Thank Goodness It's Monday #326

WHAT’S BETTER THAN THE GOLDEN RULE?

You know “The Golden Rule.” It was the most-received response to last week’s TGIM #325 call for additional Universal Rules worth sharing.

It figures, actually. Scores of influential sources recount the universality of this basic precept of widely held religious and spiritual thinking.

Norman Rockwell created this illustration
which, in 1985,
was rendered as a mosaic
and presented to the United Nations
to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The most commonly cited versions are rooted in the King James Version of “New Testament” Christianity:

Matthew 7:12 – “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

Luke 6:31– “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

And, in one of those serendipitous moments that make you go “Wow!,” my current bedside reading talks about the so-called Gnostic Gospels -- the cache of sometimes alternative texts from the beginning of the Christian era unearthed in an archeological dig in Egypt in 1945.

There a writing known as the Didache (Greek for “teaching”) written in Syria about ten years before Matthew and Luke opens with a negative version of the so-called Golden Rule:

“The Way of Life is this: First you shall love the God who made you, and your neighbor as yourself; and whatever you do not want to have done to you, do not do to another.”

The other dominant Abrahamic religions stress comparable reasoning in a number of places, most similarly perhaps in:

Leviticus 19:34 – “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself…” for the Jewish faith –

And for Islamists, in the Qur’an at various places, stating the positive form of the rule in:

Surah 24 v. 22 -- “...and you should forgive. And overlook: Do you not like God to forgive you? And Allah is The Merciful Forgiving.”

The Golden Rule from A to Z: Almost all A-for-Ancient cultures – Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, and Chinese -- have addressed The Golden Rule’s idea of ethical reciprocity. (Wikipedia details many, many variants from a wide range of traditions here.)

And, apparently, the Z-for-Zoroastrianism, translated-from-Pahlavi comparative text is Dadistan-I-dinik 94:5 -- “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.”

So, harkening back to today’s headline, it takes a bit of brass (yes, metal pun) to challenge all this wisdom and suggest that, perhaps –

The Golden Rule is flawed. Not fatally, mind you. And certainly not at all if it’s interpreted in the broadest, most generous way, as I expect most TGIM readers are inclined to do.

But here’s the “catch” as the Golden Rule stands: As George Bernard Shaw pointed out, the tastes of those who receive our Golden Rule treatment may not be the same as ours.

So to press our desires (“as ye would that men should do to you”) on them might not be well received at all.

Easy-to-grasp example: We might want other people to ignore our race or nationality when deciding how to act towards us, but would also want them to not ignore our differing preferences in food, musical tastes, desire for closeness, and so on.

TGIM Takeaway: Trying to live according to the Golden Rule means working proactively at empathizing with other people, including those who may be very different from us.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Empathy is at the root of kindness, compassion, understanding and respect – qualities that we all appreciate being shown, whoever we are, whatever we think and wherever we come from.

So the burden to “figure out” what to do and how to do it is on those who promulgate the Golden Rule. And because it isn’t possible to know what it really feels like to be a different person or live in different circumstances and have different life experiences, it’s difficult for most of us to imagine what would cause us suffering and to try to avoid causing suffering to others.

For this reason some people may find the Golden Rule’s corollary (sometimes called The Silver Rule) – “do not treat people in a way you would not wish to be treated yourself” – more pragmatic and easier to put into action.

Or --

With such an important precept, perhaps it’s best to clearly state, in a positive way, the most generous understanding of The Golden Rule’s elements of pragmatic empathy, kindness, reciprocity and acceptance of an “other” point of view from the get go.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Some people call this “improved” version of The Golden Rule –

The Platinum Rule

Do unto others,

wherever reasonable,

as they want to be done by.

Hmmm? Once again we run up against the barrier of knowing just precisely how “they” who differ seriously from us “want to be done by.”

How do you know how others want to be treated?

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: The obvious way is to ask them.

While this may not be easily done if they’re candidates for Platinum Rule treatment, it’s still worth trying. Even if you can’t get an actionable answer, that process presents the best possible way to open a dialogue and allows you to establish your good intentions.

So has this TGIM message “done right” by you?

In the non-sectarian, not-very-scholarly world of TGIM, let’s deem whatever “rule” we endorse –

A consistency principle. It doesn't mean to give all the answers. It doesn’t claim to be an infallible guide to which actions are right or wrong. It only recommends a path to coherence and consistency; that we not have our actions toward others be out of harmony with our desires -- or theirs.

And there’s not much that’s better than that.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. Just one more point: Whether Platinum … or Gold … or Silver, the “Rule” doesn't replace regular moral norms. If, for example, you don’t believe in killing, no rule or even desire on the part of the person on the other side of your dilemma compels you to violate that conviction.

P.P.S. “Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.” Mahatma (the honorific means “Great Soul”) – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) said that.