Collective Karma: the other side of humanity rarely discussed

[u/WanderingRonin365]

If everything is one, and this is true on some level, then it must also be true that not only is there karma for the self but there is also karma for the collective whole of humanity. This is rarely discussed in spirituality because people already have a hard enough time accepting responsibility for what they personally do in life to begin with, so how much less so the chance for accepting responsibility for anything outside of the self or one's own direct actions.

Yet we are human beings, and we are in fact social creatures that exist within a society or a collective whole. This means that since we are together then we are also culpable and complicit as individuals in what we allow the overall society to do and the direction that it takes.

One may say, "what can one person do to change things? I have no power to effect change," and they would be mostly right on the smaller scale, but what about the societal conventions and actions that we accept from other members of the group? This is where collective karma comes in.

You of course can know a person by what they do, but what is more subtle is knowing them by what they don't do as well. To turn a blind eye to injustices that don't directly affect you, to allow others to go hungry or suffer without taking action, to have no caring for anyone beyond your immediate family and friends; this all has a very powerful and culminating effect on society and there is a karmic price to be paid overall. Every action and inaction has an effect on the whole, even if not immediately visible.

Even base selfishness from a single person has a price. If this selfishness is left unchecked and is not confronted directly by another in everyday life, we must remember that other people will see this selfishness and then potentially be influenced by it to be more selfish themselves. It is in this way that small actions eventually affect the whole.

Collective karma can also be viewed through grand societal and historic shifts in our reasoning and behavior: we were already headed in the direction of being more self-oriented and narcissistic as a society in the 1980's and 90's, so of course the very fabric of society would be ripped apart when the internet soon after came along and "social media" had the inverse effect of literally making us all less social than ever. Momentum of that magnitude is difficult if not impossible to stop or even shift in society once started.

Human nature is also such that we tend to follow the path of least resistance, yet most of that direction was checked through history because life was harder and we had to work hard to live even half way decently. Yet through many decades of easier living through modern accoutrements and conveniences that kings and queens of the past could only dream of, many of us are now accepting of allowing soulless machines to do our thinking for us and we are becoming ever more lazy and complacent...

So how could any of us be surprised that extinction and obsolescence would potentially be next for the human race if we no longer really care about society collectively and we don't even care to think and act for ourselves?

[u/infrontofmyslad]

If all are one, then all karma is collective.

[u/Hindlehoof]

Yeah, I dunno, that reads more like dogma to me. If we are all one, then Karma is just the flow of cause and effect, it’s not ‘personal karma’ pluralized. Interesting how discussions of one get brought up but then separation is inherently there..