Allowing Karma

 WITHOUT PRIDE I recall a family member telling me that she knows one of those idiot anti-vaxxer people who'll be damned if he's going to allow some egg head doctor or scientist put poison inside his body, with one of those computer thingies that turn people into Democrats, and that she (my family member) hopes the stupid delusional son of a bitch catches Covid, almost dies, doesn't, but suffers. I knew I had to step in and at least try to do something, against my better judgment. I led off with the first page of the Dhammapada....Mind foreruns all conditions, mind is chief...if one speaks with wicked mind, evil follows one, even as the wheel follows the hoof of the draft ox...My family member may or may not have gotten the point, she never responded. So I just said it straight out, in my own words: No, you really don't want people to suffer for their stupidity, even anti-vaxxers, even if you think you do. You want to be better than that. You don't want anybody in ICU, gasping a final few hideous breaths, begging for the vaccine, expressing regret, being told it is too late, as happens hundreds of times each day in our rejuvenated epidemic of the unvaccinated. What you want is divine intervention, for the stupid to suddenly, miraculously become smart, to have a Saul becomes Paul on the road to Damascus moment, times several million. That happens too, but, alas, all too seldom. Schadenfreude is overrated. Disgust and anger, though perhaps overrated, are often appropriate. Cajoling accomplishes nothing accept entrenchment, resentment, leading often to what we now like to call "pushback". As the philosopher said: "Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain". People w ho refuse to get vaccinated during the most severe pandemic in a hundred years are traitors to their country, to humanity, they are socially irresponsible, but, alas, intractable. And yes, they are stupid, almost invariably MAGA types, further proof of stupidity. Every reason given by every person who refuses vaccination is transparently idiotic. The one about the absence of formal FDA approval, transparently disingenuous. As if the far right idiots respect any agency of government, any authority, any expertise. To a person, these willing disease spreaders swear allegiance to the flag, God Almighty, and country. And yet, the invader is here, the enemy is among us, spreading death, and the vaccine refuser show their cowardice and lack of concern for others by their unwillingness to take the slightest needle stick in the arm, much less a bullet, willing to harm others while pretending not to be. No we must not and do not wish the anti-vaxxers harm, they they would willingly harm others. Harm will eventually come to them, by their own actions, the damned idiots.