The Golden Rule: ‘Treat others as you would want others to treat you.’ All Faiths have the Golden Rule, because all faiths characterize god/the creator in terms of their cultural traditions and aspirations.
Today’s attacks on the institutions of faith are misplaced. It was humans working in the institution, not the institution per se, and not god, where the institutional buck stops, as it were, which was responsible for the many malfeasances humans have perpetrated IN THE NAME OF GOD. The modern solution is to replace god with personalities taken from the world’s ruling classes.
It was humans responsible for most of the misery in the human experience. It was humans who seem to see themselves as so different from OTHERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES, that they can dream up policies like the Doctrine of Discovery to legitimize terrorizing other humans.
The Golden Rule: ‘Treat others as you would want others to treat you.’ All Faiths have the Golden Rule, because all faiths characterize god/the creator in terms of their cultural traditions and aspirations.
Today’s attacks on the institutions of faith are misplaced. It was humans working in the institution, not the institution per se, and not god, where the institutional buck stops, as it were, which was responsible for the many malfeasances humans have perpetrated IN THE NAME OF GOD. The modern solution is to replace god with personalities taken from the world’s ruling classes.
It was humans responsible for most of the misery in the human experience. It was humans who seem to see themselves as so different from OTHERS OF THEIR OWN SPECIES, that they can dream up policies like the Doctrine of Discovery to legitimize terrorizing other humans (or Putin’s ‘Special Operation’ to erase Ukraine and expand Russia).
It was humans responsible for the development of nuclear and other WMDs which guarantee mutual annihilation should we ever resort to their use. BECAUSE THEY EXIST, SOMEONE, SOMEDAY, IS GOING TO THINK ITS A GOOD IDEA TO USE THEM…
…and then we’re all in serious, existential trouble. Especially those who cannot afford to build bunkers. Take a good hard look at Ukraine right now. Then imagine that scene, looking out your front door…(or what is left of it)
None of this could exist if we follow the Golden Rule. We are crazy not to follow the Golden Rule. It is inconceivable to not want to follow the Golden Rule.
Why?
Because the Golden Rule WORKS HAND-IN-HAND WITH OUR EGO. Working collaboratively, in order to build relationships among our own and with other beings, human and non-human; the Earth Mother, say.
Networking is a bona fide operative of ‘success’. It is also a bona fide operative of failure when the majority doesn’t get something right.
If everyone were guided by the Golden Rule over history, there would be no China-U.S. thing going on; no Russia-Ukraine invasion; no poverty, no climate-change crisis, no posturing for global hegemony…
The Golden Rule is elegance. We need only recognize how something would make us feel were it to happen to us, in order to know whether it is something one might do to others, or in the company of others…in our communities, in our World.
That is our ego’s intended focus, as much as it defines our spirit-boundary, differentiating each living thing from every other living thing. Ego is the beginning of our consciousness: how it would affect me, is very likely how it would affect you. That is how it is supposed to work. That is ego’s ‘function’.
Now, when an entire group of people ‘lords it over’ others in society by virtue of their wealth, then this group has, by definition, become socially-dysfunctional. They are not treating the poor the way they would like to be treated. Moreover, they lie to the poor about it in their messaging via the media they own, and even desire to be praised for their behavior. We, ‘the people’, are living according to ego still – wealth’s ego -and this will allow wealth to lead us to our common demise…[remember, the lemmings weren’t that stupid].
wrt to China and Russia and America-haters everywhere, America under Biden is willing to spill its own blood FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS…THAT’S THE GOLDEN RULE. [Conversely, China/Russia seem much more ready to spill YOURS AND THEIR OWN YOUNG PEOPLE’S BLOOD FOR THE SAKE OF XI AND PUTIN].
China and Russia and America-haters everywhere prefer to threaten, murder and plunder their neighbours into profound, inescapable (except via death) misery…THAT’S NOT GOLDEN RULE -but, IT HAS BEEN THE OPERATIVE AMONG HUMAN AFFAIRS SINCE WE LEFT THE GARDEN and the reason for our common peril.
God and the Golden Rule exist beyond Wealth. Wealth cannot exist alongside of Poverty if we abide in the Golden Rule.
God and the Golden Rule.
The Golden Rule trumps the Rule of Gold and without being the Rule of God (god gave us free will) is how god guides us to extend creation in marvelous new ways..as children might…only as grown-ups, we can take our knowledge to the Stars, not as cancerous growth, but as god’s emissaries.
With our Free Will, accorded us by our creator, let us choose the Golden Rule as our guide. Human ego will spontaneously reconcile with the creative spirit/the Holy Spirit. The spirit of love incarnate is one of community, compassion, and the creativity of a child’s imagination.
Human ego already knows what it wants. But human ego is stupid enough to believe it can have everything it wants and is focused on that. That is the ROOT of our common existential peril.
To be reconciled with one another, our world, past and future generations, and our creator, we need only apply the knowledge ego affords us as to what is good for us, and do what we know is right, TO OTHERS.
Ego can be good, if used in the way it was meant to be used. It is part of a feed-forward/feedback loop that permits us to discern ‘right’ from ‘wrong’.
Ego tells us what feels right and what feels wrong. ‘Feeling’ is subjective. If we use this information properly, it fully informs us on how to treat others. ‘Information’ is objective.
The Golden Rule reconciles the subjective with the objective, wealth with poverty, us with them, humans with one another and with the world, and with the creator.
