Comments on: Karmic downgrades and upgrades

By: mmport80

mmport80 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:02:06 +0000

I think socieities find themselves locked into something like a Nash equilibrium where rational parties get stuck into a ‘sub-optimal’ equilibrium which needs to be broken by some ‘irrational’ or ‘good’ actors that show the way to a new better place.

That applies to racist and corrupt societies, which find themselves locked in their own wrong headed logic. It also applies to the odd corrupt industry or market I suppose ; )

By: kidgarden

kidgarden — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:24:26 +0000

I teach my students the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated.

By: kidgarden

kidgarden — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:23:06 +0000

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

By: Zenstitcher

Zenstitcher — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:37:39 +0000

Thank you, Professor Derman, for saying publicly some things that have long needed to be said in this country.

And that needed to be said to me personally, too.

By: J_Careful

J_Careful — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:15:28 +0000

Well I am no great thinker, and certainly have of no books to boast.Nor,will I attack the author for his own self promotion, he is my brother and I should treat him as such.I will however advise him to be careful when promoting self when writing on the topic of selfishness. I say this because it is my belief that our bad karma is a result of the enormous amount of selfishness that persists among our people. What he has written is plain truth and many whom have followed have added to that truth. What is important here is that there is great evil at work within our society and we have lended a blind eye to this evil for far too long. From the economy and the division among our political leaders to the numerous natuaral disasters occuring across our lands, those of us who practice faith clearly see signs pointing to a need to humble ourselves before God. This is a country founded with a principle of one nation under God that has become so comfortable in it’s blessings that to many hold the misguided belief that we have absolute control. This is not a time to wait for one great leader to carry the torch, it is a time for all humanity to open their eyes and take responsiblity for their individual inaction by taking actions in ways that are pleasing to God. What will you do for your fellow man beyond written word? It is refreshing to read words such as these instead of the negativity that many of our news agency fuel today.

By: LadyDove

LadyDove — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:03:12 +0000

I enjoyed the blog although it is definitely a westernized version of Karma being described here. And for the record, it wouldn’t take Tolstoy or Gandhi or even an IQ above 90 to have seen this all coming. Let’s hope the USA can learn from it’s mistakes but judging from current events, probably not. Thanks for teaching me the word “expiation”.

By: TimothyB

TimothyB — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:28:06 +0000

Fascinating piece, offering much to consider …

In the present context karma is defined as something rather negative. But what about “good” karma, which could involve kicking a good can down a good road? Instead of individuals that stop behaving like programmed machines, what about societies that choose to cease functioning as machinery. Isn’t karma at least as much involved with the ocean as in the fish which inhabit the ocean?

As for notions of expiation and sin, those would have been the fairly purificationist christian preoccupations that the later Tolstoy obsessed over. Tolstoy would have also been steeped in the great man theory of history, as was Dostoyevsky. Gandhi would perhaps have been a better authority on karma than his correspondent, Lev.

By: txgadfly

txgadfly — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:50:26 +0000

The USA is not at all “united” and, in fact, has little desire to be. Emphasis on “united” usually means that whoever disagrees with the speaker needs to shut the **** up and do as they are told. The people who make the decisions are few and intentionally disconnected from the rest of us.

By: NewsLady

NewsLady — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:50:33 +0000

You should have checked the quote BEFORE you wrote it into your book and published it.

Such carelessness and arrogance will catch up with you.

A minor detail? I’m sure you think so. But it’s a fact you reported but didn’t bother to check. That will catch up with you in non-fiction writing.

And in your life too.

By: itsallgreed

itsallgreed — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:14:09 +0000

It is funny and a bit surreal to have people like yourself talking about karma, whilst at the same time ‘engineering’ and fueling a continuous wave of reckless greed from both companies headquarters and universities, Mr. Derman.

You should probably pray so that all these mediocre reflections on karma do not apply to yourself. Good try to sell us another book. There are a number of your ‘fans’ trying to take advantage of the comments to sell theirs too. Good luck