Karma is not a judge but it always collects. In the case of a man like Perez, his punishments are almost entirely self-inflicted. Yes, it’s hard for someone to move on from the sort of legacy he has, but many have done worse and have thriving careers.

He became part of a machine where he ate others to enrich himself and discharge what tormented him inside. A lot of people do this and want to do this and did it vicariously through him when he was being vicious toward celebrities.

Now many of those same people have turned on him. It’s not the ones with genuine grievances or those who were disgusted by his actions all long that keep this cycle going – it’s the people who would have gladly bought the “I Wish It Was Britney” shirt he put out after Heath Ledger died. The ones who probably still have that shirt buried somewhere in their closet just in case it’s ever cool to hate on her again.

People are kind, thoughtful, forgiving, and willing to give the benefit of the doubt on an individual basis. Groups act like sociopaths. All of us are susceptible to it. We act differently when we’re able to trick ourselves into thinking we bear no responsibility for what the group does or what we do while we’re part of it. We can turn a blind eye to ourselves and others and offload all those emotions we don’t want to feel onto the group-approved target and forget our part in it the next day.

Yet this idea that groups carry karma where individuals don’t is foolish. We bear responsibility for ourselves always no matter who is pushing us to do something and no matter what the crowd approves on a given day. Perez has a lot to answer for, and there are people who are justified in saying they’d never forgive him, but what he’s going through is tragic and there’s nothing monstrous in wishing him well and hoping he’s able to move on.

He couldn’t have existed without the people hungry for what he offered – the people who off-loaded their guilt and their responsibility onto him. If there wasn’t an audience to make him rich, the damage he did could not have been done. Breaking these cycles can’t be done through unconditional forgiveness where the matter is never spoken of again; it requires each person who takes part to self-reflect and own up to their part. We have to be willing to change course and not give ourselves permission to act like animals when the spotlight isn’t on us as individuals.

People may forget what we’ve taken part in but our souls maintain a perfect record and at the end of the day no one else’s disappointment or approval can pay the debts we owe to ourselves. We either move toward our dharma or further from it; we and we alone know the score, and a society of individuals which deny their own soul inevitably gives itself to madness again and again.

Ending these cycles – these feeding frenzies – begins with each of us.