The issue of karma, or conscience, the greater good, the commons, whatever you want to call the issue of whether the ripples of your actions affect others has been nagging at me lately and caused me, a frequent commenter and infrequent diarist, to try to put these thoughts into a coherent whole. It seems to me that many Republicans believe that the "too big to fail" principle will prevent any real harm from occurring to the economy, to the earth, to our liberties, etc., when they take the small individual actions they take by their greedy insistence on more tax cuts, more gas guzzling, more, more, more, me, me, me. By contrast, most Democrats I know seem to be guided by the idea that their conscience prevents them from doing harm even on a small scale to each element of society. More beneath the squiqqly thingie.
I have recently had shoulder surgery and have been stuck at home, unable to do much but contemplate life and society and how unfair much of it is. As I believe in the inherent goodness of man, I kept wondering how so many Republicans could do so much damage with their greed and not see what they had wrought, especially since much of my family votes R across the board and yet are genuinely nice people. And it came to me that they each thought that their own individual actions were too small to make a difference in the great ships of our society, of America or Mother Earth.
Each Hummer heading out with its single driver probably felt a little guilty, but figured it was too small a polluter to actually cause global warming....and it was made in America, so he was doing the right thing, right? Each hedge fund trader making his individual credit default swap deals didn't think he personally could possibly bring down the economy with this tiny little deal .... and after all, it was making him and his company a lot of money, and that was what he was paid to do, after all, so he was doing the right thing, right? Each Congresscritter who has sold out to the big Pharma and other corporations has told himself that the deals he has cut have helped his or her constituents, so s/he has done the right thing, right? Each person who works at Faux News in the editing room, the computer graphics department, etc, and knows in their heart of hearts that the stuff they are helping to put on the air is nonsense thinks that it is ok because there ARE other news stations and they need to feed their families, right? Each person working to eliminate voting rights thinks somehow that their ends justifies the means.
It seems that all these small rationalizations and tiny little self justifications and the ignoring of karmic implications is what separates the D's from the R's. Doing the right thing for the commons, even when no one is watching, even when no one knows you did it, is what Democrats do. Going out of your way to recycle, even if no one sees you. Moving your money to local banks. Donating anonymously to people on DKos who need it. Voting for a public option for health care. Voting for increased taxes on the top wage earners, even if you are one. Occupying the cities if you can do that. Working for recall of those who would undermine our democracy. Working to get more and better Dems elected.
Our society, our economy, our democracy, our Earth. All are like a huge ocean liner, like the Titanic. Thought unsinkable, they can be sunk by enough force in the wrong direction. And every small drip of good can be the force that brings it back into balance.
Let's all make 2012 the year in which we turn the ship in the right direction.