Shake n Stomp

Karma I'm sure isn't as simple as my popular preconception of it. But for my purposes I am seeing it as good things come back to you.

I don't believe in this in any supernatural spiritual way. I do not think the universe or God or any force is making sure that my good and bad deeds are balanced out by good and bad consequences. However, I do believe that by simple logic good deeds will inherently have positive consequences and bad deeds will have negative consequences.

If goodwill needs a justification at a rational level this is it.

The success of any man in a free and just society will not be to the detriment of anther. However, his success is likely to have positive consequences. Loans are given out at interest on the assumption that they will be repaid through the success of the recipient. Both the lender and the reciever benefit. I would define goodwill as the charity of lending or giving without an agreement for repayment. However, there are two fold benefits to goodwill.

Firstly the we are all stakeholders in one anothers success. A man who produces beef for the market makes is available to me. Therefore even if all I got from helping start of cattle ranch was the possibility to buy beef it might be worth my effort. These types of reward suggest that to offer help that costs me very little in effort - for example being open with my knowledge or lending a hand with work when I would otherwise be idle - are worthwhile because in some small way I will reap some small part of the consequences. And hey, it didn't cost me anything.

The second benefit of goodwill is the recprication. Through goodwill we build up friendships, networks and community. We do not contractually agree to how and when we expect a friend to show us goodwill, or how and when we will show it. However, we do have an understanding that a good friend will help us out when we need it, and we will help them out when they need. The more we are willing to sacrafice for a friend, the more we would expect them to sacrafice for us if we were in need.

This may seem a very cynical view of friendship, but I don;t think it has to be. The fact that we understand the rational basis for friendship does not mean that we must disclude that we aproach them through a system of irrational compassion and mutual interest in each others wellbeing. Almost all case of apparent irrationality that are associated with love and happiness are infact rational in a roundabout way.

I believe another of my posts explains how the rational and irrational are reconsilable. This is one of those cases. Our irrational love and interest in another persons happiness and wellbeing allows friendships which actually lead to improvements in our own wellbeing. Goodwill could not exist without compassion and the need for company. It is these driving forces that make as confident that a friend will come through for us, and makes us come through for them. If we could not rely on compassion to drive us to goodwill then all relationships would have to be through enforced contract, which would vastly reduce and complicate the exchange of services and aid.