| I did not think you would comprehend. It is not a matter of "cosmic karma", it is matter of upholding the human moral order. Take a small instance. Suppose that you have a child and admonish him to study, but there are no consequences if he lies to you about his homework and sneaks out to play. In that moment, you have just shown that you really don't care about whether he has done his homework or not, or, in the alternative, that you do not regard him as a responsible being who can be held accountable. If you bribe him to do it, you have just said that that behaving badly is profitable, thus encouraging more of it. (It is one thing to reward exceptional performance, it is another to bribe people to maintain minimal standards.) And there is no point in searching for a trick to make him do his homework, he will not grow into a responsible person if he cannot discharge obligations whether or not he feels like it. Nor is there time to psychoanalyze his resistance to homework, if you do not want him to fail in the meantime. No, if you want him to internalize the point, you must punish him, whether through shaming him, giving him extra chores, grounding him for a week, or whatever seems appropriate....... |
