KARMA...is it really such a good idea?

In the west i love running into people who grow up x-ian then reject it and fall back on some hallow form of "spirituality". In most cases this is marked by a hippy type belief in Karma without any regard for the entire culteral system which it is intrinsically tied to.

Why do you think people in the west are so drawn to this shallow and illconcieved notion of karma? or better yet if you believe in karma, have you too constructed your own idea of it and disregarded the entire culteral history from which it came? Why people...Why?