I’d like to discuss karma. I’ve seen it happen on the Internet in respect of animal abuse of various kinds. My mind turns to Walter Palmer, the Minnesotan dentist who shot Cecil the Lion. A person has to be pretty arrogant and insensitive with a disbelief in animal sentience to be able to shoot a lion for fun. I’ve got to conclude, therefore, that Walter Palmer is that kind of person. He has that kind of attitude: arrogance and insensitivity.
And with that attitude you are going to suffer from negative karma and this is what happened to him. He was all over social media on the Internet for a very long time after he paid a vast sum of money to kill a very popular and well-known lion in Africa. It seriously impacted his dental practice. He was unable to return to the practice for a while and he went into hiding more or less.
He is still impacted by his decision to shoot Cecil. What goes around comes around. His attitude was his downfall. He is detested by millions. The attitude of a person is the glue or the thread which makes karma work.
In another similar sport hunting story, a mortally wounded bear crushed the head of the Russian hunter who shot him. That’s karma.

And I can refer to another American dentist who made a lot of money out of his dental practice: Larry Rudolph. He was on a hunting trip in Zambia with his wife Bianca. He is alleged to have shot his wife on that hunting trip in order to be with his girlfriend.
In his arrogance and misplaced self-belief, he ranted at his girlfriend in a steakhouse over dinner in 2020. This was four years after he allegedly murdered his wife. In the rant he told his girlfriend, Lori Milliron, “I killed my f****** wife for you”.
He ended up in the criminal courts being tried for murder. But here’s the point: armed with that kind of arrogance and self-belief, he was able to abuse animals by shooting them for his own enjoyment and admit to murdering his wife in a steakhouse in full view of everybody else.
It’s an attitude problem. With that kind of attitude, you can create problems for yourself because it leads to unfiltered behaviour. Behaviour that isn’t checked and appraised by the person.
The way I see karma working is that the attitude of the person – who becomes the victim of karma – is the thread which joins up an action with karma’s reaction later on in their life.
Karma in reincarnation
As I say, that’s my personal view of this and I don’t think it’s been expressed in this way before. Karma is a complex and multifaceted concept. If you believe in reincarnation (I don’t) you might believe that karma will affect you in a second life. It might work like this: you kill a cat somewhere in some way because you are insensitive to cats and their sentience. You are a cruel person with a bad attitude. Or you might kill a dog as is happening in China all the time in the most brutal way.
And then when you die and are reincarnated, you come back as a mouse if you’ve killed a cat. And a cat attacks you and eats you. That’s karma in action if you believe in reincarnation.
Mystical or simple cause and effect underpined by attitude?
It’s a concept which originated in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. A lot of people believe in it and there is, as I’ve explained above, a logic to it. It is cause and effect ultimately. The actions of the person might be physical, verbal or mental.
Positive and negative karma
I discussed negative karma above but it can work the other way. There can be positive karma bringing positive outcomes. A good attitude leads to doing good things. The person is likely to be morally good, kind and altruistic. They give back to society. This can result in happiness, success and positive experiences in the future. It normally will. The person with a good attitude is praised and celebrated. He/she feels good and is likely to be happier than people with a poor attitude.
Hidden karma
There is another point to be made here. Sometimes you don’t see the effect of karma in the way I’ve described with Walter Palmer above.
But it still works because karma can have an impact on your self-belief, your self-worth, your self-esteem; it can impact your conscience. It can make you feel worthless (negative karma) or improve self-esteem (positive karma). The point is this: if you do something bad it may gnaw at you and affect your psyche. This in turn may impact your behaviour which may be negative which in turn may result in bad things happening to you.
Karma has a mysterious quality but actually, for me, it is logical and practical.
Some more examples of karma in action
Harmful actions such as bullying or manipulating and abusing others can rebound on the abuser when they face the consequences of their actions such as losing friends and becoming socially isolated. Or they might face legal repercussions. Once again the attitude can lead to various bad behaviours which can lead to punishment in society.
Helping others by which I mean being altruistic and selfless can lead to the altruistic person receiving unexpected help and support from others in the future when they require it.
On the topic of helping others, generosity and compassion towards others can help build strong and meaningful relationships. This will be reciprocated in others helping. There is an element of mutuality in this respect. This can lead to a sense of fulfilment and contentment.
A dishonest person who habitually lies and deceives others often results in their deceit being exposed resulting in social pressures. And, of course, dishonesty breaks down trust in relationships which can end the relationship. And of course, it can lead to a poor reputation in society. This may lead to social isolation.
Good, I like it when karma gets these sh*ts. They deserve it and karma makes sure they get it.
I believe in Karma, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. My neighbor beat his children without mercy for years. Then he had a stroke from smoking to much meth. Now he complains to another neighbor his only son beats him up. I listened to his children scream for 12 years, now it’s him I hear screaming. 🙂 Yeah I turned him in to CPS and they didn’t anything, once he knew it was me that turned him in he started terrorizing me too. Every time I hear him screaming I think of Karma. 🙂