As long as our emotions remain relevant to us, the Rāmāyaṇa will remain in currency. Sri Rama was truly the national integrator. He belonged to the Sūrya-vaṃśa and just as the world cannot exist without the Sun, it cannot exist without Rāma and the Rama-Tattva.
Karna's early training under Rishi Parashurama should have ideally helped him shape his destiny for the better. Yet his personal pathology made him choose to support Duryodhana, the personification of evil.