[2] Bad accidents don't happen statistically significantly more often to
bad people than good people and vice versa.
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I suppose Karma comes into it in the following manner. If an accident
happened to a good person then people would pity him or if he died people
would take care of his family. If an accident happened to a bad person
people would dance for joy and ignore or make things really difficult for
his family.
So your right, statistically the bad accidents don't happen more often to
bad people, but bad accidents are made worse for bad people.
So, here's how I see the Karma meme working. A bad accident happens too
some guy. Someone says-- "don't fret over him, he was a thief". It is
easier not to fret if you convince yourself that the boulder fell on him as
a consequence of his thievery. This gets more and more difficult to do when
Justice enters the picture.
Remember years ago, the burglar that sued the owner of a building because
the fell through a skylight while breaking in? Here is a guy whose accident
+was+ a direct consequence of his crime, and HE WON. The owner of the
building had to pay the burglar a huge settlement because there was no
signage or gaurdrails warning of the skylight and the possibility of
falling through it.
Now. If that guy buys a huge yacht with his settlement and sails to the
Carribean where he gets blown apart by a hurricane. There will be many
smiling faces. That's Karma. When people are more interested in seeing you
fail than seeing you succeed. It is bound to have an impact on your
decision making processes. Maybe you become more insecure... more accident
prone? Maybe?
I think Voodoo works in a similar fashion. It's a means of physicalizing
this need to let people know they're acting like jerks. You wake up and
find a fetish in your house-- you call the doctor who looks over the
situation and says--- Ah yes, you've been cursed because you owe your
brother fifty bucks. And he knows you can afford to pay him back. Pay up
and the curse will be lifted.
Stephen