I’m taking a course on the history of cinema right now, and one plot from a French film history caught my attention: a woman lets her child become the face in a soap advertisment. The child dies, and then the woman travels to the city, where her child’s face stares at her from advertising posters everywhere.
I was also thinking about karma as a kind of barrier for revolutions in India and beyond. According to local beliefs (Hinduism and Buddhism), the next Buddha will be born into a family of Brahmins (the religious elite of society) same as all the previous Buddhas were born in rich families. This is because being born into a wealthy family is seen as a reward for good karma from previous lives. So people born into, say, untouchable families (who are forbidden to enter temples) quietly carry their karma without trying to protest. There were protests against the British in India, but something like untouchables rising up in a revolution against Brahmins – that practically never happened.
I’m also thinking that even Buddha Gautama (the last Buddha) was not with the working class… he never worked a single day himself. First he was a prince, and later a starving wanderer who even ate spoiled food.
Still, credit where it’s due: Buddha Gautama said that a person’s actions determine their karma, not their caste origin.
