If you're talking about karmic, Hindu-sylie rebirth, you're either punished or rewarded for the deeds of your previous life with the next life you're born into (e.g. cucaracha, leopard, untouchable, warrior, brahmin, pornstar), and I suspect that that punishment/reward absolves you of responsibility.
If you ask me, one shouldn't be held responsible for the past at all. We should just be responsible for the present and the future. Punishment and rewards are only useful insofar as they influence future behavior. I'm not saying people shouldn't be scolded/sent to prison for a past crime, I'm just saying that the real reason someone should be punished is not that they did something wrong, but as a discouraging/preventative measure against future wrongdoing. Ideally, a murderer who would never do any harm to anyone ever again should be let off the hook.
What's past is past. In the perishable words of the bubbleboy, "Don't live in regret, ese."
Comments 1
If you ask me, one shouldn't be held responsible for the past at all. We should just be responsible for the present and the future. Punishment and rewards are only useful insofar as they influence future behavior. I'm not saying people shouldn't be scolded/sent to prison for a past crime, I'm just saying that the real reason someone should be punished is not that they did something wrong, but as a discouraging/preventative measure against future wrongdoing. Ideally, a murderer who would never do any harm to anyone ever again should be let off the hook.
What's past is past. In the perishable words of the bubbleboy, "Don't live in regret, ese."
Reply
Leave a comment