Torch Article: Reverendly Yours - Rev. Tom Goldsmith

26 October 2017
Every crime will be punished, every virtue rewarded
 every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty. 
-Ralph Waldo Emerson from his essay, “Compensation”


Emerson was not particularly original in his personal restatement of the old catchy phrases like: As you sow, so shall your reap; cause and effect; chickens come home to roost; or the basic principle of Karma which makes it very clear that you better think before you act. There’s a notion that regardless how clever you think you are, you can’t get away with doing bad stuff. It all evens out in the end.

Emerson, however, proved somewhat original in applying these aphorisms to a moral plane where they became a sort of “multiplication table, which will always balance itself.” As in the above quote, “Every crime will be punished, etc.”

Compensation remains for Emerson a foundational law of the universe. Unlike religion which mollifies our consternation about life’s unfairness with retribution in the hereafter, Emerson insists we don’t have to wait that long. Instead, justice is served as surely as the fruit and seed are inseparable. He warns, though, that it may take some time for justice to be served: “Persons and events may seem to stand for a time between a man and justice. But this is only a postponement, for sooner or later the man must pay.”

I doubt that Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, or Bill Cosby have read much Emerson in their time. Perhaps they would then have understood that the laws of compensation could never overlook the rape culture they fostered. Regardless of their status, influence, and ability to pay tens of millions of dollars in settlements, no one escapes the fact that every crime is punished. No one can rewrite the laws of the universe.

I sometimes wonder if Emerson is merely expressing his faith in justice, regardless how slow it may be in coming. Or whether or not he insists that the inevitability of justice is assured, that retribution resides in the law of compensation. Otherwise the universe would be unbalanced. Sins are writ large; everyone must pay.

The “#Me Too” has clearly demonstrated that our entire culture has been submerged in an assault on women, mostly with impunity. But every crime will be punished. It has taken us so long to finally come to terms with this transgression because of the very pervasiveness of objectifying women. It has become the norm, but not in the eyes of the universe. Justice will bring down the pigs.

The odd thing for me in all these recent “revelations” about powerful men wielding their clout for their own perverse satisfaction is that they still don’t get it. If money can’t buy women’s silence, then men feel that money can buy lawyers’ incrimination against female victims. Powerful men today still believe they can trick the universe into functioning unbalanced.

This is an interesting time for us all as we bear witness to the universe righting itself. It has been a long, slow, and painful process. But now the oppression of women can potentially right itself and prove Emerson correct again: “Every wrong redressed.”

We don’t know at this time how widely justice will extend. Might Donald Trump personally discover Emerson’s claim that retribution is the universal necessity? Trump may want to start reading some Emerson, or at least glance at the teaching of Karma. The law of action and reaction when applied to the moral plane can bring down anyone. Powerful men have their moments, but the universe and its laws always win out at the end. TRG