Just Deserves.

There is an ancient idea woven through almost every human culture: we all get what we deserve.

Some call it karma. Others call it fate, divine justice, reaping what you sow, or simply just deserts. Whatever name we give it, the underlying idea is remarkably simple: the things we put into the world eventually have a way of finding their way back to us.

Treat people with kindness, and kindness tends to surround you. Treat people with contempt, and eventually you may discover that contempt has become the environment in which you live. Build trust, and people will trust you. Build a reputation for dishonesty, and even your truthful words may eventually be met with suspicion.

It is tempting to dismiss this as wishful thinking. After all, the world does not always appear fair. Good people suffer. Bad people sometimes prosper. Honest people can be cheated, while dishonest people can appear to thrive. Justice can be painfully slow, incomplete, or seemingly absent.

But perhaps that misses the deeper meaning of the principle.

Getting what you deserve does not necessarily mean getting what you want.

Life is not a vending machine into which we insert good behaviour and receive an immediate reward. Nor does every act of wrongdoing receive an instant punishment. Consequences often operate on a much longer timescale.

The arrogant person may enjoy success today, but gradually lose the trust of everyone around them. The manipulator may win an argument, but eventually discover that nobody believes them. The person who constantly betrays others may find themselves surrounded by people who are afraid to trust them. Someone who spends their life creating enemies may eventually discover that they have very few friends when they need them most.

This is karma in perhaps its most ordinary and recognisable form. It does not require supernatural intervention. Human beings are creatures of consequence.

Our choices create habits. Our habits create character. Character influences our relationships. Relationships influence our opportunities, reputation and circumstances. Over time, the accumulated consequences of thousands of seemingly insignificant decisions can become the life we inhabit.

In that sense, we frequently create our own fate.

The person who continually chooses anger may eventually live in an angry world. The person who chooses generosity may find that generosity comes back to them from unexpected directions. The person who constantly seeks conflict may discover that conflict follows them everywhere.

The irony is that people often recognise this principle perfectly when judging somebody else.

• "They brought it upon themselves."

• "They had it coming."

• "You reap what you sow."

Yet we can become remarkably reluctant to apply the same principle to ourselves.

We like to believe that our successes are the result of our own brilliance, determination and virtue, while our failures are caused by circumstances, bad luck or other people's behaviour.

Perhaps genuine wisdom begins when we reverse that tendency.

We should ask ourselves not merely, "Why is this happening to me?" but also, "What have I done that contributed to where I am?"

That question can be uncomfortable. It can also be extraordinarily liberating.

If our choices contribute to our circumstances, then we possess at least some power to change those circumstances. We cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can influence what happens next.

There is another important distinction.

Deserving something does not mean that everything that happens to someone is morally justified.

A child does not deserve abuse. A victim of crime does not deserve to be victimised. Someone becoming ill does not necessarily represent some cosmic punishment. Random tragedy exists, and pretending otherwise can be cruel.

The philosophy of just deserts becomes dangerous when it is used to blame victims for everything that happens to them.

The more useful interpretation is not that every event is personally ordained as a reward or punishment, but that our actions carry consequences.

Sometimes those consequences are immediate. Sometimes they take years. Sometimes the consequence is external, such as losing a relationship, a job or someone's trust. And sometimes the consequence is internal.

A person can possess money, status and influence while living in a prison of their own making. They can win every argument and still lose the people who mattered. They can deceive everyone around them and eventually become incapable of knowing whether anybody genuinely loves or respects them.

Perhaps that is one of life's greatest forms of justice. Because ultimately, we do not merely live with the consequences of what we do to other people.

We live with what our actions turn us into.

Every lie makes lying slightly easier. Every act of cruelty can make cruelty more acceptable. Every betrayal can make betrayal seem normal. Conversely, every act of courage strengthens courage. Every act of compassion makes compassion easier. Every honest decision reinforces our sense of integrity.

We are, in part, constructing ourselves through our choices. And that brings us back to karma.

Perhaps karma is not an invisible force sitting somewhere in the universe keeping a spreadsheet of our sins and virtues.

Perhaps karma is simply the accumulated mathematics of human behaviour.

• You put something into the world.

• It changes the world.

• The changed world then changes you.

• And eventually the consequences return.

That does not mean life is perfectly fair. It isn't.

Sometimes the good person loses and the bad person wins. Sometimes justice never arrives in the form we expected. Sometimes people escape the consequences of their actions.

But escaping a consequence is not necessarily the same thing as escaping all consequences.

• A person can avoid the courtroom and still lose their reputation.

• They can avoid punishment and still lose their conscience.

• They can deceive others and still have to live with themselves.

• They can acquire possessions while losing relationships.

• They can win the battle while destroying the very life they were supposedly fighting to protect.

And perhaps that is why the concept of just deserts has survived for so long.

It reflects something deeply intuitive about existence: what we repeatedly give to the world eventually becomes part of the world we live in.

So perhaps the real lesson is not to sit patiently waiting for karma to punish our enemies.

It is to examine ourselves. 

• What are we putting into the world?

• Trust or suspicion?

• Kindness or cruelty?

• Honesty or deception?

• Peace or conflict?

• Love or resentment?

Because if there really is a universal law of just deserts, the most important question is not:

"What do they deserve?" It is: "What am I creating for myself?"

Life may not always deliver exactly what we deserve. But over the long journey, it has a remarkable way of delivering the consequences of who we choose to be. And sooner or later, we all have to live in the world we helped create.

That may be the truest meaning of karma, fate and just deserts: not that the universe gives us what we deserve, but that our choices eventually make us deserving of the life we have created.