the offender, there by justifying the offender's actions. However, that too is a fallacy, for the victim is woefully ill equipped to harm the offender. The answer might lie in karmic repercussions on the victim's part, and the offender is merely a tool of that karma coming around, but in a particular case, the victim has, by all karmic standards, done their level best to keep the scales balanced, even to the point of tipping them into the arena of karmic credit, rather than debt.
What then, can be the catalyst, the incentive, the motivation, to choose money over the life and well being of another? Is it a tribal thing, where in, you are different from me, so we are not of the same tribe, and therefore, your welfare, your well being, even your existence, is of no consequence to me? Perhaps that is it. That we, for all our technological advances, for all our scientific, medicinal and artistic achievements, have for some strange reason, not evolutionarily cast off our tribal mentality but have, as our prehistoric ancestors did, clung to it even tighter when someone different passes by?
I think perhaps this is the answer. Look at children on the playground. Childish games abound, based solely on the "us and them" mentality. Cops versus Robbers, Cowboys versus Indians, Americans versus Nazis, and, as puberty starts to rear it's inevitable head, the Boys vs. the Girls. In middle and high school, the tribal games get new names, and the rules change, but they are still there. Geek versus Jock. Stoner versus Preppy. Cheerleader versus Goth girl. As adults, we still play these childish games, but they are no longer just games, there are lives at stake. Republican versus Democrat. Christian versus Atheist. Presbyterian versus Catholic. Executive versus Wage slave. American versus Arab. There are still our playground games, but not everyone gets to stand up when the teacher calls an end to recess, and the nurse cannot put a band aid on every cut or scratch, because some of them are invisible, like the losers to the playground games that adults continue to play. Some are lethal, and the victor's story will have no contestation, for there is no one there to tell a different side of the story. Mothers will weep for the fallen, but the invisible will only be able to weep for themselves. Self pity is a loathed thing, but sometimes, it is all the conquered have left. What is more attrocious, more loathsome, more pitiful than this, is sometimes, the winner sobs to all those who have watched this playground game in the adult world take place. In these sobs are heard the words "I had no choice" or "I was just doing my job". It was not acceptable at the Nuremberg trials, and karma will not accept it either.
So think long and hard before you act, my friends and enemies alike. Is that little slip of cotton, truly worth a person? Is it worth the karma to keep playing Playground Games?
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