>From Thomas' note:
>Carol Sager wrote, The teaching of biblical scholars of the old testament
>has been that a rule that says Do unto others as you would like them to do
>unto you places the person "doing" as judge and juror of what is right.
>Therefore the golden rule can only be stated as do unto others as they
>would like done unto them.
>
>John added, Certainly a finer means of explaining than I attempted in
>prior posts on this subject. Our thanks to the ancients. They might
>have, as we? considered the idea of a "platinum rule" self-
>justifying...and self-indulgent.
In which case would the world be worse off, if we always treated others
the way we wanted to be treated or if we always treated them the way they
wanted to be treated. Would self-indulgence be more destructive or would
other-indulgence? Either way there is a great deal of room for
concentrating too much on satiating rather carnal desires. I find that
there is indeed room for the notion that certain social behaviors are
better than others. It seems, from a thorough reading of the New
Testement, in English or Greek, that Christ was suggesting that one who
truely loved themselves would seek what was best for themselves, even if
the behaviors directed at them were corrective and sometimes painful. It
may be too parental for some, but I think as we mature we realize that the
way to treat people is sometimes painful for them. We can grow to "know
better" or "know what's best." This requires great restraint when we "do
unto others" however as we are left with the ultimate responsibility of
asking ourselves is what I'm about to do (i.e.: correct, punish, or even
praise or reward) best for this person. We should never venture into such
actions until we get into the person's live and learn as much about their
needs and motives as we can.
Is this too parental or even condescending. It troubles me writing such
things, but I have realized when I went soft on people out of deference to
their feelings (saying to myself, I would find such a situation
embarassing or whatever) that I ultimately did harm in some instances.
Bret Nelson
Dept. of Speech Communication
The Pennsylvania State University
bdn2@psu.edu
--bdn2@psu.edu (Bret D. Nelson)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>