Bunny flies: "Breaking Bad' (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

WARNING: Extreme violence! Not suitable for children or lovers, but hunters may like it.

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Will "Walter" (Bryan Cranston) ever learn? Meth is an allopathic Nazi medication that makes people sick and susceptible to all manner of negative influences. Why would we worship anti-heroes in an age of disintegration? Might we be finding a way of saying to ourselves that we are not so bad because, look, he's worse?

After all, humans are not rational beings; we are rationalizing beings.
 
Walter "did it for his family" -- that what he explains -- not because he was selfish or out to harm anyone. Harm done for the sake of profit (selfish or unselfish, harming others to help ourselves or others) is called "evil wishes," the harm being incidental to the act rather than the goal of it. Harm done in anger is the goal.
 
The ridiculous excuse that we we would somehow be blameless when we do harmful, unskillful, unwholesome acts to feed or help our families is misguided. It is delusion. It is harm just the same. It is not even likely to be the result of caring for others, that "caring" just being a convenient excuse to rationalize and live with our decision. If it is sincere and in the service of others, it is still unwholesome karma on our part -- motivated by delusion.
 
It may also, however, to some small measure, be wholesome in that we help someone and thereby care, but that is not the same act.

If I rob a bank, beat someone up, or sell meth in the Albuquerque, that is an unskillful deed with unwelcome consequences when those deeds ripen (which may, admittedly, take a long time). Because what ripens depends on cittas, "mind moments," there are many of them; one unskillful act breeds MANY unwelcome results. Similarly, a  Supporting others with ill gotten gains may be wholesome, just as offering any kind of help or support might be, but it is offset by the harm we are doing, and that harm will come back on us many times over.
 
This is TV, but obviously it reflects tangible realities in a country that glorifies getting rich (by any means necessary) and squeezes its citizens so that they can barely survive. If we take the bait, sell drugs or do other harm, we may get rich. But what would it profit us if we will have to endure states of severe deprivation as a result? It would have been better to be poor.

 

Lordy, can we be reborn as something better?

This is likely why we, as Americans, cannot believe in rebirth (even in modern Christianity, which insists rebirth is real but limited to two planes of future existence awaiting us, celestial or abysmal; ancient Christianity did teach rebirth). It seems to mean there are results of our actions. If we refuse to believe, we comfort ourselves that there is nothing more to come as a result of our choices.

 

What is "Breaking Bad" teaching us? To consider the consequences or to live for today, say there are no consequences, and simply live with the inconvenience of cancer, prison, remorse, or whatever petty comeuppance this life can deal us?

• How will "Breaking Bad" measure up to other TV endings?
• "Breaking Bad" finale: Revenge, redemption, release
• Breaking up with "Breaking Bad" is hard for Albuquerque
• The German granddaddy of crystal methamphetamine

(NY Times) The popular series, which showcased Albuquerque New Mexico's grit and high-desert beauty, has helped the city become a star in its own right and given...